Your help is urgently needed! Let your members of Congress know that you are deeply concerned about the Administration’s recent decision to stop work on almost all U.S. foreign assistance programs. Secretary of State Rubio issued an exception for lifesaving humanitarian assistance, but that has still not allowed any assistance or funding to move so lifesaving work can continue. This freeze is impacting millions of our sisters and brothers who need access to lifesaving humanitarian, health and development assistance.
You may use this format when you write a letter to your members of congress:
Presione AQUI para la redacción en EspañolSUBJECT: Please engage with the Administration to resume lifesaving foreign assistance while under review
Dear [elected official],
As your constituent and a supporter of Catholic Relief Services, I urge you to please engage with the Administration to allow emergency relief and critical foreign assistance programs to continue operations during the review process.
[Please share a story about the importance of foreign assistance and why it matters to you.]
I recognize the Administration’s prerogative to review foreign assistance, and I look forward to working with the Administration to improve foreign aid. However, halting lifesaving international humanitarian and development programs during the review process will be detrimental to millions of children and families around the world. A halt of programs will create instability, undermining the Administration’s important foreign policy goals to make the U.S. safer, stronger, and more prosperous. It also has the potential to create even more forced displacement and increase irregular migration, both in the Western Hemisphere and beyond.
The freeze on U.S. foreign aid will prevent many vulnerable people from accessing critical resources, including clean water for infants, help for farmers to feed their families, medications for children and others suffering from disease and basic education for kids. People will needlessly suffer, and innocent men, women and children will die. It also risks irreparably damaging our country’s reputation and credibility with other governments and local faith-based actors, creating opportunities for malign governments and terrorist groups.
Foreign assistance is not a handout. It is an essential investment to protect life, uphold human dignity, and pursue sustainable solutions to the world’s toughest challenges. Making up less than 1% of the annual federal budget, foreign assistance is a small yet smart investment to support the most vulnerable to care for their families and advance U.S. interests: to foster economic opportunity, promote peace and security, and project our core values abroad.
Please engage with the Administration to allow foreign assistance programs to operate during the review process. Let’s work for a world where all people can live with dignity in a peaceful and prosperous world.
Thank you for your time, consideration, and leadership.
[Signature]
CRS Rice Bowl is a program that invites us to reflect on the challenges of global hunger—and our Gospel call to care for our global human family.
CRS Rice Bowl gives us a wonderful opportunity to encounter different people from around the world, know more about their lives and recognize them as our sisters and brothers. We will see how, through our prayer, we encounter Jesus, who is present in the face of every member of our human family. When we fast, we encounter the obstacles that prevent us from fully loving God and our neighbor. And when we give alms, we share in solidarity with those who need our support.
By joining our prayers, fasts and alms this Lent with those of other parishes and Catholic schools in the United States, we will help millions of women, men and children around the world whose economic challenges have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Together as a Church, through CRS Rice Bowl, we can contribute to the efforts of those who seek to build a better world for themselves and their communities.
CRS Rice Bowl provides many resources for daily reflection throughout the liturgical season. Consider these suggestions in your family’s Lenten plan:
· Use your CRS Rice Bowl and Lenten Calendar each day to guide your prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
· Read the Stories of Hope and daily reflections to inspire your Lenten journey.
· Use the CRS Rice Bowl recipes to prepare simple, meatless meals on the Fridays of Lent to eat in solidarity with our sisters and brothers around the world.
· Visit crsricebowl.org to watch videos of the people and communities you support through your Lenten gifts to CRS Rice Bowl.
Your sacrifices during this holy season have the power to change lives by providing enough nutritious food for families to thrive. And by practicing the pillars of Lent through CRS Rice Bowl, I hope both your faith and connection to our one human family deepens.
CRS Rice Bowls will be collected at the end of Lent, so stay tuned to learn more. Thank you for participating in CRS Rice Bowl with your family.
To read Bishop Wack's endorsement letter, click HERE.
To learn the differences between the CRS Collection and CRS Rice Bowl, click HERE.
If your parish or school do not participate in Rice Bowl, you can still join us by supporting virtually at CRS Rice Bowl | A Catholic Program for Lent.
Catholic Relief Services have also provided a Lenten Calender to guide families through the 40 days of Lent. That calender can be found by clicking here FOLDRite Template Master: AC-1 (crsricebowl.org).