CRS Humanitarian Response Team Officer to speak at Salt Lake Deanery luncheon

Friday, Feb. 20, 2015

BOUNTIFUL — The guest speaker for the Salt Lake Deanery Spring Luncheon will be Caroline Brennan, Catholic Relief Services Global Humanitarian Response Team senior communications officer. 

Brennan serves as an emergency foreign correspondent on the frontline of crises. For the past 10 years, she has worked across four continents, documenting people’s pursuits to overcome adversity and lead empowered lives. 

CRS was selected as a topic for the luncheon when Barbara Kerouac, Salt Lake Deanery president, attended the National Council of Catholic Women Convention in Michigan last year, and found out that CRS is a partner with the NCCW; she wants women to learn more about what CRS does and what they can do to contribute other than just monetarily, she said. 

“I want the women to know what CRS does for people throughout the world, and to learn about its mission program,” said Kerouac. “Several women at the NCCW convention talked about how they had gone on mission trips; they said it was an eye-opener and that they were humbled at the work CRS does. It was inspiring.”

Brennan will focus her remarks on women’s perspectives, she said. “In many parts of the world it is only appropriate for women to have conversations with other women, such as in the Middle East,” she said. “I’m exposed to many aspects of people’s lives, and I will share updates from some of these crises.” 

When contacted for this interview, Brennan was in the eastern part of the Ukraine interviewing refugees who were “affected by civil strife, devastation, loss of life, loss of housing, and fleeing,” she said. “These are people who had jobs and lives months ago and never saw this coming. Now they are homeless, living off their savings with friends or in housing with multiple families.”

Over the past three years, Brennan has worked with refugees in Jordan and Lebanon, those struck by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and those in communities in the Central African Republic and northern Iraq. 

Although the situations are difficult, Brennan enjoys her job, she said.

Disasters around the world are often reported from the perspective of “the military, security, or policy, but rarely through the day-to-day woman’s perspective of what these crises mean,” Brennan said. “Often we hear reports told through mostly male correspondents’ perspectives, who have limited access to women.” 

Many times women are widowed or separated from their husbands because they travel ahead with the children as refugees to another country to find a safe place to settle, while their husbands stay home to protect their land, Brennan said. 

“The pressure is great for these refugees, and the children show signs of trauma; the women need to find work and the children need an education,” Brennan said. “Finding a job is a source of frustration, especially for fleeing refugees without documentation. They often flee with only the clothes on their back, crossing borders into other countries; even with documentation, they have limited opportunities of finding work because they aren’t citizens.”

About two-thirds of what CRS does is helping people overcome poverty through agriculture, health, clean water or education; the other one-third is responding to emergencies, said Brennan, who meets with people in whatever environment they are living. 

“In the case of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, I met with them in a tent or an apartment to gather their stories for multiple purposes,” Brennan said. “I write their stories to share them, to raise awareness of their plight or to raise funds for support of some kind.”

What: Salt Lake Deanery Spring Luncheon

When: March 7, social begins at 11 a.m., lunch and program at noon.

Where: Saint Olaf Parish, 1800 S. Orchard Drive, Bountiful 

Cost: $10 prior to the event; $15 at the door. 

For tickets or information email barb0235@msn.com.