Hurricane Preparedness Week is May 26 through June 1, following the release of the official forecast for the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season. USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance is actively working with partners to empower the next generation of disaster responders, especially in hurricane-prone countries. One such program developed by Catholic Relief Services is

I’m very big on atmospheres. I’m one of those people who walk into a  room and can just tell whether its inhabitants are feeling generally  perky…or whether they’ve just had a blazing row. Wherever I travel for Catholic Relief Services, around West and  Central Africa, I subconsciously seem to work out whether I like the 

Guest blog post by Helen Blakesley from Catholic Relief Services. When I was told that my next trip would be to Burkina Faso, a land-locked Sahelian country in West Africa, truth be told, I wasn’t so enamored by the thought. A makeshift shelter at the temporary refugee camp in Fererio, northern Burkina Faso, around 30

Guest blog post by Helen Blakesley from Catholic Relief Services. Cécile is talking to Séraphine about her medicine. Séraphine is HIV positive. She lost her husband to the virus and is now bringing up their six kids in Bungwe, a village high in the hills of northern Rwanda. A senior nurse at Bungwe Health Center,

Leia Isanhart Balima of Catholic Relief Services talks about the impact that AIDSRelief, a program funded by US’ PEPFAR program, has made for HIV patients in Rwanda.   Photo credit: Helen Blakesley/CRSLast week, I visited the Bungwe Health Center, a small clinic nestled in the hills about two hours outside Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. The

The Associated Press this morning has a report on a recent policy shift in an AIDS relief project funded by the US government. The project, implemented through Catholic Relief Services will seek to directly pay South Africans. Catholic Relief Services explains further: With funding from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and assistance

Here’s another round-up of today’s news—including on-the-ground stories, pictures and updates—from our partners and friends on their work in Haiti. American Red Cross Read a situation report from President and CEO Gail McGovern. AmeriCares Chief of Staff Carol Shattuck recounts her experience on AmeriCares first emergency airlift to help Haiti with earthquake and humanitarian relief.

Here are a few more updates today from our partners and friends on the effort underway in Haiti: American Red Cross: “We are humbled and thankful for the outpouring of support from our blog visitors offering their services to help those in need in Haiti. We committed $200,000 last night, and increased that amount this

Earlier this week, I had the chance to talk with Thomas Awiapo, a Ghanaian from the country’s Upper East Region and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) staff member. As a child in Ghana, Thomas was a beneficiary of CRS school feeding programs. Now, as an adult, he works for CRS Ghana and travels to the U.S.

Many of you are following news reports of a hijacking that recently occurred aboard the Maersk Alabama off the coast of Somalia. Today comes word that some of the cargo aboard the ship is life-saving food aid en route to Catholic Relief Services programs in Rwanda. According to CRS, this consists of 49 containers holding