Our impact
Transforming Lives, Empowering Communities
WHAT WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED
Over the last 40 years, Christian Relief Services Charities affiliates delivered more than $600 million in assistance through programs across 31 states in the U.S. and 63 countries throughout Eastern Europe, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Africa. This work has benefited hundreds of communities and thousands of people helping them to a better and more self-sufficient life. We are also proud to have earned the Better Business Bureau´s Wise Giving Alliance Charity Seal for meeting their rigorous standards for charitable accountability.
HOW WE ACHIEVE OUR CHARITABLE PROGRAM GOALS
Christian Relief Services Charities’ affiliates provide help to those domestically and internationally by utilizing donations (that the affiliates raise, both cash and in-kind materials like medicines and food) in the most efficient and effective way possible. Without these generous donations, our affiliates would not be able to provide their programs with adequate resources, supplies and technical assistance. To acquire these resources, Christian Relief Services Charities works with its affiliates to provide the back-office administrative (everything from helping them keep up with the very necessary state registrations every year in order that they can fundraise, accounting, HR to IT help) support necessary to help them to procure donations and utilize the support of volunteers and partnerships with local non-governmental organizations in order to attain adequate funding to provide for their programs.
HOW WE MEASURE PROGRESS TOWARD OUR CHARITABLE PROGRAM GOALS
Christian Relief Services Charities measures its performance every two years with a report to the board of directors. This biennial report is entitled the Performance and Effectiveness Assessment of CRSC and is in accordance with the Board Policy to have such a report and meets standard 7 of the Standards for Charitable Accountability of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance (www.give.org).
Moreover, CRSC, through our affiliates, is in constant communication with all of our partners to ensure that together we are reaching our goals of self-sustainable programs. Staff members and volunteer board members travel internationally, as well as here in the United States, to the program sites to see firsthand the improvement and development of these programs and to report on their progress or lack thereof, and to make recommendations for future funding and support. The Charity’s affiliates also publish annual reports and daily updates to their websites to provide the public with real-time (and an annual summation) information to show how we’re doing. These can be found at our affiliate websites.
OVERVIEW OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN 2025
HOUSING program
Christian Relief Services Charities owns two housing complexes that provide 10 and 15 units of affordable housing to low and very low-income families located in Phoenix, Arizona, assisting approximately 75 people. In addition, CRSC provided administrative and technical support to provide clients with two years of transitional housing in 35 homes through a Community Funding Pool Grant. We also provided administrative and technical support for coordinated support services through a 1991 Housing and Urban Development McKinney Grant for permanent housing for the homeless and chronically mentally ill adults in three group homes that the organization owns, located in Fairfax County, Virginia which assisted approximately 206 individuals.
Christian Relief Services Charities also provided 1,865 units of affordable, transitional and permanent supportive housing and resident related services in Arizona, Kansas, Texas, and Virginia to very low-, low- and moderate-income persons, chronically mentally ill adults, homeless families, and individuals.
NATIVE AMERICAN PROGRAMS
Christian Relief Services Charities’ affiliate Running Strong for American Indian Youth® (Running Strong) works with Native American youth and their families to bring hope and support for a better life. Running Strong provides food and other basic needs on the Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River Sioux Indian reservations in South Dakota, and Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin as well as dozens of other partner organizations across the country. Native American children face some of the highest poverty rates in the nation; Ziebach County, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation, has the highest child poverty rate in the United States. Oglala Lakota County (formerly Shannon County) on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation leads the nation in food stamps. However, Running Strong is committed to ending the cycle of injustice by listening to these communities and providing them with self-sustaining, meaningful programs and supplies in accordance with their greatest needs. In FY22, Running Strong donated $1,776,307.85 in in-kind materials such as blankets, school supplies, home gardening equipment, winter clothes, and hygiene supplies as well as direct donations of food.
DOMESTIC PROGRAMS
Our affiliate, Americans Helping Americans® provided food and other basic needs to families and individuals throughout Appalachia including Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia Mississippi, Ohio, Arizona, and Florida. Americans Helping Americans® provided grants to their partner organizations located in some of the economically hardest-hit communities in the country totaling more than $909,697 for various programs.
