Judge graduate responds to gospel call with CRS work

Intermountain Catholic

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Mikaele Sansone, a Judge Memorial Catholic High School graduate who now works for Catholic Relief Services, along with local villagers and some Global Fellows assist farmers wash their carrots and get them ready for the market in Antsirabe, Madagascar, in 2005.

SALT LAKE CITY - When Mikaele Sansone visits Rwanda, she sees not only a country still struggling to cope with a genocide that killed an estimated 1 million people 15 years ago, she also sees stunning examples of faith.

Sansone, a Judge Memorial Catholic High School graduate who now is the Global Fellows Program Advisor for Catholic Relief Services (CRS), has heard first-hand accounts of Rwandans who have forgiven countrymen who murdered their families in the ethnic violence between Tutsis and Hutus that occurred in 1994. "There are so many stories of reconciliation that you hear about, that I constantly am asking myself ‘Could I do that?'" she said. "It has really made me look internally and ask, ‘OK, where is my faith, based on what I've experienced and what I've seen? If my twin sister was killed, could I forgive?' I don't have the answer for that."

As a CRS member, Sansone had traveled to ravished countries several times before going to Rwanda, but those experiences didn't affect her as much. In Rwanda, however, "I let myself experience it, which normally I never did because I was working," she said. For that trip, however, she made the conscious decision to be open emotionally, and "it was so tough. To see the mass graves and bodies that are there and the churches that were desecrated and everything. It hits you like a ton of bricks."

Visiting the Holy Land also was a "whack in the face," she said, because "the troubling thing is, you're in this great holy place and there's so much conflict and so much controversy."

Despite the despair in the countries she has traveled for work, she is inspired by the people she meets. "Their spirituality is something that I would strive for," she said. "It is so fulfilling to go over there and see how these people live. They might not have a lot, but they are so spiritually fulfilled that it's unbelievable."

After graduating from Judge Memorial, Sansone earned a degree in social work from the University of Portland, then went to work for CRS. When the program she was involved with was suspended because of lack of funding, she left the agency, only to return in 2004 when the program was reformed. "The mission of CRS is what has always attracted me to the agency," she said. "We work based on need, and it doesn't matter what creed or nationality or race you are, we will help you based on your need. That to me is our gospel calling. That's what Catholics are called to do."

CRS is a Catholic organization based in the United States that "helps our brothers and sisters overseas," said Anna Huth, relationship manager for CRS' southwest region.

Although the organization's relief work is most widely known - CRS workers respond to natural disasters throughout the world to provide basics such as food, clothing and temporary shelter - they also do development work that helps people re-establish their lives after a disaster, and also implement programs such as agricultural education and micro-finance to assist those in places of intractable poverty, Huth said.

New to CRS is a micro-finance program "for the poorest of the poor" that gives loans amounting to the price of a movie ticket in U.S. theaters, said Dee Orren, the major gift officer for CRS' south central region. "We're talking about a loan of $5 or $10, [which] will make the difference in if somebody can buy enough seed, or enough yarn or enough grass to either grow more fruits or vegetables, or weave something or be able to make baskets or whatever it is that they can make for themselves and also make a living," she said.

A third aspect of CRS' work is peace building, "because without that, the other can disappear overnight," Huth said.

CRS, whose administrative costs are about 7 percent of their budget, is part of a network of social service agencies under Caritas Internationales. "It's through that tremendous network of Caritas that we gain a great deal of both efficiency and effectiveness that CRS is known for," Huth said.

As CRS employees, "we live our faith through the work that we do, and then we help the donors live out their faith, too," Orren said.