Going Global with Youth — Catholic Relief Services

Volume 6, Issue 1

Sept. 2005

In the morning, a dew lay all about the camp, and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground. On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, "What is this? for they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, "This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. Now this is what the Lord has commanded. So gather it that everyone has enough to eat, an omer for each person, as many of you as there are, each man providing for those of his own tent.

~ Exodus 16: 13b-18

The story of the gift of manna is one of many scriptural stories that uses the imagery of food to convey the nature of God's grace and saving activity. Amid their rising fear and doubt in the desert, the Israelites receive from an unpredictable but faithful God a flaky food that they must gather to sustain themselves. Yet, they are only to gather what they need for a single day and they must use everything they have gathered that day to feed each other. All must eat, weak and strong. If anyone should hoard it or try to save any, it spoils or becomes fodder for worms. Any attempts at control of the manna fail miserably. The Israelites were kept in want and had no choice but to depend on God's generosity. A possible lesson: God's miraculous gift was meant to provide sustenance, not abundance or wealth. And even in spite of the human tendency toward greed at times, God still provided as if to say, "I will love you into changing you to love!"

This lesson continues today. God's continued grace, God's blessing, is sufficient - even abundant - for human need and sustenance. Yet, it is estimated that close to a billion people in this world remain hungry. In 2000, UN studies demonstrated that at least 13% of the world lacks access to adequate amounts of food despite the fact that there is enough food globally to feed everyone. Food is not distributed equally and the poor do not have the means to purchase it. Perhaps an even greater concern should be that many who live with abundance do not experience need - perhaps, at least not to the extent to always know that it is in our need where God meets us, and it is through that meeting where we experience greater fullness and are loved into a life of living through giving.

The recent food crisis in Niger should awaken us to the fact that issues surrounding food and hunger cannot be ignored and that efforts to assist cannot be delayed. It should challenge us into a greater sharing of our abundance - material, educational, spiritual and otherwise - in the effort to cease the growing divide between the rich and poor. The fact that there are so many who remain hungry should motivate us to correct unjust structures and explore measures that could make economic structures more fair: corrections in our market economies, changes in the way we pursue and evaluate trade agreements, reduction of the debt of poorest nations to name a few. The recent food crisis in Niger is a call to all of us toward good stewardship and a life of solidarity with the poor.

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Announements

JusticeWalking Created by JustFaith Ministries, JusticeWalking is a "prophet-raising" process designed to help older teenagers encounter the spiritual and social implications of the Gospel message. It is a process that attempts to respond to the realities and expectations of young people and their mentors in parish, diocesan, and high school ministry settings as they explore together our faith call to justice. Over the course of a nine-month school year a small community of young people and adult mentors enter into prayerful dialogue, experiential investigation of the prophetic call to live justly, and the building of relationships with people at the margins. For more information, click here or visit their website by clicking here.

National Catholic Youth Conference The 2005 National Catholic Youth Conference, scheduled at the Georgia World Congress Center in October, is the largest gathering of young people. With 20,000 expected, it is an opportunity to engage in inspirational presentations, vibrant worship, and energetic activities. This year's theme is Winds of Change. Look for the CRS exhibit booth that will focus on fair trade. For further information, click here.

Fair Trade Conference and Fair Trade Chocolate CRS announced at an April Press Conference in Seattle, WA its commitment to Fair Trade Coffee and Chocolate Projects. This initiative creates new opportunities for Catholics and other socially-conscious consumers to promote social and economic progress of people in developing countries. By marketing their products, overseas farmers are assured a just wage and a share of the cocoa company. For more information, click here.

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Life in the Field

Responding to Food Insecurity in Niger The food crisis in Niger and other parts of Western Africa has recently received much attention in the press. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. Last year, after a severe locust outbreak and subsequent drought, many found themselves struggling just to survive.

The locust infestation combined with poor rainfall resulted in severe crop damage, loss of seeds for future planting seasons, and higher food prices. Some families resorted to eating the seeds they would have planted during the current growing season. In response to this crisis, CRS/Niger and partners immediately began to distribute vouchers that would enable the most affected rural households to access animal feed, seeds and planting tools in preparation for the current planting season. This process provided seeds for 16,000 families who should be harvesting their crops beginning in late-September.

