Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / CRS aids refugees, disaster victims worldwide
CRS aids refugees, disaster victims worldwide
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published February 29, 2008
Detroit — Catholic Relief Services provides a way for American Catholics to help refugees, victims of civil strife and people devastated by natural disasters around the globe.
The agency responds promptly to emerging situations, but also hangs in for the long haul to help people rebuild their lives.
As the overseas relief and development agency of the Catholic Church in the United States, it depends on contributions from the faithful. The annual collection for CRS will be taken in parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Detroit this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, March 1-2.
In the West African nation of Cameroon, CRS is assisting thousands of Chadian refugees fleeing their country after violence broke out in the capital of N’Djamena in early February. Christophe Droeven, CRS’ country representative for Chad, was one of more than 200 people trapped in a French school in N’Djamena, where gun-fire could be heard less than 30 yards away.
Collection
Annual collection for Catholic Relief Services will be Saturday and Sunday, March 1-2. |
“The walls were shaking and everyone was crouched under the tables. We opened the windows so they didn’t shatter on us, and we were talking to the children, trying to keep them calm. We were under the tables for seven hours,” Droeven related in a Feb. 6 CRS press release.
With a lull in the fighting, Chadians began pouring into the northern Cameroon city of Kousseri. The United Nations reported at least 20,000 Chadians had crossed into northern Cameroon by Feb. 6.
“The situation in Kousseri is really quite serious,” said Jennifer Nazaire, CRS’ country representative for Cameroon.
“The Catholic Church in Kousseri, the local government, United Nations and aid agencies are all scrambling to work out temporary and longer-term measures to host people,” she added.
On the other side of the continent, in Kenya, CRS has been assisting people displaced by armed mobs, looters and other violent groups.
At least 300 people had been killed by early January, and the Kenyan Red Cross estimated the unrest had displaced at least 70,000 people in just the Rift Valley region, according to a press release from CRS last month.
The violence exploded after Kenya’s disputed presidential election.
“This has become a humanitarian crisis,” said Ken MacLean, CRS’ country representative in Kenya.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, CRS has joined other agencies responding to the humanitarian crisis. Already facing an unusually cold winter for the region, many Gazans now lack food, heating and medical supplies.
In the Asian countries hit by the tsunami that struck the day after Christmas 2004, CRS and its partners have built nearly 9,500 permanent houses, with hundreds more nearing completion.
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