It is such a simple question.

What would you do if you knew that the child standing next to you on the sidewalk was about to dart out into traffic? You would stop her, of course.

It is a better question to ask than “What should I have done?”

We are asking that question at Catholic Relief Services these days because of the situation in Sudan. A referendum on possible independence for southern Sudan is scheduled for January 9. In two decades of violence before the signing of a 2005 peace accord—which included provisions for this referendum—some 2 million people died; another 4 million were forced from their homes.

Many fear—in fact, some are certain—that this referendum will not be a well-run vote that will allow the southern Sudanese to choose their future: that instead, Sudan will return to the kind of bloodbaths too often seen in its history. Sudan borders 9 other countries and there is the real possibility that its problems could spill over to those neighbors.

So, what would you do?

Our answer is working to see that this referendum comes off peacefully and with integrity, that its results are respected, that the southern Sudanese are allowed to choose their own destiny.

In addition to our widespread humanitarian work in Sudan, we have made a sizable and sustained commitment to the important work of keeping the peace and building trust in the run-up to the referendum.

The Catholic Church and other religious organizations are the most respected institutions in the communities of southern Sudan. People there look to the Church for their basic needs, for food and health care and education. At a tumultuous time like these months before the referendum, they also turn to the Church for information that they can trust. Our staff works primarily through our Church partners in trying to build and sustain the peace.

As many of you know, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda affected CRS deeply. We realized that it was not enough to help people with food and shelter and their economic needs, that we needed to deal with the issues of justice and divisiveness that can lead to such violence. That was the beginning of our peacebuilding efforts. Sudan is the biggest test to date of that new direction.

I do not want to mislead you. There is a very good chance that we will not succeed. The fissures in Sudan are deep and well-formed. The presence of oil and its promise of riches in land disputed by the north and south multiply the problems. The tensions they create are not easily dissipated.

But that does not mean we do not have to face up to the question: “What would you do?” And answer it by saying, “Everything we can.”

So what can you do?

Pray for the people of Sudan at this crucial time in their history. Learn as much as you can about the challenges they face. Our website dedicated to this cause is a good place to start: www.PeaceinSudan.org. Join the many who are speaking up, calling on governments and organizations around the world to let the Sudanese people know that we stand with them, to let those in power know that the world expects and demands a fair vote. And donate to help support CRS’ work in Sudan.

Do those things and you will not have to face the question, “What should I have done?”

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

But what is routine to us is a rarity in other parts of the world—especially if you happen to be a girl. That is certainly the case in Afghanistan, where I recently visited and met some extraordinary young women who are overcoming great odds by simply going to school.

In many remote Afghan villages, schools are few and far between and the lucky few who attend them often must walk a great distance. During Taliban rule, it was forbidden to educate women, and more recently, many factors work against girls receiving an education: There are cultural factors, some families won’t permit their daughters to walk long distances, and many are too poor to afford school expenses.

The focus of Catholic Relief Services’ education program in Afghanistan is to provide quality education in these remote areas. Parents are much more willing to send their children to small classes held in safe neighborhoods than to distant schools where children are taught by strangers. Students benefit from small class sizes, close relationships with their teachers and a more personalized learning experience. For girls in particular, school that is close to home is usually the only option because of cultural constraints, distance or security.

In the Herat region of Afghanistan, CRS created community-based schools where classes are held in village buildings or homes. We train local people to be teachers. And we provide books, blackboards and other supplies essential to teaching. Working with village elders, CRS made sure to get community buy-in and to respect local traditions when founding these schools.

I had the wonderful opportunity to visit with a small community where we had established such a program about 30 miles north of the city of Herat. The village head was a man in his late 50s who had spent the years of Soviet occupation as a refugee in Iran. He told me this as he sat in the village classroom where his teenage daughter and a dozen other girls were soaking up the education of which they had been deprived during the Taliban years. He said with pride that although he could neither read nor write, he was most pleased that his daughter would be far luckier.

