As one Carmelite Sister recalls: "Our congregation began the forum as a small initiative to help grieving women, but soon it became a rare collaborative ministry of women congregations to offer compassion and support."
"If they didn't have this event to go to, they would have nothing," St. Joseph of Carondelet Sr. Suzanne Jabro said of fathers in Mexicali separated from their children.
Sr. Idelle Badt noticed that when people who are homeless are discharged from hospitals, "they're going to end up right back in the hospital or sicker than they were because they're still too ill to recover on the street."
While reporting in Indonesia, GSR correspondent Chris Herlinger was struck by the strong partnership between sisters and priests working together to support women and children.
Photo essay - The Dhanjuri Leprosy Center has dedicated caregivers, including religious sisters and local medical professionals, providing comprehensive support since 1927.
Ten years after the environmental disaster that devastated Vietnam's central coast and affected thousands of fishing families, women religious focus on livelihoods, accompaniment and long-term healing.
As Ebola spreads through eastern Congo's war-ravaged communities, religious sisters confront fear and deepening suffering while struggling to protect displaced families living in overcrowded churches and camps.
In Malawi, families have been left without food after recent years of drought and cyclones. Responding with a traveling feeding program, Presentation Sisters have become more deeply aware of communities' struggles.
At a Catholic-run home in western Kenya, sisters take in children with severe disabilities who have living parents, meeting needs that persist even as Kenyan care reforms aim to prioritize family-based support.
