Please remember to keep our Kenyan ministry partners and their communities in your prayers. The situation there is truly dire. A severe drought is sweeping across the eastern African nation, crippling its agriculture-based economy and leaving entire villages without water.
If you haven’t read Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), we suggest you take a look. It’s long, but well worth your time.
Last week in Haiti, we met Jean Dumace Maurice, an ambitious 26-year-old who is working hard to lift himself out of poverty and make an impact on his community. Jean earned his bachelor’s degree through the Cross Catholic-sponsored Haitian Education and Leadership Program (HELP), which provides scholarships for poor but talented high school grads to go to a quality university.
Claudio, one of our project officers, just got back from Peru last week, and apparently it was an unusual trip — unusual because transportation workers went on strike shortly after he arrived in Lima. Public transportation came to a halt, and protesters were hurling rocks at cars, which made it quite nerve-wracking for Claudio to drive from project to project.