The effects that I witnessed in Herat are profound. In some of the communities, no one is able to read except these young girls. In one of the homes we visited, CRS helped to set up a small library with dozens of books on various topics. It is incredibly uplifting to see these teenagers, learning to read for the first time, bring something home to their parents that is going to change their lives. It doesn’t cost a lot of money—but it’s making a huge impact.

Elucienne Lampi was at her street stall selling goods when the quake hit. She ran home to find that the house next door had collapsed onto hers, bringing down the roof. Luckily, everyone was okay. Since then, Elucienne, her three daughters and three grandchildren have been living at one of the hundreds of camps in Port-au-Prince that sprang up after the quake.

At first they only had clothing and sheets to cover themselves, but they later received tarps and other materials to construct the 8 x 15-foot tent they now live in. Elucienne has used sheets to divide it into four different sections. It is hot under the tarps and, unless it rains, everyone is outside by 8 a.m. In the early days, there was no bathroom so people were forced to go behind trees. Neither was there a supply of clean water.

Elucienne’s biggest worry is that she had no money or basics like food. She needs money for medical treatment for herself and her daughter, and to fix the roof of their home. But now she does have a little money and a little hope, thanks to a new job. In June, she started a cleaning job at the camp. “I sweep, carry water and wash. It is hard work but at least it is a stable income,” she says. She hopes to go back to her house when she has enough money to fix the roof.

Elucienne’s job is part of a Catholic Relief Services (CRS) cash-for-work program at the camp that employs the residents to perform important tasks, such as keeping washing stations clean. Vital work gets done, those in need like Elucienne earn an income and cash is put into the local economy.

Elucienne is one of approximately 6,000 people CRS has employed in cash-for-work activities such as the clearing of drainage canals, or digging new drainage channels. These are designed both to provide income to vulnerable people and benefit communities.

Since the quake hit, CRS has installed over 600 latrines and hand-washing stations, so important in preventing the spread of disease. We have also set up potable water tanks and inflatable water bladders in Port-au-Prince, including the ones at Elucienne’s camp. We now supply an estimated 375,000 gallons of clean water every month.

CRS has provided emergency shelter materials to more than 114,000 people, including the shelters at Elucienne’s camp. We have distributed 10.6 million rations of food to nearly 900,000 people, and are currently providing food to more than 90,000 students in over 270 schools, and monthly food rations to more than 100 orphanages and child-care centers in Port-au-Prince and beyond, benefiting nearly 10,000 children.

The huge outpouring of support from Catholics and others of good faith in the U.S. has enabled CRS to bring life-giving aid to hundreds of thousands of people over the last six months. But if we are to build back a better Haiti, much more needs to be done.

There are some 1.6 million people like Elucienne and her family living in camps, and another 400,000 are living with extended family or friends. Over 1,300 schools and 50 health care facilities were completely destroyed and more are significantly damaged. The level of destruction is extraordinary. The debris alone would fill 8,000 Olympic swimming pools. The Inter-American Development Bank estimates that the earthquake that hit Haiti has had the largest proportional impact that any country has ever experienced.

The challenges in rebuilding Haiti are enormous, but we are making a start. Elucienne’s tarp shelter offers limited privacy and protection from the elements. CRS is poised to roll out 8,000 transitional shelters – tough wooden pre-fabricated homes built on a strong foundation – as secure accommodation for families until they can return to real houses. For many (Port-au-Prince had terrible housing problems even before the quake), this will mean a decent roof over their head for the first time.

This transitional shelter, as well as eventual permanent building, is part of a five-year-plus strategy that includes work in the areas of shelter and infrastructure, health and HIV/AIDS, water and sanitation, food, improving livelihoods, and protection of women and children. With this strategy, we hope to improve the lives of 900,000 Haitians.

We at CRS are proud of our achievements so far in the most difficult working conditions imaginable. But what has been done has only been possible with your support. Thank you. Our work continues, as together with the Haitian people and local Catholic Church, we strive to build a brighter future.

