USCCB, CRS Presidents call for aid increase to Horn of Africa
Below is the statement from the Press Office of the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops on the appeal of USCCB President, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, and
the Chairman of the Board of Catholic Relief Services, Bishop Gerald Kicanas.
USCCB
PRESIDENT AND CRS CHAIRMAN ISSUE AID APPEAL FOR PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM DROUGHT
AND FAMINE IN SOMALIA AND PARTS OF EAST AFRICA
BALTIMORE, Md., August 10, 2011—Archbishop
Timothy M. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and
Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, chairman of the Board of Catholic Relief Services (CRS),
have asked their brother bishops to encourage pastors and parishioners to support
emergency relief efforts in the Horn of Africa, possibly by taking up a second collection.
More
than 12 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance in Kenya, Somalia
and Ethiopia because of what many are calling the worst drought in decades. This severe
lack of rainfall has resulted in failed crops, deaths of livestock and critical shortages
in food and water.
“Every day we are seeing more and more heartbreaking news
about the drought and famine in Somalia and the eastern parts of Africa. We see millions
of people being forced from their homes, leaving behind what meager possessions they
had, and walking for days over rough terrain,” wrote Archbishop Dolan and Bishop Kicanas.
“There
are parents whose little children have died, and children who have been orphaned.
They are suffering from hunger, thirst, disease, and drought,” they said. “It is a
humanitarian crisis that cries out for help to Christians throughout the world. The
Holy Father, on several occasions, has asked Catholics to respond generously to the
desperate needs of our brothers and sisters in East Africa.”
CRS has worked
in East Africa for decades, and is on the ground responding to this emergency. In
Ethiopia, CRS is expanding its food distribution program to 1.1 million people and
is working closely with local partners to provide livelihood support, water and sanitation.
In Somalia, CRS is supporting local partners to assist highly vulnerable, displaced
families with basic necessities, such as food packages, support to clinics, therapeutic
feeding and shelter. In Kenya, CRS is working both to assist newly-arrived refugees
with hygiene, sanitation promotion and protection, and also to provide water, sanitation
and supplemental feeding to drought-affected Kenyan communities.
“CRS can
use all the help we can offer in this current tragic situation,” wrote Archbishop
Dolan and Bishop Kicanas. “Through CRS our generosity could literally feed thousands
and provide them clean water, shelter and other life-saving goods. Over time, CRS
will be able to expand already proven drought mitigation and other development programs
that unfortunately are now only available in a handful of villages.”
Archbishop
Dolan and Bishop Kicanas concluded by asking the bishops of the United States to request
that their pastors “bring the plights of these poor people to our faithful and generous
parishioners and ask for their support, possibly through a second collection.”
How
to Help
Donate by Phone
Call 1-800-736-3467 from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Eastern Time.
Catholic
Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic
community in the United States. The agency alleviates suffering and provides assistance
to people in need in nearly100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality.
For more information, please visit www.crs.org or www.crsespanol.org.