According to the annual report of the Giving USA Foundation, about half of last year’s growth in charitable giving was a response to the year’s most widely reported natural

Browse the 2006 International Charities

disasters, two of them in countries a great distance from home. The late-December tsunami in Indonesia and the Pakistan earthquake that followed on its heels drew enormous support from the world community in 2006, helping to draw attention to the crises our global neighbors face. But the under-reported stories also demand our attention: civil war, civilian displacement, violence against women, and alarming medical conditions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; ongoing violence (including sexual violence), displacement and its consequences in Sudan and now Chad (just beginning to win our notice); the cholera epidemic in Uganda; the outbreak of Marburgh fever in Angola; and the soaring numbers of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The Catalogue has something to add to the list of under-reported stories: child poverty and illiteracy in Egypt; conservation and environmental problems in the Congo; a breast cancer crisis in Armenia; and the digital divide in South America and Africa. The small organizations profiled in this year’s Catalogue – headquartered here but working diligently, imaginatively, and cost-effectively around the globe – deserve your attention and compassionate engagement. You can bring light to a village, or a library to children who might otherwise never hold a book. Or both.