For most of its 65 years, Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development organization, directed its personnel and fund-raising efforts toward helping the poor outside the U.S.

"Until the year 2000, our focus was totally on the poor overseas," said Jim DeHarpporte, San Diego-based director of CRS' West Region. "We saw that as our mission. Then we did a year of reflection and realized we have an obligation to share this story since most Catholics don't know about this great work being done in their name."

To raise CRS' national profile, a U.S. operations office was formed five years ago as well as a volunteer program which has sent more than 40 Americans overseas as a way to build global solidarity. According to DeHarpporte, these efforts have resulted in "a dramatic increase in awareness" about CRS, resulting in a network of multigenerational people involved in advocacy on behalf of the world's poor.

Currently providing aid in 101 countries, CRS is one of the most respected international charities in the world, operating on a $597 million budget with 94 cents on every donated dollar going directly to programs benefiting the poor.

Fired-up youth
CRS has captured the imagination of a number of archdiocesan high school youth who have enthusiastically embraced the relief agency's promotion of global solidarity with the poor.

On June 25, faculty and student representatives of all-girls' Louisville High School in Woodland Hills and members of St. Louis of France Church (La Puente) youth ministry shared stories of how CRS has inspired their faith with Joan Neal, CRS executive vice president of U.S. Operations, visiting the west coast from CRS' Baltimore-based headquarters, and Joan Harper, CRS coordinator for the archdiocesan Office of Justice and Peace.

Besides annual archdiocesan CRS appeals, including Operation Rice Bowl and disaster relief such as last year's Myanmar collection, other local CRS activities include legislative advocacy, promotion of fair trade products, and participation in global solidarity efforts to increase awareness about the world's poor. International guest speakers, including Thomas Awiapo, CRS Ghana, and Peter Kimeu, CRS Kenya, have visited local schools over the past few years, sparking a number of social justice outreach projects.

"I think, for a lot of us, coming in freshman year and hearing Thomas Awiapo speak, it was sort of like coming [out of] apathy and ignorance," said Louisville's Michelle Rosales. Over the last four years, Louisville students raised over $10,000 for CRS with activities such as penny drives and free trade chocolate sales.

"All the speakers and the fund-raisers inspired us to believe we are able to create global change even though we are far away," said Rosales.

"I feel like we were really connected to many parts of the world," added fellow 2008 graduate Lindsey Hearn.

Reflecting their global solidarity with young people in the war-torn African country of Sudan, St. Louis of France youth ministry volunteers coordinated a "Sudan Peace Petition" signature drive during this year's Youth Day at the Religious Education Congress. They were able to collect 1,000 signatures on 20 large sheets, which were sent to President George Bush.

A land of hope
"Africa is a land of hope. People are alive and filled with the Spirit. God comes first in their lives," said Christina Lujan, youth minister and confirmation coordinator at St. Louis of France who recently journeyed to Nigeria through the CRS Called to Witness program.

While volunteering at a Nigerian HIV/AIDS orphanage and participating in peace building projects, Lujan was deeply moved by people shaking her hand as they placed their other hand over their heart asking for a blessing for her from God. She plans to return to Nigeria with youth from the parish.

Pia and Anselm Varni, parishioners of St. Mel Church in Woodland Hills, returned in March from 18 months as CRS volunteers in Malawi, Africa. They now are spreading the word about CRS' global mission by speaking to parishes, schools and community groups.

Asked to start an orphan outreach program in a suburb of Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi, Pia and Anselm, ages 64 and 69 respectively, left their three grown daughters and grandchildren and traveled to an unmapped, drought-devastated village with no electricity or plumbing where over 80 percent of the people are unemployed and many subsist on a dollar a day.

During weekly visits to mud brick homes, the Varnis often found households of children headed by teenage orphans whose parents had died from AIDS. Malawi's population of 14 million includes 1.5 million orphans. The first day of the Varnis' outreach program, "It was Pia, myself and 100 kids. It was a great pantomime day," said Anselm.

The Varnis recruited 35 volunteer translators from members of an AIDS support group that met locally. "They wanted something in the community for their children. The [progression] from HIV to AIDS is very quick because everybody's malnourished," said Anselm. The Malawi main meal made up of ground white corn has very little nutrition, noted Pia.

The Varnis used the computer they brought with them to download educational materials from the Internet which they printed out, copied and bound into pamphlets. "We used reams and reams of paper from CRS," said Anselm. They started the first library in the region.

"Over there, the smallest thing you do is so needed and appreciated," said Pia. "We're so full of distractions here. [In Malawi] we kept our life with a single focus. We were there to help these orphans. And they're still there; we're not done." Pia said she hopes to return because "I feel connected to these people, and they felt connected to us."

"The poor live in hope," added Anselm. "It has nothing to do whether the situation is optimistic or pessimistic. They have a vision of the way life should be, and they work very hard to live that out."

During his experience in Malawi, he was struck with "the need to respond more freely to the promptings that are going on inside of me. There were a lot of situations where we'd visit a family and something would start nagging me about what we could do, and, when we responded to those naggings, usually some good things came out of it, and they were powerful."

For more information on getting involved in global solidarity, visit the CRS website at www.crs.org. To arrange for the Varnis to speak at your parish, call the archdiocesan Office of Justice and Peace, (213) 637-7560.