I cannot defend every entity that receives funding from U.S.A.I.D. I cannot even speak on behalf of C.R.S. But I can tell you what I saw when I traveled overseas to report on their work.

In partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development, CRS saves lives, empowers people and creates goodwill for the United States. All for less than one percent of our national budget.

Approximately six million people have died in the conflict in the eastern D.R.C. since 1996. For decades, numerous armed groups have competed for power and control of this vast nation’s potential fortune.

Cuts to foreign assistance directly impacted the work of some of the religious freedom organizations at the summit. USAID’s top NGO recipient for fiscal years 2013-2022 was Catholic Relief Services at $4.6 billion.

Most humanitarian agencies operate just ahead of insolvency in the best of times, Nate Radomski, the executive director of American Jesuits International, says.

Catholic institutions in Zimbabwe and other African states once could rely on support from retired missionaries. Now the decline in missionary numbers has left African religious communities facing a financial crunch.