For more than 60 years -- a catalyst for empowerment.

Here are a few of the many places Church World Service is making a difference...

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Photo: Cil Lorand	CROP: Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty As CROP celebrates its 60th year, millions of people join in or support CROP Hunger Walks. Last year, CROP Walkers, volunteers, and sponsors in some 2,000 U.S. communities joined in more than 1,600 CROP Hunger Walks. They raised more than $15.6 million to feed the hungry, protect children, assist uprooted people, and empower families and communities around the world to help themselves. Of that amount, more than $3.7 million was shared with local hunger-fighting initiatives — food banks, soup kitchens, and community gardens across the U.S.

Photo: Carol Fouke-Mpoyo/CWS	Advocacy Through the CWS Website, educational resources, and newsletters, CWS informs supporters about issues important to us all — water, HIV/AIDS, fair trade, human rights, debt, refugees and asylum seekers, etc. For example, this past year, CWS has encouraged supporters to urge the U.S. Congress to take action to reform U.S. farm policy and immigration policy, and stem violence in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Photo: Elizabeth Smith	Refugee Resettlement Working with participating denominations and congregational cosponsors, CWS and its network of 36 affiliate resettlement agencies in 24 states resettled 4,767 refugees, including Somalis, Burmese, Iranians, and Burundians.

Photo:Paul Jeffrey/ACT-CWS	Climate change CWS is working shoulder-to-shoulder with environmental organizations and other church-related relief and development agencies to promote policies that reach for equitable solutions to the challenge.

Photo: CWS-Vietnam	Church World Service Kits This past year congregations and groups donated more than $2.5 million in School Kits, Hygiene Kits, Baby Kits, and Emergency Clean-up Buckets — helping neighbors at home and around the world with items that may seem small but make a huge difference in an ongoing development program or when disaster strikes.

Photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT-CWS	Water for Life/Water for All CWS is working with communities to obtain and manage their own potable water supplies and watershed sources with a multiple-solutions model that includes focus on water policies and equitable water sharing, while accessing water for health and food production.

Photo: CWS-Pakistan/Afghanistan	Tools & Blankets From blankets, tents, bedding, and other emergency supplies in the wake of disasters, to material assistance, education and training, and small enterprise loans as part of sustainable development programs, some 9,000 congregations and groups across the U.S. hold Tools & Blankets programs each year, providing more than $3.8 million to help neighbors in need.

Photo: Elizabeth Smith	Beginning the Refugee Resettlement Journey Staff of the CWS Joint Voluntary Agency in Nairobi, Kenya, and the CWS Overseas Processing Entity in Accra, Ghana, cross sub-Saharan Africa interviewing and processing U.S. refugee resettlement applications through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. government.

Photo: HUYAWA	AIDS-affected children In Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mozambique, the “Giving Hope” program is empowering some 8,500 youth-caregiver households – more than 25,000 young people – to gain education and skills, speak for themselves, care for themselves and their siblings, and plan for their future. Kids learn and are supported by a group of kids going through the same situation. In Tanzania, for example, 17-year-old Godben Godwin has started a fish-selling business using a loan from a CWS-supported partner.