Back to most recent news releases • Browse archive: 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • Email this story

CWS's Fouke, Hughes and Herlinger win religion communicators awards

March 10, 2008

New York--Three Church World Service staffers have been recognized by the Religion Communicators Council (RCC) for respective writing and video projects focusing on issues related to displacement and resettlement.

The winners, Carol Fouke-Mpoyo, the communications officer for Church World Service's Immigration and Refugee Program; Ronda Hughes, director of CWS's Program Interpretation and Resource Creation; and Chris Herlinger, communications officer for the Church World Service Emergency Response Program, will receive DeRose-Hinkhouse Awards from the RCC, an interfaith association of religion communicators at work in print and electronic communication, marketing, and public relations.

The ceremony for the DeRose-Hinkhouse Award will be held April 3, in Dulles, Va., during RCC’s annual meeting.

Fouke and Hughes won for "A Future with Hope: Welcoming Refugees." The 15-minute piece seeks to inspire and challenge local congregations, employers, and other community members to extend friendship and practical assistance to refugees resettling in the United States.

"A Future with Hope" was filmed on location in Grand Rapids, Mich., and features the first-person stories of refugees, congregational cosponsors and other volunteers, employers, and staff of CWS affiliate agency PARA Refugee Services--all partners in refugees’ successful resettlement.

Since 1946, CWS has helped more than 450,000 refugees begin new lives in the United States, and continues to resettle about 8,000 more refugees and entrants each year.

Herlinger won in the category of newspaper feature, single story, for "Return to an Unsettled Land," an article that appeared in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) in September 2007 following a trip Herlinger took on behalf of Church World Service to the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan, the site of one of the largest populations of displaced persons in the world. The award-winning article focused on changes in Darfur since Herlinger's initial trip there in 2004.

In 2007, Herlinger won a DeRose-Hinkhouse award for his reporting for NCR, an independent newsweekly based in Kansas City, on the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian Territories.

"These awards are not only a well-deserved recognition of our valued communications staff, but also shed light on Church World Service's humanitarian commitment in both chronic and crisis situations," said Ann Walle, CWS Director of Communications.

The DeRose-Hinkhouse awards recognize RCC members who demonstrate excellence as religion communicators. They honor the late Victor DeRose and Paul M. Hinkhouse, leading lithographers in New York City.

Established in 1929, RCC is the oldest association of religion communicators in America, with fourteen local chapters around the country and members-at-large in cities where a chapter does not exist.

A complete list of the 2008 DeRose-Hinkhouse award winners, and more information about the organization, can be found at http://www.religioncommunicators.org.

New York-based Church World Service is the humanitarian relief and development agency of 35 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations in the United States, with more than 60 years of experience in disaster response and refugee protection.

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

Back to most recent news releases • Browse archive: 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • Email this story