Through their home repair program, Americans Helping Americans® supported projects which repaired 103 homes in Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. In many instances, the homeowners are elderly, living on meager fixed incomes with no resources to fix leaking roofs, rotted floors and porches or to build a handicap ramp, providing them the ability to enter and exit their home on their own and allowing them to continue to live there instead of being forced to move into a nursing home. The projects are completed through the joint effort of their grassroots partners which vet and organize the home repair projects, Americans Helping Americans® provides funding for materials such as shingles and lumber and groups from churches and schools who travel to the communities spending a week volunteering their time and labor to make the repairs.
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS
In 2025, Bread and Water for Africa® worked in eleven Sub-Saharan African countries. The following is the summary of the fiscal year 2025 main activities:
Orphan Care
Caring for Africa’s most vulnerable—our orphaned and abandoned children—is a heartfelt mission we cherish. In Zambia, the Kabwata Orphanage in Lusaka is a lighthouse of hope for 136 children, offering them nourishing meals, safe shelter, educational support, and the chance to dream of a brighter future. Their outreach program extends a helping hand to even more children in need. In neighboring Zimbabwe, the Lerato Children’s Home in Mutare, run by Shinga Development Trust, lovingly supports 25 children. Meanwhile, in Tanzania, the Watoto Wneeds, ca Orphanage, welcomes 287 children into a nurturing environment where their fundamental needs—food, shelter, education, healthcare, and counseling—are met with compassion and love.
Food Self-Sufficiency
In 2025, BWA supported various food security and self-sufficiency projects in Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, benefiting over 27,000 individuals both directly and indirectly.
In Sierra Leone, BWA implemented a training program for 75 rural women and youth, teaching them how to grow vegetables and crops. Participants were provided with essential farming tools and assistance in establishing small enterprises, such as food vending, tailored to meet local demand.
In Malawi, 350 individuals were trained in Farming God’s Way techniques and received vital farming tools.
In Tanzania, BWA has been developing a food self-sufficiency strategy for the Watoto WA Africa (WWA) Orphanage, a process that began in FY23. This year’s initiatives include a rainwater harvesting system, which involves constructing a rainwater reservoir at the WWA Orphanage. This reservoir is crucial for improving food self-sustainability for the children residing at the orphanage.
Additionally, BWA invested in a solar water pumping system to support the drip irrigation project at the Lerato Children’s Home in Zimbabwe. This development enhances agricultural productivity and optimizes resource management practices within the operation.
Education
At Bread and Water for Africa®, we believe that the continent’s future depends on a well-educated population. In 2025, we provided primary and secondary education support to 426 students in Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Chad, Tanzania, and Zambia.
In Ethiopia, the provision of combined desks benefited 729 students in the Eastern Hararge Region. Furthermore, more than 30,000 students received 35,047 book donations in the same country.
In Sierra Leone, 958 students in Freetown and Bo benefited from the provision of combined desks, and an additional 240 students received support for school materials.
In Kenya, we sponsored 53 high school students from the Kibera slum through our school fee support program. In Kericho, 120 students benefited from new classrooms funded by our organization.
Healthcare
In FY25, BWA proudly enhanced its healthcare program support across Africa! We provided vital cash grants and in-kind resources, such as medications, medical supplies, mobility aids, prenatal vitamins, and PPE, to healthcare initiatives. This program impacted over 114,000 individuals across 70 facilities—including hospitals, health centers, and clinics—in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Malawi, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sierra Leone. Bread and Water for Africa® makes a meaningful difference by empowering communities and improving health outcomes.
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH)
In 2025, 84 WASH projects were completed, transforming the lives of over 70,300 individuals! This inspiring work included repairing 19 wells in Ethiopia, 14 in Sierra Leone, and installing 1 well in Kenya. Uganda benefited from 15 spring-water protection projects, while Malawi saw 16 water-well and school-latrine initiatives. In Zambia, 11 more water wells were established, along with 7 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 1 in Cameroon. Together, these initiatives have made a profound, positive impact on countless people in rural communities, bringing hope and health to their daily lives!
School Meals
Bread and Water for Africa® does not focus on providing temporary relief programs except when unexpected disasters and crises occur or when chronic hardship directly affects children’s living conditions, such as in the Kibera slum in Kenya. In FY25, BWA continued sponsoring a school meal program in Kenya. A total of 224 children from the SEED School are served 2 meals each school day in the Kibera slum of Nairobi.