I told them that I believed that the most misunderstood of the beatitudes uttered by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount is, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” We usually nod at that “meek” term, give it deference and then pass on. We can go with the blessings Christ bestowed on the merciful and the pure of heart and the peacemakers. But the meek? Inheriting the earth? Come on.

I think we feel that unease because we misunderstand the passage. In general parlance, we think the opposite of meek is strong. “Meekness” to me can be defined as a type of humble patience. I suggested that the opposite of meek is not strong, but arrogant. And, boy, does arrogance get us in trouble. This whole financial crisis that might be making graduates a bit nervous about their next step came directly from the arrogance of many in the financial sector who thought they had it all figured out. Are they going to inherit the earth? It doesn’t look that way.

To me, being meek means approaching a problem, not with a certainty that we know the answer—which will often take us down the wrong path—but wondering what it is that we can learn that will lead us to the right solution. I suggested that it takes courage to be humble enough to recognize that we don’t know the answer and patient enough to take time to listen to what it could be.

There is no lack of strength in humble patience. It means approaching other people with an attitude of “What can I do to serve you? To help you?” There’s nothing weak about that. It’s the right formula for a business. Adopt it and you make money because your customers will be happy.

“What can I do to serve you?” That should be the financial leaders’ mantra. Adopting it will put them in the right relationship not just with their customers, their co-workers and their employees, but more importantly with their friends, with their spouses, with their children and with God.

It’s what we try to do at Catholic Relief Services. You may think that everyone involved in humanitarian aid is a pure-of-heart, meek peacemaker, but there is plenty of arrogance in my world. People sit in Washington or London or Geneva and think they know exactly what the poor of Chad or Ethiopia or Indonesia need. They are well meaning, but their plans invariably fail.

You have a much better chance of success if you approach people in their towns and villages and homes and ask, “What can we do to serve you?”

That’s what CRS is doing right now in Haiti, where we are involved in one of the biggest recovery efforts in our history. We are adopting an attitude of service to others, others who are desperately in need of life-sustaining assistance, others who tell us they need better shelter, jobs and sanitation. We are being of service to young girls and women who need protection. And we are striving to be of service to the many Americans who so generously gave us funds to be of help in Haiti. Many have longstanding relationships with priests and nuns, orphanages, schools, or hospitals and want us to rebuild these institutions.

At CRS, we often talk about solidarity with the people of the world, with the poor. Those we serve are not just statistics; they are quite literally our brothers and sisters. If you feel that solidarity, really feel it, you can’t be arrogant. It demands that you be meek. In Haiti, that means we need to humbly listen to the people affected by the earthquake and hear of their dreams and aspirations for their future. It means we will walk side by side in a journey with the Haitian people.

So I asked the graduates to be strong and determined—but meek.

Around the world, my colleagues at Catholic Relief Services have witnessed the key role played by women in families living in the poorest rural communities. Statistics bear this out:

• Of the world’s 1.3 billion poor people, it is estimated that nearly 70 percent are women.

• One in every four households in the world is now headed by a woman.

• Women in the developing world are responsible for between 60 and 80 percent of crop production.

• In most countries, women work approximately twice the unpaid time men do.

In many ways, mothers are heroes. Often it doesn’t seem dramatic. Yet at times the day-to-day care they give their families can be very heroic—even sacrificial. Think of the women who take in children orphaned by AIDS, children who may be related to them or may live in their community. Or the mother who participates in a saving and lending community so she can start a business to improve the life of her family.

At other times, mothers perform extraordinary deeds. I can think of one such mother I met recently on my trip to Haiti—my colleague Magalie Rigaud, who is in charge of logistics for CRS Haiti. She makes sure that shipments of vital relief supplies reach their intended destinations. It is a crucial job in our Haiti operation.

