In my 16 years of faith-based public policy advocacy in Washington, I’ve never seen a more brutal Congressional attack on programs for hungry and vulnerable individuals and families. That’s why I decided to do something out of the ordinary.  On July 28 with 10 other people of faith, I engaged in an act of civil disobedience by kneeling in prayer …

Water is a recurring theme in the life of John M. Walsh III. “My life’s work is making water safe to use,” says Walsh, the founder of a water quality firm based in New Jersey. “For over 50 years I have been involved in many areas having to do with water quality.” While Walsh’s work has focused on purifying and …

GRAN CHACO REGION, Paraguay — In the vast, dry Chaco region of South America where water and prosperity are scarce, indigenous women of the Paraguayan Chaco are now growing abundant vegetables by burying handmade clay pots in their gardens to help capture, retain and utilize the little rain that does fall. The simple and ingenious technology is part of humanitarian …

In Columbus, Ohio, a portrait of peaceful parents with their impish, healthy children belies the family’s worry these days for their drought-afflicted relatives back home in the Horn of Africa. Dahir Adan, 30, and his wife Fartun Muhumed, 26, are refugees from Somalia, resettled to the United States in February 2010 by Church World Service and Community Immigration and Refugee …

NEW YORK, N.Y. and NAIROBI, Kenya –– With famine in the Eastern Horn of Africa worsening, global humanitarian agency Church World Service is continuing its initial response to the crisis and today announced a U.S. fundraising campaign for critically needed food and water initiatives. This year marks the driest period in the Eastern Horn of Africa region since 1995, with …

A July 27, 2011 interview by Chris Herlinger with Sammy Matua, Church World Service staff member based in the agency’s East Africa regional office in Nairobi. CH: Drought has not been uncommon in the Eastern Horn of Africa. But how is this current event different from previous ones? SM: In earlier droughts, even ones that were extended for some time, …

It’s more than four months since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck the northeast cost of Japan, claiming thousands of lives and making thousands more homeless. More than 15,000 have been confirmed dead, and 7,000 more remain unaccounted for. In the hardest-hit prefectures of Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi, almost 200,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. These people …

NEW YORK – “You have reached 65 years, but please don’t retire!” With those words, Vincent Cochetel, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees regional representative for the United States and the Caribbean, joined those wishing Church World Service a fond birthday as the global humanitarian agency marked its 65th anniversary and its long service and dedication to refugee protection. …

With famine now declared in parts of Somalia and more than 11.3 million people in need of aid in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, Church World Service is providing emergency food relief, water tankering and long-term disaster risk reduction programs, beginning in northern and eastern Kenya. As thousands of those affected by this crisis flee daily across borders to …