Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Relief Services was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States to serve World War II survivors in Europe. Since then, we have expanded in size to reach more than 130 million people in more than 100 countries on five continents.

CRS DRC continues to address sudden-onset emergency and long-term development issues in collaboration with church partners, government agencies and other humanitarian actors. Core programming areas include transformative health, nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene, and agricultural interventions that respond to the country’s diverse challenges. In fiscal year 2020, CRS development and humanitarian assistance reached 3,553,852 individuals in the DRC with a strategic focus on the Kasai region, in central southern DRC. CRS’ work in the DRC is founded on a strong partnership with national and local Church structures. In FY20, CRS collaborated with 13 diocesan Caritas partners, in addition to national Church structures such as Caritas Congo and the National Episcopal Conference of the Congo. By working through Church partners, CRS has been able to serve remote populations despite extremely challenging operational conditions.