Until it is time for the harvest, thousands still find themselves without food. CRS has begun to respond to the emergency by distributing food rations to over 40,000 families in the hardest hit regions and is working with our partner, Helen Keller International, to provide therapeutic feeding to 7,000 malnourished children. Over the following several months, CRS will continue to work with the affected populations to distribute seeds and tools, to develop irrigation wells and replenish livestock.

For more information about CRS response in Niger and neighboring countries, click here.

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Active Solidarity

Raise Awareness and Take Action Work with CRS to raise awareness and take action on the deeper issues raised by the existence of a famine and food shortage, by the need for food aid and food security. Through the program, Food Fast, CRS offers you multi-media resources to engage young people on the issue of hunger and food security (how the right to food must include a reliable supply of food). Click here to review new multi-media resources and learn how you can get involved and challenge youth to take action that will support global efforts to reduce hunger.

The Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger web site is another great resource for raising youth's awareness of world hunger. This site includes lesson plans on three different levels around the following themes:

Click here to visit their site.

The Hunger Site is another site that offers young people a way to make a small difference each day. Each day, site visitors can click on the "Give Free Food" button on the homepage, and at no cost to them, food is donated through the site's sponsors to organizations working to provide food throughout the world. Click here to make your donation today.

Finally, considering commemorating World Food Day on October 16 with your students. Click here to visit the United Nations website and learn more about this year's theme of "Agricultural and Intercultural Dialogue.

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Called to Action

U.S. Response to Food Aid Needs CRS has been concerned about a serious shortage of U.S. food aid for many months, long before recent reports of a serious hunger crisis in Niger and the Sahel region of Africa hit the front pages of our newspapers. This year as in the past, along with our supporters, we have been strongly advocating for adequate U.S. -sponsored global food aid to address unanticipated humanitarian crises. This food assistance also supports long-term development schemes such as improving nutrition among women and children, or increasing agricultural productivity.

Given the great needs around the world, CRS and our coalition partners believe that a minimum of $1.7 billion will be needed to cover the United States' contribution to global food aid needs in fiscal year 2006.

TAKE ACTION Congress has nearly completed its work on the FY 2006 Agriculture Appropriations bill, which includes funding for global food aid programs. The House has passed its version of the bill, while the Senate is expected to take its bill up in September. Both the House-passed bill and the Senate's current version fall far short of the funding levels CRS is advocating for. We need your help now to advocate for more food aid funding! Click here to visit our web site and take action on this issue.

For further reading on issues around food aid click here.

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Global thoughts

Life in Niger, an Insider's Perspective Monsignor Ambroise Ouedraojo, Bishop of the Catholic Mission of Maradi, ministers in an area of Niger that has been severely affected by the food crisis and has been at the center of most news reporting. Presented below are excerpts from recent interviews with Monsignor Ouedraojo that express a message about life in Niger that he hopes US Catholic youth will receive.

The following is an excerpt from an interview for an upcoming Food Fast video that focuses on security. This video will be available later this Fall.

My hope is that the people who see this video will see men and women and young people who are working together. They are not fighting to live; they are fighting just to survive. And it's not that the people don't want to develop or that they are opposed to development, it's not that at all. The people here want to be responsible. They want to develop and to be a part of helping to develop their communities, this country. But the situation here is very difficult. And the development that the people are looking for is something that takes into account their social, their economic, their environmental realities and this takes time. I want the people who see this video to have confidence that the people here in Niger want to develop. That's what they are striving for and together with the people in the United States and the people here working side by side, hand in hand, this country will develop and everyone will be able to live together in dignity.

The following is an excerpt from an interview on the goals of the Nomad Education Project, a partnership between CRS, the United Nations World Food Program and the Catholic Mission of Maradi.

In Niger, there's no McDonalds. There are families who would eat only one meal a day. And if they're sick, it's very difficult to take care of themselves. They would have to go 5, 10, 15 kilometers just to find medicine. And even if there is medicine, often times they don't have money to buy it. That's the reality . . . of most of the men and women in Niger.

The first goal of the project is to help give these children human dignity . . . then to look at their environment, which is a very difficult environment to live in, and to help teach them how to live in injustice because there is always a risk of the poorest of the poor being pushed down even further . . . People need to realize that we all have value, we all have dignity and that we need to be responsible to ourselves and to each other. We need to be just in our actions. Above all we need to have love, we need to show love to one another.

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