The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has decided to send $3.1 million to several projects connected to the Church in Latin America.

According to Catholic World News, the USCCB's Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America has granted the money to 132 different projects based in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Bishop Eusebio L. Elizondo, M.Sp.S, auxiliary bishop of Seattle and chairman of the USCCB Subcommittee, said in a statement that the projects focused on helping the less fortunate. more >>

Correction appended

Child hunger groups have said that alarming statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Agriculture last year concerning hunger and poverty rates among children, especially among African-American families, show that the economy still has a long way to improve.

The U.S. Census Bureau released a report in September 2012 which revealed that 25.1 percent of African-American households and 29.2 percent of households with children are food insecure. more >>

World Vision, an international Christian humanitarian organization, has been working for nearly three decades to bring clean water to the most remote areas of the world, and with the invention of a manual, smaller plastic pump, the relief organization is hoping to expand its clean water outreach even farther.

The pump, according to Randy Strash, World Vision's water, sanitation, and hygiene strategist, consists of a small, plastic PVC pipe and PVC fittings which costs only $25 to assemble, compared to $700 to $800 for standard stainless steel pumps previously used in many parts of the world.

Although the pump's plastic composition seems flimsy, it will actually last five to seven years without any need for maintenance, according to Strash. more >>

One of the greatest challenges facing the world today – one that kills nearly 5,000 children every day – is the lack of access to clean water. But today on U.N.-designated World Water Day, we'll look at one Oklahoma-based group that is providing a fresh solution that is saving lives and giving hope to hundreds of thousands of people in impoverished communities around the world.

Water4, established in 2008 by Richard and Terri Greenly, has for years been equipping, training, and empowering locals in Central America, Africa and parts of Asia to drill water wells on their own and in surrounding communities. The initiative is aimed at eradicating the global water crisis, which kills a child every 21 seconds, largely due to Diarrheal disease, which is more deadly than Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria combined.

Water4's upcoming documentary about the group's work, called "This is Normal," directed by Derek Watson, gives a first-hand account of the families in Africa living with the very real realities of the clean water crisis every day. The film also chronicles Water4 President Richard Greenly's motivation in starting up the group, and how the project has spread around the world. more >>

A Christian economic professor has argued that the problem of poverty is based less on a lack of material goods and more about "broken relationships."

Dr. Brian Fikkert, founder and executive director of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College, told those gathered at a Christian leadership conference held in Raleigh, N.C.: "I would like to submit to you this morning that poverty is fundamentally rooted in broken relationships.

"And once you define poverty as being rooted in broken relationships, it orients everything you do. It changes everything in your approach to working with the poor. " more >>

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, American Enterprise Institute president Arthur C. Brooks recently suggested that the G.O.P. is way off base in their assumptions about the moral arguments that resonate most with the American people. Their focus on the economic advantages of capitalism and "values-voter" issues like abortion and gay marriage miss the mark, Brooks suggests. Instead, Republicans must convince the electorate that they are just as concerned about the plight of the poor and downtrodden as Progressives, and further that Republican policies are more effective at addressing these problems than those implemented by the Liberal nanny state.

Mr. Brooks cites several statistics indicating that the American people by and large reject the notion of compassionate conservatism. Right or wrong, Brooks writes, the perception is that Republicans don't care about the poor, and when it comes to politics, perception is reality. He is absolutely correct. But how can the GOP change this narrative? How can they combat the perception that the only people they care about are Wall Street fat cats and upwardly mobile suburban yuppies?

The answer, Brooks suggests, lies in making "improving the lives of vulnerable people the primary focus of authentically conservative policies." He explains: more >>