As the summer was drawing to a close, we heard of the death of Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, which lifted millions of people, mostly in Asia, out of hunger through the production of high-yield varieties of…

Dear Friend,

The answer is: Moldova.

The question is: What is the most destitute country in Europe?

And the category is: Needless Suffering.

That’s how it might go if this were the game show Jeopardy. But life in a place like Moldova is far from…

Not long ago, Aminata Yattara sat at home on a stool in the dirt, pounding millet and dreaming about the day she could toss the pestle and pick up a pencil. School dominated her thoughts on her way to pull…

The highly skilled professionals who work at international humanitarian organizations have developed our own “insider” language to describe the work we do. For example, many humanitarians refer to the people we serve as “stakeholders.” Others call them “beneficiaries.”

I prefer to…

I visited Zimbabwe a week before the swearing-in of the opposition leader as prime minister by his erstwhile enemy President Mugabe, which initiated the Unity Government. While there, I traveled to see Catholic Relief Services’ programs and express the solidarity…

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, violence and civil unrest continue to dominate the daily headlines. The people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo cry out for an end to their suffering. Our…

As we enter the height of the Atlantic hurricane season, disaster preparedness is very much on our minds at Catholic Relief Services.

CRS is known for our efficient and effective response to disaster. But a key aspect of emergency response is…

I recently had the opportunity to visit Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the places most affected by high food prices. I saw firsthand the difficulties the food crisis is causing and the choices it…

For the past several years, Catholic Relief Services has had the great privilege to be part of a miracle.

It was not long ago that we were forced to watch in despair as our brothers and sisters wasted away and eventually died from AIDS. HIV was running rampant, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and there was little we could do. A diagnosis was a death sentence. And HIV was having a crippling effect, destroying economies and breaking up families. Husbands and wives were widowed, children lost their parents.

New hope came through a miracle of science called antiretroviral drug therapy, which literally gives new life to people living with HIV. But this so-called "AIDS cocktail" of drugs is expensive, and at first it was only available to people of means. It certainly wasn't an option in the poor communities served by organizations like CRS. That is, it wasn't an option until PEPFAR.

This month we mark the third anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that struck in the early morning the day after Christmas 2004. This unfathomable disaster took the lives of an estimated 200,000 people and left millions more without homes.…