On January 12, Magalie worked a regular day, then left the office to pick up her twin boys and do a bit of grocery shopping on the way home. She and her boys were in the pet food section, getting food for the family dog, when the massive earthquake hit. The roof of the store collapsed on the shoppers inside, trapping Magalie and her sons. Luckily, the stacks of dog food created a kind of cave that saved their lives. But they could not get out. She was trapped with her boys and several other shoppers.

You’d have to meet Magalie to believe her. She refused to give up hope, despite the dire circumstances. She encouraged her fellow captives, praying with them and telling them that since they did not die in the initial shock of the quake, God did not intend for them to die that day. She kept their spirits up until, several hours later, they were rescued from the rubble.

Anyone would expect that Magalie would take at least a few days off after that harrowing experience. But you see, Magalie knew there were people who needed the vital relief supplies in CRS’ warehouses, supplies that would soon be shipped to Haiti. So despite an experience that would have caused any of us to take weeks off of work, she was soon back on the job, making important contributions to CRS’ efforts.

Magalie’s courage and grace under pressure is an inspiration to us all—as is her dedication to the mission of CRS and to the people of Haiti.

I would like to wish you a very happy Mother’s Day. And as always, thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett
President

To my mind, part of it is the proximity of Haiti to our country. Part of it is the fact that Haiti was gripped by such poverty even before the earthquake. And part of it is the extent of the damage and suffering.

But clearly a big reason for this outpouring, especially among Catholics in the United States, is that so many parishes here have longstanding relationships with parishes in Haiti. Many Catholics from this country have traveled there, and have welcomed their Haitian brothers and sisters to their own parishes and homes. As a result of these “twinning” relationships, Haitians are not strangers, but are truly neighbors and friends. It is a vivid experience of being One Human Family. That is why this disaster was such a shock. It hit close to home, and has affected us deeply.

One example is the relationship between the St. Brendan Catholic Community in the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the parish of Notre Dame de Fatima in Bassin-Zim, Haiti, a rural town about 80 miles from the quake’s epicenter. St. Brendan’s is one of at least nine parishes in the Archdiocese of Atlanta that have established a twinning relationship. The parish has maintained this outreach since 2004 and has initiated several projects, including basic parish support, a drive to build a parish hall and a microloan program.

While the town of Bassin-Zim lies outside of the earthquake impact zone and the parish suffered no structural damage, the parishioners are still feeling the effects of the disaster. Many people in the town lost family members and friends in Port-au-Prince, including the pastor, whose sister was killed. In addition to these losses, they are seeing a significant influx of people displaced by the earthquake, which is resulting in inflated prices and shortages of food, fuel and other supplies—for a time, there was even a shortage of hosts for the celebration of the Eucharist.

St. Brendan’s parishioners have expressed their concern for their friends at Notre Dame de Fatima in many ways. Their prayer intentions have prominently included the people of Haiti, and an altar cloth embroidered by the members of their sister parish has covered the altar from the day the earthquake struck until Ash Wednesday. They have kept their fellow parishioners informed through special reports from Catholic Relief Services that have been distributed through their parish bulletins, websites, and a Facebook page for their Haiti outreach project.

And in a special Haiti supply mission, two members of St. Brendan’s Haiti outreach project traveled with an interpreter to the Dominican Republic, where they purchased a large truck and loaded it with fuel, food and other necessities. With logistical help provided by a local Caritas agency they met through CRS Dominican Republic, the parishioners delivered the supplies to their sister parish themselves.

And of course, the people of St. Brendan’s have generously donated to both the CRS emergency response as well as the local parish partnership with Notre Dame de Fatima.

Stories like these can be told dozens of times. They stand as a testament to the bond between Catholics in the United States and our brothers and sisters in Haiti. That bond will be continued and strengthened through the long-term relief and recovery effort that CRS will carry out over the coming years.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett
President, Catholic Relief Services

Despite Dr. Borlaug’s achievements, we commemorate this year’s World Food Day on October 16 facing the fact that more than a billion people around the world suffer each day without enough to eat. The fight against global hunger continues.

