[…] Ten Nicaraguan women established their forestry cooperative so they could earn enough to improve their families' lives. At first, their Co-Fochinorte tree nursery struggled, and the women had to take on other jobs. But then, in 2007, the nursery received a contract to supply trees under a commercial forestry project funded through the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation's five-year aid agreement with Nicaragua. The agreement aims to develop Nicaragua's rural economy.

[…] James Kunder, acting deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), told the subcommittee that the overriding principle that guides USAID in its far-reaching work is that human suffering should be addressed wherever it is found.
In the past five years alone, Kunder said, USAID has responded to 355 declared disasters in all regions of the world.
Many of these disasters largely go unnoticed by the rest of the world, he said.

[…] The African leaders are meeting with the G8 to review pledges made at the 2005 summit in Scotland. There they pledged to double aid to Africa by 2010, President Bush said July 2 while explaining his hopes for the U.S. agenda at the annual economic summit. "America is on track to meet our commitments," Bush said while taking reporters' questions at the White House. "And in Japan, I'll urge other leaders to fulfill their commitments as well."

[…] Those most affected by the current global food crisis are the poor, particularly in developing countries, international agencies and independent experts agree, and a large number of people for whom steep food prices spell disaster live in South Asia.
Rice, an important staple, is in short supply. The United Nations reported in June that Nepal, which imports much of its rice, has 2.5 million people in immediate need of assistance and 3.9 million more whose welfare may be compromised by rising prices.

[…] With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), TfH provides pharmacists, doctors and other health workers with training to ensure they have both the knowledge and the supplies to offer quality family planning and reproductive health services. Training includes topics such as human physiology, the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods of contraception, and family planning counseling.

[…] The world is in the midst of an unprecedented food crisis, a situation that underscores the need for a transformation of African agriculture, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) official told agribusiness conference attendees. To create real growth in African agriculture and feed the hungry, he said, investments must be made along the entire value chain of key food staples. USAID’s Franklin C. Moore, speaking June 26 at the 2008 U.S.-Africa Agribusiness Forum in Chicago, said that the current situation calls for more than “business as usual.”

[…] Most of Iraq’s internally displaced persons (IDPs) live in homes rather than refugee camps, says Denise Herbol, the deputy mission director in Iraq for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). “There are approximately 2.7 million displaced persons in Iraq,” Herbol told reporters during a June 27 press conference at the U.S. Department of State. “An estimated 80 percent of Iraqi IDPs live in rented housing or with host families while the remaining 20 percent have found shelter in public buildings or other informal settlements.”

[…] The USS Boxer returned home to San Diego on June 27 after a two-month humanitarian journey, visiting Guatemala, El Salvador and Peru to provide medical care and construction help to thousands of people in need. Volunteer medics, backed up by the ship’s military personnel, treated 24,000 patients in the three countries, dispensed nearly 40,000 prescriptions and taught 123 classes in preventive medicine and industrial hygiene. More than 2,800 livestock were treated by veterinarians traveling with the ship.

[…] The ship is sailing as part of “Pacific Partnership 2008.” It is bringing together medical, dental and engineering teams and nongovernmental organizations from multiple nations to coordinate humanitarian and civic action programs in the Philippines -- the ship’s first stop -- as well as Vietnam, the island nations of Micronesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea. Admiral Timothy Keating, who leads the U.S. Pacific Command, said the Mercy brings medical and dental care to those “who couldn’t otherwise avail themselves of this sort of treatment.”

[…] In June 25 testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Brian Atwood and Peter McPherson offered proposals to renew America’s commitment to effective foreign assistance. Both said a redefining and strengthening of U.S. developmental organizations is a crucial step toward preventing future conflicts. A resource-deprived environment will create conditions ripe for conflict.

[…] Today, President Bush will address the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) "Innovations in Effective Compassion" National Conference. President Bush used his first executive order as President to establish the Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives at the White House, and his next one created Faith-Based and Community offices within major Federal agencies.

[…] Ambassador Cameron Hume of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and Said Jenie, chairman of Badan Pengkajian dan Penerapan Teknologi (BPPT) -- the Indonesian agency for the assessment and application of technology -- offered remarks June 10 at a ceremony held to launch the tsunameter into waters off the coasts of some of Indonesia’s nearly 18,000 islands. “This deployment is a joint research and development program conducted by Indonesian and U.S. scientists and engineers,” Hume said.

[…] There are nearly 21 million refugees around the world, according to 2007 UNHCR estimates. That number includes people driven from their countries entirely and those living within their national borders but displaced from their homes and communities. Most are in Asia, with nearly 8 million people displaced; Africa ranks second with roughly 5 million. In 2008, the United States, the world’s largest single-nation donor to efforts to help refugees, marked the day with special events in both Washington and Chicago.

[…] The UN World Food Program manages the UN Joint Logistics Common Pipeline through which relief supplies, provided by the international community, are distributed to the Burmese people. In support of their logistics operation, the UN World Food Program has established five logistical hubs in the cyclone-affected area from which they distribute relief commodities and food assistance by barge, small boat, trucks and helicopters.

[…] Western Hemisphere officials warn that social and economic gains made in the Americas over the last decade could be reversed because a looming food crisis is causing unrest in the region. Analysts cite a lack of access to food, shortfalls in food production, or the rising costs of food as sparking street demonstrations in such countries as Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru and Haiti.