ETHIOPIA: CRS Encourages Self-Sustainability of Local People in Ethiopia

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

Members of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), an international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States during a joint meeting with the officials from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia (CBCE), expressed that their intent for support is to ensure self-sustenance of the local people in the Horn of Africa nation.

In a report shared with AMECEA online, the President and CEO of the humanitarian agency Sean Callahan, underscored that the organization which focuses its strategies on human dignity aims to uplift the local people for their own development.

“In all the support, the final goal of our organization is to support local societies to be self-sustained and be responsible for their own achievements,” CRS President said in their meeting Monday, June 20, adding that “Local people should be responsible for their own development.”

According to the report, the UN agency has partnered with the Catholic Church in Ethiopia and supported the people for more than six decades, a gesture which the Church through the CBCE President Berhaneyesus Cardinal Demerew Souraphiel acknowledges with appreciation.

“The people of Ethiopia from North, South, East and West know the work that CRS is doing. And the poorest of the poor are grateful for your support. They know you by name,” Cardinal Berhaneyesus said as quoted in the report.

The CRS has cooperated with the Ethiopian Church in various humanitarian activities including: “Social development, peace building, institutional capacity building, child protection and safeguarding,” among others which has led to “a growing trend reaching large number of beneficiaries, long standing interventions, increasing volume of resources in agriculture, health, nutrition, microfinance and water security.”

The meeting aimed to look at the impacts of the long term partnership and set way forward for the future.

The Monday report quoted the Deputy Secretary General for Social and Development Commission, Mr. Ato Bekele Moges saying, “The partnership between CRS and Ethiopian Catholic Church is a family and fraternal relationship and the long-standing and multi-dimensional solidarity with the local church leadership has resulted good coverage of programs in the Catholic Jurisdictions.”

According to Mr. Bekele “the fraternal partnership will continue in more strengthened manner in the future as well in capacity building of National and Diocesan offices,” the report highlighted adding that, “The priorities in the future cooperation will be standardization and modernization of financial, HRM Property management systems and ICT infrastructures (and) inclusion of additional dioceses in CRS programs based on needs will also be focused on.”

Other achievements from the humanitarian support by CRS the report explained, is “saving millions of lives, through recovery program every year, sustainable improvement of livelihoods of rural communities and asset building, protecting and improving natural resources through soil and water conservation natural resource management.”

Additionally the report quoted the CBCE’s Secretary General Fr. Teshome Fikre to have said that “CRS is connecting the sister Churches of the United States and Ethiopia” and is also “helping the Ethiopia Church to make sure that her values are maintained in the services that she is providing.”