And to add to the complexity of our task, we are facing some new challenges in increasing agricultural production and preventing famine. For example, over the last several weeks, we’ve received some confounding news about disasters in Africa.

In East Africa, the nearly complete failure of seasonal rains has resulted in drought that is causing suffering and hardship for almost 4 million people in Kenya. At the same time, a storm last month in Burkina Faso poured more than 10 inches of rain on the capital city of Ouagadougou in a 12-hour period, breaking a record that had stood since 1919 and causing floods that drove more than 100,000 people from their homes.

There is no conclusive link among these two weather aberrations and global climate change. But the fact is we are witnessing shifts in climatic conditions around the world.

Our overseas staff and partners report that climate change is accelerating disasters and altering rainfall patterns and traditional agriculture. And those shifts are causing those who contributed the least to global climate change, the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, to suffer the most from its effects.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, under Vatican leadership, have accepted the overwhelming scientific consensus that global climate change is real and is caused by human activity, and that it is disproportionately affecting the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. The United States bears a special responsibility in our stewardship of God’s creation to shape responses that serve the entire human family. As Pope Benedict XVI said in his message about last month’s U.N. summit on climate change: “The economic and social costs of using up shared resources must be recognized with transparency and borne by those who incur them, and not by other peoples or future generations. The protection of the environment, and the safeguarding of resources and of the climate, oblige all international leaders to act jointly, respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the world.”

And let me add Pope Benedict’s words from his most recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, in addressing the topic of development, the rights of peoples and the environment: “The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole.”

Catholic Relief Services’ overseas programs have already developed more than $60 million in adaptation-related projects. And in partnership with the U.S. bishops, CRS is contributing our experience and observations to the U.S. administration and congress as they develop our nation’s response to climate change. A new initiative of leading national Catholic organizations, including CRS, is calling on Catholics throughout the United States to reflect and act on our obligations to care for creation and for “the least of these” as a distinctive Catholic contribution to the climate change debate.

As we mark this year’s World Food Day, let us reaffirm our commitment and redouble our efforts to do all we can to end global hunger.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett
President

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 a game.

A former Soviet republic that declared its independence in 1991, Moldova has struggled in its transition to democratic governance and a market economy. It has weathered three economic collapses, each as devastating as the Great Depression.

Due to poverty, unemployment, weak rule of law and widespread corruption, Moldova is now a major country of origin for trafficking in human beings. Most victims are Moldovan women and children, sold into the sex-slave industry, but also trafficked for forced labor, begging, petty crime and organ harvesting.

Catholic Relief Services first arrived in Moldova in 2004 to begin reaching out to young people, particularly women, living in remote villages throughout the country. We are working in parish social ministry, which improves local churches’ ability to provide for the poor and vulnerable in their communities. We are also providing young women with job training and other opportunities that reduce the need to choose high-risk offers often used by traffickers.

At the center of our efforts is the Jobs Plus program, which provides sheltered employment training for rural women at risk, jobs for the unemployed, and cash incomes for impoverished families. Besides job skills, the program teaches these young women how to make a household budget, and to prioritize and maintain savings. It empowers women and other villagers to improve the quality of life in their communities by undertaking self-financed community improvement projects.

Over the last four years, CRS Moldova has created 800 jobs for vulnerable women and has plans to create more than 2,000 additional jobs over the next three years. This project is funded with support from the Argidius Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the COFRA Group, an international corporation.

Jobs Plus has had a transformational effect in the lives of the women who have completed the training. You can read their stories on our website . Marina Svarciuc was a young widow who had no way to support herself and her twin children. After training with Jobs Plus, she got a job at the deli counter at a local grocery store. And she has big plans. She intends to study business administration and economics with an eye to becoming a manager.

