How You Can Help
Embrace Our One Human Family
How to save lives and rebuild communities in other crises around the world.
Thank you for your interest in the tsunami and your compassion for the thousands of innocent people whose lives were changed forever. Catholic Relief Services has received approximately $204 million in total revenues (as of December 31, 2007) and is committed to spending a total of $205 million for our emergency and long-term tsunami response. As a result of the American public's overwhelming generosity, CRS is no longer actively seeking to raise additional funds for our tsunami activities.
The horrific natural disaster on December 26 swept many world events right off our TV screens and front pages. There are millions of people still living on the brink of life and death in "silent tsunamis" around the globe. CRS continues to address humanitarian crises that desperately need our attention, prayers and generosity.
HIV and AIDS
One of the biggest crises we're addressing — and will continue to address for years to come — is the tragedy of the AIDS pandemic. In the last 20 years, HIV has infected more than 42 million people — nearly 31 million people are in Africa alone. CRS started our first HIV programs in 1986 in Bangkok, Thailand. We now have HIV and AIDS programs in nearly 50 countries across Africa and in the hardest-hit areas of Asia, Europe and Latin America. This year, CRS will directly help nearly 2 million people with HIV. With your support we can help many more.
Find out more about CRS and HIV.
Sudan
Sudan is the largest country in Africa and has suffered the longest-running civil war on the continent. More than 2 million people have died and more than 4 million have been displaced in the 21 years of conflict. On January 9, 2005, the government in Khartoum and rebels in southern Sudan signed a comprehensive peace agreement. However, in the Darfur region of western Sudan, violence continues to claim 10,000 to 15,000 lives a month.
CRS has been involved in Sudan since 1972, and today our relief efforts are reaching 150,000 people in dire need in Darfur. We are providing shelter, clean water, sanitation facilities, emergency food and education programs. CRS has pledged $6 million to the crisis for humanitarian relief efforts in Sudan and neighboring Chad, where one half of Darfur's six million people are seeking relief from the bloodshed in Sudan. We cannot forget them.
Find out more about CRS and Sudun.
Food Aid
Millions of people around the world are slaves to the simple chore of finding food. One of the important missions of Catholic Relief Services is to feed hungry people overseas through emergency relief and development programs.
Right now, CRS helps 1.2 million children from vulnerable families receive nutritious meals at school. An estimated 1.6 million orphans, disabled people and people living with AIDS and other diseases are receiving food assistance through CRS partner programs. With our help, more than 1.2 million mothers and infants receive vital medicine and nutritional meals. More than 1.5 million farmers overseas receive support through CRS to produce the food they need to help their families survive.
Help us do all we can to help the world's most vulnerable people eat, grow and thrive.
Congo
Armed conflict has been raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo) for more than four years now. At least seven African countries and three rebel groups are involved in the fighting. The struggle has disrupted and jeopardized the lives of more than 50 million innocent people. It is estimated that some 3.3 million people have died, either as a direct or indirect result of the war. Please keep the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo in your prayers.
find out more about CRS and the Democratic Republic of Congo
Ethiopia
Ethiopia suffers a long history of political instability, war and famine. With a population of approximately 65 million people, over half of its inhabitants are living below the poverty line. Ethiopia also has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world.
CRS is working through family health, agriculture management, small loans, HIV care, and emergency programs to help Ethiopia's most vulnerable people. The drought-flood cycle that ravages the country is one of the most serious crises facing Ethiopia today.
Find out more about CRS and Ethiopia.
Fair Trade
You can make a world of difference in the lives of poor farmers overseas when you purchase fair trade coffee, tea or cocoa at your favorite java stop. Find out how you can promote equity in the marketplace.
Advocacy
Contact your public servants on behalf of those suffering around the world.
You don't have to be a great singer to add your voice to the growing chorus of concerned citizens who are calling on their government representatives to promote peace, justice and concern for vulnerable people overseas.
Find out more about CRS' advocacy program.
Stay Abreast
Stay abreast of all of the work of CRS. Sign up for your free subscription to the CRS briefing, a monthly e-newsletter.
CRS beneficiary works in Indonesia to build a permanent home for his family of nine using CRS-provided cement, nails, tools, and roofing material.
Yusniar, a CRS beneficiary, gathers water with several of her children at a water point refilled daily by an international nongovernmental organization working in West Aceh. She gathers 50 liters of water every other day for cooking and drinking. Aside from providing building materials to construct more than 1,600 permanent houses in 2005, CRS is also working to rehabilitate wells damaged by the tsunami.
