St. Cloud Diocesan Council of Catholic Women at 25008 Mary St., Paynesville, MN 56362 US - INTERNATIONAL
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by Karen St. Marie
Isn’t summer wonderful? A chance to warm our bones and spend more time with family and friends. But if you don’t mind, we’ll take a break and I’ll give you some examples of what some of our international friends are doing.
There is a young man who grew up in Zambia. Thankfully, he decided to be a medical doctor. His name is Dr. John Haloka and he is employed at Chreso Ministries, a partner of Catholic Relief Services. This young man is affiliated with his local church and interested in HIV care. Chreso has been helping Zambians with HIV since 1996, when it first started providing counseling and testing. This is one of the hundreds of projects supported by CRS that are subject to our uncertain economic times.
In Iraq, malnourished children are eating healthful food and sick children are being treated for disease, while mothers are receiving and exchanging advice on keeping their children well.
In Guatemala, farmers are learning how to grow new crops, connect to markets, secure a more regular source of income and survive market downturns.
In India, communities are creating “vigilance groups” to protect vulnerable women and children from exploitation by human traffickers. These countries mentioned are a few of the more than 100 countries served by CRS.
Back to summer and our wonderful get-togethers: picnics, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, etc. They all show an overabundance of wealth and ability to grow healthy food for our children. As you plan your fall meetings, keep the needs of our international neighbors in mind as they struggle daily to feed their families. You have always been generous, but I will always ask for more because the need is so great and they have so little.
We are Catholic women working for Christ; we can do this.