CRS

With global hunger rising, an annual Lenten initiative by the U.S. Catholic bishops has “never been more needed,” Bill O’Keefe, executive vice president for mission and mobilization at Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services, told OSV News.

A donation to CRS Rice Bowl helps provide lifesaving support to more than 200 million people in more than 120 countries. It also helps at the local level.

“CRS has been working on a response to this climate-induced drought over the past two years. But the rest of the world is only waking up to the fact that we have the worst climate-induced drought in the world right now — the worst in living memory in Afghanistan,” said Kevin Hartigan, the Middle East regional director of Catholic Relief Services.

Men among the Karamojong community are defying long-held norms to take up roles that for generations had been assigned to women and girls.

Many Lenten resources centered on Catholic social teaching are available.

A CRS country rep in Sudan has been terminated after allegations of verbal abuse, reports The New Humanitarian.

Suzanne Van Hulle, the global public health expert for Catholic Relief Services, is paying particularly close attention to the spread of the virus, also called COVID-19, to ensure CRS staff members in Asia are safe.

Haitian first responders and nongovernmental aid workers were assessing the damage from Hurricane Matthew even as they scrambled to deliver food, water and shelter materials to communities isolated by washed-out bridges and blocked roads.