After Olessa Rozovel fled and divorced an abusive husband, she lost her means of supporting her three children. Life is especially tough in Moldova for single mothers. Olessa faced the grim prospect of leaving her children in the care of others to seek work abroad. But through Jobs Plus, she was able to get work as a seamstress in a newly  built clothing factory in her village. CRS is committed to working with companies that care for their employees: the factory is clean, well-lit and has the only flush toilets in the village. Says Olessa, “I am building my own life.”

Through your generous support to CRS, women like Marina and Olessa can live a life of dignity and do not need to submit themselves to exploitation and degradation.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett
President

But with four siblings and a poor family, Aminata’s chances for school seemed slim. And in this hot, dusty district in Mali, where only about a third of girls go to school, the deck was stacked against her.

But Aminata was lucky. Her father, a rice and millet farmer, had once been to school, but quit early on. Fortunately, he remembered the value of education. "At that time, I did not know the importance, and I didn’t have someone behind me to make me go. So I dropped out," Haba Yattara says. "I want my girls to go to school so that they don’t take the same path as me."

Catholic Relief Services has played a key role in the revival of education in Mali. We work with 80 schools in Mali to reward primary-school girls with a jug of vegetable oil every three months if they attend school 80 percent of the quarter. Vegetable oil may seem an odd incentive, but in Mali, where it is a major part of the diet, two gallons of oil cost nearly half a month’s income. Students like Aminata also receive a hot lunch at school every day.

Sharing the Dream
Like so many fathers and daughters, Haba and Aminata shared a dream of an education. Thanks to the generosity of CRS donors like you, Aminata is on her way to the kind of future an education can bring.

Now you can thank your father for the dreams he has made possible for you. Make a donation to CRS to honor Dad on his day. It is a gift that will touch his heart while it enables Catholic Relief Services to help God’s most vulnerable children in more than 100 countries around the world.

If you’d like, we will e-mail a special Father’s Day card acknowledging your gift.

On behalf of CRS and all the fathers around the globe who are touched by your compassion and prayers, I thank you.

Sincerely,

Ken Hackett,
President CRS

I prefer to use another term: families.

At Catholic Relief Services, we are guided by the principles of our tradition and teaching. And at the heart of our work as an instrument of the Church is the sacredness and dignity of the human person. As our mission statement says, “We are motivated by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to cherish, preserve and uphold the sacredness and dignity of all human life.”

This is the foundation that undergirds our programs of relief and development in more than 100 countries around the world.

This month, we celebrate mothers and the role they play as the backbone of the family. How does CRS support mothers and promote families in the poorest and most underdeveloped places? Let me just mention a few:

· We support mothers with programs that offer prenatal health services as well as assistance for mothers with infants. In the remote Honduran province of Intibucá, our training programs for midwives, which help them to recognize complications during and after pregnancy, have reduced maternal deaths by 40 percent.

· We support women entrepreneurs through our microfinance programs. The programs reach more than 1 million people, about 70 percent of them women. We target women because they tend to use the additional income from their businesses to meet household needs, such as purchasing more and better quality food, improving family housing and health care, paying children’s school fees, and saving for emergencies.

· We help children orphaned by AIDS to stay together. We provide extended families and communities with the resources they need to support these children, so they do not have to be sent away to live in an institution. CRS is becoming recognized as a leader in this approach. We currently serve 650,000 orphans and vulnerable children, and our goal is to serve 1 million children by 2013 and 2 million by 2018.

· We promote faithfulness in marriage and abstinence in our HIV prevention programs. Within the context of Catholic teaching, we encourage communities to discuss how abstinence, fidelity, respect and sexual responsibility are essential in stemming the spread of HIV. We also help families understand that they can provide compassionate care to their HIV-positive relatives without putting themselves at risk.

These are just a few of the many ways, through your generous assistance, you help CRS to support mothers and families around the world. As we commemorate this Mother’s Day, let us recall the love of our own mothers, as well as the sacrifices of mothers who struggle to help their families carry on to see another day.