Background: Schuyler Thorup has been directly involved in international humanitarian relief and development for nearly two decades. Through Catholic Relief Services, the official international humanitarian agency of the United States Catholic community, Schuyler has served in a variety of capacities in Angola, Zimbabwe, Peru, Armenia, Malawi, and the United States. As the Guatemala-based regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Schuyler is currently responsible for overseeing CRS' programs and partnerships in 14 countries throughout the region. Through partnerships with the local Catholic Church and other actors, CRS responds to the immediate needs of the poor and marginalized and seeks to nurture peaceful and just societies. Schuyler is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds master's degrees from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He was interviewed in January 2009 as part of the Berkley Center's series on Practitioners, Faith-Based Organizations, and Global Development Work.
Let's start with your path. How did you come to work with CRS in Guatemala?
I joined CRS in 1990, soon after finishing my graduate studies in Latin American Studies and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. During the course of my field research on a women's managed, agricultural cooperative in the Northeast of Brazil, I became quite intrigued at the potential of community-led development initiatives to deliver sustainable change and I began to seek employment opportunities with international development organizations.
It was in this context that I first encountered Catholic Relief Services. CRS had been invited by the Government of Angola and the local Catholic Church to establish emergency humanitarian operations in the midst of a nearly three decade's long civil war. While I had limited field experience, CRS was interested in my Portuguese language skills and offered me a very concrete opportunity to contribute. Basically, I jumped at it.
Over the next two years, I participated in the nuts and bolts of the emergency response, targeting about 150,000 war-affected civilians: distributing food, changing tires, running logistics. In short it was a very powerful, humbling experience for me personally, working with extremely capable and dedicated people with a tremendous opportunity to learn and make concrete differences each and every day.
It was in these war-ravaged communities that the power and importance of faith in the quest for survival first struck me. Constant feelings of tension, loss, hunger, and helplessness in these communities were greatly ameliorated by the solidarity of faith which I felt provided these people with a certain determination, a perseverance, to endure and make it to the next day.
Since Angola, I have spent the great majority of my career oversees, working in Zimbabwe, Peru, Armenia, Malawi and now, since 2006 in Guatemala. For several years I also had the opportunity to work in the Southwest U.S., seeking funds from individual donors to support CRS' work overseas---an altogether different, yet also extremely satisfying experience for me personally.
How is CRS organized in Latin America?
We have offices in 13 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and support limited outreach programs to an additional three or four countries. We typically work in close partnership with the local humanitarian and social pastoral structures of the Catholic Church, providing them with financing, technical assistance, and direct linkages to our U.S. Catholic constituency. Depending on the capacities of our local partner organizations, particularly in the context of fast onset emergencies, CRS will also, at times, directly respond to the needs of the affected populations.
Our programming stretches from the Caribbean, through Mexico and Central America, down to South America. Our largest programs by far are in Haiti and Central America focusing on our core sectors of emergency response and preparedness, food security, agroenterprise, water and sanitation and HIV/AIDS. Depending on local Church interests, we also support partners on broader civil society issues in areas such as migration and trafficking, slave labor, at-risk youth, workers rights, and extractives.
As a U.S. organization, our Cuba program is particularly notable in terms of both its longevity (since 1993) and the unique opportunity it offers to promote dialogue and understanding between the U.S. and Cuba. It is implemented through Caritas Cuba in collaboration with the local government, responding to humanitarian disasters and medical needs across the island. Importantly, the program also provides a very practical platform for cooperation between the State and the Catholic Church in Cuba as well as a useful solidarity link between Catholics in both countries. As there are not many U.S. organizations that have permission to operate in Cuba, we are extremely protective and respectful of our relationship with the local Caritas and transparent in all of our activities there.
Could you describe CRS' links with church structures, both in terms of fundraising in the U.S. and operationally in Latin America?
CRS is the official oversees development and humanitarian response agency of the American Catholic Bishops. It is the mechanism by which the U.S. Church can demonstrate its commitment with the poor overseas and through which American Catholics can also live their faith in solidarity with these poor. We only work in countries at the invitation of the local Catholic Conference and deliver our assistance through both local Church (principally Caritas) and non-Church partners. On average between 60 to 70 percent of our total program value in Latin America ($70 million in 2008) is programmed through the local Caritas or Church-related structures, with the remainder channeled through secular groups.
