Like parents in any other part of the world, Svetislav Nedeljkovic only wants the best for his children, despite being forced from home to live in temporary camps following Kosovo’s 1999 violence. “My three children were born in the camp, and all of them, except Aleksandar, spent their early childhood without the proper education,” he says. The time was trying …

In the midst of gripping poverty, Cruz Rivas Williams sees great potential right under his feet. “The greatest gift God has given us is the water and the land,” says Williams. Williams knows something about the gifts of water and land – he trains local farmers in sustainable farming techniques in the Nazaret 1 training center in the Rio Coco …

University of Tennessee, Knoxville, students Olivia Brown and Courtney Patterson saw a unique way to fight hunger, an idea that – quite literally – smacked them in the face. ”A lot of people are doing walks and runs, so we wanted to do something that would stand out,” Patterson says.  They saw the need to do something that would grab …

One of the first thoughts Takeshi Komino had when the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami devastated the northeastern part of Japan was pointed and surprising. “Is this really happening in my country of Japan?” thought Komino, head of emergencies for CWS Asia/Pacific.  “Japan is considered one of the richest nations in the world with probably the best disaster risk reduction measures …

You can excuse any residents of Canyon Lake in central Texas Hill Country for referring to their town’s annual hunger-fighting walk as, “That dam walk.” The description is hardly a pejorative when the route of the walk indeed does take walkers straight across Canyon Lake Dam, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built years ago to reduce flooding of …

For many of us, taking a sick child to the doctor is a routine occurrence.  But what if there are no doctors?  No medicines?  No hospitals? One young mother in Segram, Pakistan, knows the answer.  Even when she was fortunate enough to have a little money, Sadia’s only option was to visit what she called “a quack doctor” who charged …

As if the challenges of putting their lives back together after a devastating earthquake weren’t already big enough, Haitian women are enduring an epidemic of rape and sexual violence. The 900,000 population that lives in tents in spontaneous settlements is particularly at risk owing to precarious living conditions.  But women all over Haiti are vulnerable, because normal life has been …

CHISINAU, MOLDOVA — Church World Service is joining global recognition of World Water Day (March 22) with co-sponsorship of a major conference today in Chisinau, Moldova, Implementation of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation in Moldova, which will focus on the international Protocol on Water and Health. “Access to clean water is one of the main problems facing the …