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Ebola Outbreak: Burying the Dead with Dignity
The rituals of death I experienced when my grandfather passed away a few years ago—the funeral, the church service, the burial, the visits, the wake—were critical for my grieving and healing process. For people in Sierra Leone, the contrast couldn't be any more profound: The Ebola outbreak has...More
A Hand Up for Kenyan Coffee Farmers
David Wambugu knows how to grow coffee. He knows how to plant it, care for it and when to harvest it. What he doesn't know about his coffee is how it tastes.
Sustainable Rwanda: Coffee Growers Diversify
The mud-packed walls of the Mazimpaka's family room show the strong influence of young people: Hanging among the rosaries and pictures of St. Mary are posters of Miss Rwanda, the Rwandan singer Christopher, and the Rwandan boy band Dreamboyz. The room's only window shines a square of light on...More
Rwanda Animal Fair: Goats and Hopes
When Therese Umuhire looks at her new goat, she envisions, well, something else.
"I dream of when I will get a cow from that goat," she says, nodding at her goat as it grazes on a hillside in Nyamirambo village in southern Rwanda....More
Thanks for Being There
Every November, we sit down with friends and family, have a big meal and give thanks. It's a time to reflect and count our blessings. But at Catholic Relief Services, we need more than one day to say "thank you" for your tremendous support, so we do it every day through our work....More
Typhoon Haiyan, One Year Later
Even the richest country in the world has trouble recovering from a major natural disaster, as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy demonstrated. So it's no surprise that the same story is playing out in the Philippines after Super Typhoon Haiyan, which hit on November 8, 2013. It was the strongest...More
Unaccompanied Minors: An Alarming Surge in Numbers
Their numbers are growing at an alarming rate: Children crossing borders alone to escape desperate circumstance only to find new perils at every step along the way.
The Church and its international humanitarian arm, Catholic Relief Services, see the problem of unaccompanied minors as...More
Texting to Head Off Hunger
Wariso Dekamo waits for a herd of bleating goats to cross in front of him as he makes his way toward two haggling traders at a livestock market in Arsi Negele, Ethiopia.
"I'll give you [$30]," a man says. "That's not a price for a moderate-sized goat; it's worth [$40]," a woman counters...More
Congo Crisis Response Meets iPad Tech
For decades, Katanga Province, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has suffered humanitarian crises—from famine to war. A group of three territories, called the "triangle of death," has been hit especially hard since 2011, forcing thousands of families to flee. Catholic Relief Services,...More
Making the World Safe for Chocolate
In the cacao groves of the Philippines, my enemy is lurking. Tiny—almost invisible when camouflaged on a branch—my enemy plots to destroy what I love. It is the enemy of right-thinking, chocolate-loving people everywhere: the pod borer.
The pod borer insect literally worms its way into...More