The religious profile of Latin America is changing, and Pentecostal churches are growing rapidly in size and number. What effect does this have on the development work of a Catholic organization like CRS?
In that they too are organizations of faith, with the capacity to mobilize and influence people at a large scale, I see that it creates more opportunities than challenges. CRS is not in competition with anyone as our faith-inspired mandate focuses exclusively on responding efficiently to the needs of the poor and excluded so that they may live full and dignified lives. As an organization, we do not engage in evangelization; we do not build churches; we do not distribute bibles; we do not hire only Catholics or even only Christians. We are inspired by the Gospel to do the work that we do; however, we see it critical that we maintain a firewall between the provision of assistance and solidarity and the propagation of the Catholic faith. Indeed our mission statement clearly delineates that our programs are based on “need, not creed, race or nationality.” This is an important philosophical choice but also a plainly pragmatic one. We can't be seen to be influencing or favoring one faith group over another, because by doing so, would put our activities and staff in danger and almost certainly diminish our ability to work effectively in many countries around the world.
Thus, in as far as creating opportunities for building strategic synergies with non-Catholic, faith-based organizations, very well. Our concern would only manifest itself if there were to exist overt linkages between that organization's development and evangelization activities.
What are some ways in which CRS is different from “secular” development NGOs?
What I have found over the years is that the faith-based element, particularly in Latin America, provides a unifying fabric at the community level to quickly engage and earn trust. At CRS, “faith” provides us with an immediate and natural bond, a common language and a common sense of purpose. This is particularly the case when we seek to establish partnerships with local Catholic organizations because we are motivated by the same set of Catholic teachings on social justice and community development. This natural constituency, built on the deferred local credibility and moral authority of these long-established local Church partners, helps us tremendously in mobilizing and sustaining behavior change both people quickly and efficiently.
In other ways, the differences between CRS and secular NGOs are much less obvious in that we are held to, and indeed hold ourselves to, the highest level of program and management quality standards. It is for this reason that well over half of all CRS revenues come from governmental, multi-lateral and non-faith-based entities that recognize our organization for its ability to efficiently execute and achieve impact in a completely non-partisan manner.
Liberation theology is an important influence in Catholic thought in Latin America. Are its tenets something that guides CRS' work in the region?
As an agency of the USCCB, CRS operates based on Catholic social and moral teachings. These teachings focus on the inherent dignity of the human person, the preferential option for the poor, economic justice and seeking the common good. These tenets, elements of which can also be found in many of the other faith structures of Christianity, in addition to Islam and Judaism, imbue in a very practical manner all of our humanitarian and development interventions. While Liberation Theology advocates political activism as most effective to deal with the structures and root causes of poverty, inequality and injustice, CRS, as a policy, will always defer to the local bishop's conference to determine whether and how such justice issues can best be addressed.
Now this is somewhat of a recent development in the history of CRS, brought on by a more rigorous analysis of the changing nature and causes of poverty and injustice, particularly in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The agency began to seek practical ways to assist local Church structures to build and promote peaceful and just societies in addition to responding to the symptoms of human suffering. There was also a growing sense that we, as Catholics in the most powerful country in the world, represented an equally important dual constituency for the agency to reach out to, not just as donors, but as full participants in constructing solidarity with the poor. That we have special responsibilities as citizens, consumers, voters and investors to impact, either positively or negatively, the lives of the overseas poor. CRS can and does play an important role in building awareness within the U.S. in this regard.
What kind of advocacy does CRS support in Latin America?
In the U.S., CRS carries out advocacy efforts in close coordination with the USCCB and the local bishop's conferences in Latin America focusing on prioritized issues impacting the poor. These might include country specific issues in Cuba, Haiti, or Colombia as well as targeted themes such as migration and trafficking, slave labor, extractives and gang violence. The advocacy issues are carefully selected and vetted locally and at our headquarters, seeking a congruence of clearly delineated, concrete objectives at the local, national and international levels as well as a clear indication of CRS' value-added by actively engaging with U.S. Catholics.
