How can we tell them “no?”


March 9, 2011

CWS Executive Director and CEO, the Rev. John L. McCullough Photo: CWS

CWS Executive Director and CEO, the Rev. John L. McCullough Photo: CWS

Half a world away from the budget battle in Washington, Aliansa do Rego lives in the country of Timor-Leste.

Aliansa works alongside CWS staff to help her community learn new farming techniques.

“This was the first assistance we received,” Aliansa says.  “Seeds for water spinach and tomatoes, and tools from CWS.  This is our livelihood.”

CWS helps thousands of people every year find ways to feed themselves sustainably.  In the case of Aliansa and of others, foreign development assistance from the U.S. government helps us and other agencies care for those neglected by others.

It’s easy to forget that numbers on a page impact human lives.  At less than 1 percent of the whole U.S. government budget, foreign development assistance runs the risk of being swept away by rhetoric in the understandable effort to curb spending.

This week, the U.S. Senate is considering the cuts passed onto them by their colleagues in the House.  These cuts impact real lives, individuals we help every day.

CWS has been talking in earnest with Members of the U.S. Senate, delivering letters and also signing on to an ecumenical message from Heads of Communions.  Many are crying out against cuts that would endanger the poor, the children and the vulnerable both in the US and globally.  Cuts to domestic programs would only increase the suffering in the communities right here around us.

Last year, CWS helped provide more than 157,000 people with a sustainable clean source of water, many for the first time.  With your help, more than 7,000 refugees from conflict and hardship started new lives here in the U.S., and thousands more begin new lives in other countries.  More than 60,000 people found sustainable sources of food through our work with agricultural co-operatives, farming instruction, community gardens and more.

With more than 1 billion people in the world gripped by hunger, everyone must take a share in the responsibility.  Government funding supplements the dynamic contribution thousands of you make each year in contributions to CWS through CROP Hunger Walks and other programs.

The U.S. government-backed program helped Aliansa find food security and ensured that her children are eating nutritious meals – and helped her raise enough food to sell.  The money she earns helps pay for her children to attend high school.

Despite tough times, thousands of you volunteered your gifts to help fight hunger.  For Aliansa and the legion of the world’s poor, shouldn’t the U.S. government continue to do the same?

Please call on your elected officials, your church leaders and your community leaders to speak on behalf of just spending!

The Rev. John L. McCullough is the executive director and CEO of Church World Service.