Doreen Ajiambo

Catholic leaders and sisters have rescued thousands of children and young girls in Sierra Leone from sexual abuse, offering guidance and counseling, justice and education.

Years of deforestation, overgrazing, overcultivation and climate change have robbed Zambian soil of its nutrients. Catholic Relief Services is helping farmers adapt to the challenges. 

With Malawi and other southern African countries still reeling nearly 10 months after Cyclone Freddy, Catholic sisters gathered to learn advocacy skills to lobby on the neglected survivors' behalf.

Nearly 10 years after West Africa's Ebola outbreak, survivors in Sierra Leone continue to live with stigma, isolated from their communities and jobs. Catholic sisters offer education, hope and help. 

Catholic sisters foster healing and reconciliation for survivors of Sierra Leone's civil war, many of whom now find themselves neighbors with former rebel soldiers who killed their families during the conflict.

Maasai tribespeople and their supporters, including sisters, face intimidation as the Tanzanian government, in the name of conservation and tourism, has tried to force the Maasai from their northern ancestral land.

A Kenya hospital founded in 1964 and owned by the Catholic Diocese of Lodwar now has 200 beds for inpatient services and specialized doctors to treat life-threatening conditions of Kakuma Refugee Settlement residents. 

The U.N.'s Kakuma camp in Kenya is home to more than 200,000 refugees from across Africa. At special risk are LGBTQ persons, who say religious leaders in the camp incite followers against them.

Despite a prolonged drought in Kenya, Catholic sisters help ward off mass hunger by providing food relief and "transformative solutions" that keep traditionalist villagers in isolated areas from becoming dependent on aid.

Catholic groups welcomed the historic deal reached at the United Nations climate summit to establish a "loss and damage" fund for vulnerable countries, even while negotiations fell short in other areas, they said.

Catholic sisters are among thousands of activists worried the slow progress of COP27's negotiations on a loss and damage fund risks the likelihood nations will deliver and build upon climate commitments.

"God, we seek your intervention at this sacred place where Moses received the Ten Commandments," Fr. Vitalis Anaehobi said, leading Catholics in prayer at Mount Sinai Nov. 14, during U.N. climate change negotiations.

Religious leaders at the U.N. COP27 summit say the challenge of climate change requires a consensus-based approach rooted in solidarity, urging world leaders to take action to save the planet from climate hazards.

As COP27, the annual U.N. climate conference, gets underway in Egypt, Catholic groups worry that world leaders might fail to implement previous agreements meant to tackle climate change and support adaptation in Africa.

As the town of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt prepares to host the latest U.N. climate change summit, organizations have already created a wish list of what they expect the convening will achieve.

Sr. Teena Menomparampil has rescued hundreds of young village girls from the cultural realities of early marriage, female genital mutilation, child trafficking and child labor that plague so many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. After offering them care and education, she finds many of the girls gravitate toward sisterhood. 

The Catholic Church in Kenya has refuted claims that it has been condoning corruption and allowing corrupt politicians to donate what they have stolen from public coffers to the church.

Thousands of Catholics in one of the world's poorest nations are objecting after the church asked the government to collect a 10 percent tithe from worshippers on its behalf.

Many Catholics in Uganda have rejected government-mandated sex education in Catholic schools, unless administrators change the curriculum to reflect traditional values.

During a recent Sunday service, Pastor Jok Chol led the congregation at his Pentecostal church to pray for a sustainable peace after President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed the latest peace agreement in neighboring Sudan.