Let me be clear, CRS does not directly carryout advocacy efforts anywhere overseas. That would be inappropriate and could be considered by host governments as unwanted interference in local affairs. What we do do, however, is to offer support to the local Church, through funding and technical assistance, to improve their effectiveness in their own such efforts. For instance, our experience has clearly shown that while the Church in Latin America in general (the hierarchy in particular), has a great capacity to influence public opinion, the effectiveness of this prophetic platform can be amplified if grounded in high-quality programming, data collection and analysis in the field.
What effects will the global economic downturn have on development in Latin America?
Unfortunately it's a vicious circle. For instance in Central America, the economic downturn in the U.S., combined with the increased deportations of undocumented workers back to Central America, is reducing the inflow of remittances which typically constitutes anywhere from 20 to 35 percent of the GNP. This phenomenon reduces the capacity of these local governments to provide basic services and employment opportunities to their people, thus, in turn, resulting in increased pressure to migrate and/or to become involved in drug trafficking or gang-related violence.
What kinds of programs related to migration does CRS have?
We have considerable experience working with local and regional Church structures in the provision of humanitarian and legal assistance to migrants and well as proactively advocating in the U.S. for just and comprehensive immigration policies. Such programming is concentrated predominately in Mexico and Central America, given the sheer scale of migrant flows there.
Research also forms an important part of this programming. For instance, we recently undertook a major survey of over 600 unaccompanied minor deportees in an effort to have a better sense of the particular challenges and risks that minors face. While the data is still being analyzed, it has become clear that certain countries in the region do a much better job in caring for and assisting the reinsertion of deported minors. We hope that this research will help us and our local partners to better develop alternative policy proposals for which to advocate in our respective countries.
Another example is in Brazil where our Church and non-Church partners have amassed a good understanding of trafficking and in particular of the continuing illegal usage of slave labor in vast agricultural farms in the Amazon. The national Catholic Church is quite vocal in decrying this abhorrent practice and is making considerable progress in advocating for aggressive governmental legislation in this regard.
Does CRS do any work with indigenous communities?
As typically the poorest and most marginalized of populations in this, the most unequal region of the world, the Church is of course called to respond. Much of our programming targeting native and indigenous communities is concentrated in Colombia and Ecuador where large numbers of native and Afro-Colombians have been displaced by the continuing violence there.
Also in Peru, we assist the local Church in a program which supports local indigenous populations in the Amazon region as they seek to maintain their legal property rights in confrontation with a national government intent on extracting mineral and oil resources from these same lands.
Does CRS have any interfaith partnerships?
Around the world, we certainly do, across many faiths including Christian, Muslim and Hindu, both in on the ground programming as well as in enhancing the effectiveness of our advocacy efforts. For instance in Huancayo, Peru we work in collaboration with many faith and non-faith groups in an effort to bring local and international awareness and pressure to the hazardous health conditions in the highland community of La Oroya. Nearly a century of heavy metal mining and processing by the U.S.-owned, Doe Run mine there, has over 99 percent of the children with toxic levels of lead poisoning in their blood. Indeed, La Oroya is considered to be one of the 10 most polluted cities on earth. As a coalition, these organizations are able to scientifically monitor the situation through air and water samples, as well as carryout joint advocacy efforts in both Peru and the U.S.
Is CRS active on children and youth issues?
In Central America, CRS has been involved in youth programming on a limited basis during the past five years, focusing on trafficking, youth leadership and life skills development. Within the violent context of gangs and drug-related violence, it's a challenging and at times risky field to work in. CRS is about to begin a pilot initiative in partnership with Youth Build International and several local Church and non-Church partners in four countries in Central America to test a preventative methodology for reaching out to gang-involved youth, providing them with hopefully effective and positive livelihood alternatives.
What are some of the issues that you would like to discuss in Antigua?
I would like to hear from some of the other participants as to their impressions of the value-added of faith-based organizations working in the development field and particularly to explore the unique opportunities offered by faith structures to influence society and change behavior quickly and effectively.
I do feel that the secular media in many of our countries, including the U.S., often does faith-based organizations a disservice by failing to recognize and adequately highlight their positive contributions around world in emergency response and in carrying out high-quality, high-impact development programming. This lack of recognition I feel reduces the credibility of the advocacy platform and thus its overall effectiveness. Thus I would like to explore how faith institutions can, collectively and individually, do a better job in sharing their advocacy messages with broader and perhaps more influential audiences.
