Catholic san Francisco
(PHOTO BY SARA FAJARDO/CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES)
Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
A woman with two of her children is pictured April 6, 2011, outside her home in Kudeso Village in Terakeka, Sudan. Kudeso is a village of herders where cattle are seen as a sign of wealth. Health conditions, however, are poor. Villagers drink water directly from the river adjacent to their village which often results in stomach ailments. CRS is constructing a borehole that will provide enough fresh water for 500 families or 2,500 people for up to 50 years.
Horn of Africa: CRS begins five-year effort to end cycle of catastrophic regional drought By George Raine Eleven million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across the Horn of Africa, where a conspiracy of the cruelest drought since 1950, food costs spiraling upward as much as 240 percent and brutal civil war in Somalia each day forces some 1,300 desperate people – some days more – into the largest refugee camp in the world in Dabaab in Eastern Kenya. Throughout the arid and semi-arid region, there’s hunger and the threat of malnutrition. The drought is claiming in some places 50 to 100 percent of the herds of cows and goats of the herdsmen. Harvests are ruined. And what little there was in a trickle-down economy, for day laborers and others, is as dry as the desert floor. Catholic Relief Services has for decades had a presence in East Africa, addressing water and agricultural needs, in part by drilling for water along traditional migratory routes for herdsmen, also called pastoralists, in Ethiopia, to help the herds survive. But now, amid the worst conditions in generations, the agency has made a five-year commitment for aid in the Horn of Africa – just as it did in Haiti following the catastrophic 2010 earth-
quake – to help people along a route to self-sufficiency no matter the staggering odds. “What we are going to do is try to see that the consequences of drought, to this degree, do not happen again,” said Sara Fajardo, regional information officer in Eastern and Southern Africa for Catholic Relief Services. “Droughts are cyclical in Eastern Africa. There is nothing that you can do to prevent drought, but there are things you can do to lessen the impact of drought.” It’s a broad agenda for Catholic Relief Services, a challenge for multiple aid agencies, but teams of CRS workers are feeding many thousands of people in Ethiopia and in the Mandera triangle, where Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia meet, and elsewhere in the region. They’re distributing hygiene kits to arriving refugees at Dabaab and, said Fajardo, in whatever aid they are giving remembering to respect tradition and help people lead decent lives. The principle of the work of Catholic Relief Services in the region, she said, “is always upholding the dignity of each person, and helping people live the most dignified life possible.” Fajardo, a Peruvian-born former Salinas resident HORN OF AFRICA, page 6
Civic Center prayer rally to recreate spirit of Father Peyton’s 1961 Rosary Crusade By Valerie Schmalz Organizers of the 2011 Family Rosary Crusade on Oct. 15 at San Francisco’s Civic Center hope to recreate the greatest outpouring of prayer that anyone has ever seen here – the rosary rally led in 1961 by Father Patrick Peyton, who coined the phrase, “The family that prays together, stays together.” “We will be there just to bear witness to our faith,” said David Marten, a rally organizer and officer of the Archdiocese of San Francisco Legion of Mary. “We encourage people to attend so the family sees that witness.” In 1961, more than 500,000 people gathered at the Polo Field in Golden Gate Park to say the rosary with Father Peyton, a Holy Cross priest who founded Family Theater Productions, which ROSARY, page 3
INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION On the Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Wedding Guide . . . . . . . . 7-11 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Question Corner . . . . . . . . . 15
From immigrant striving to downward mobility ~ Special Report, Pages 12-13 ~ September 23, 2011
Father Rolheiser . . . . . . . . . 19
Immigration and the ‘next America’ ~ Page 17 ~
Media’s ‘unhealthy’ messages to women ~ Page 20 ~
ONE DOLLAR
Datebook of events . . . . . . . 21 Service Directory . . . . . . . . 22
www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 13
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