Downs & West Community Support is a ministry of the Sisters of Charity Community Care Australia. It began through the vision and initiative of Charity Sr. Christine Henry. As a woman from the countryside of Queensland, she recognized the need to support farmers struggling to survive the extremes of climate change, which were taking a toll on their livelihoods and families.

Known as the "cycle sister," Sr. Sebastina Tigga uses a bicycle to visit over 100 forest villages in Jhabua, India. In the remote villages, she identifies malnourished children and offers them lifesaving medicine and nutritional food. 

"The life of Jesus is all about liberating people from poverty. Discipleship is all about walking in those footsteps." 

Shall I start with the beautiful city of Cartagena, Colombia? Or shall I begin with the extraordinary surprise of meeting the pope? Shall I talk about the girls who suffer so many risks in a world of social inequality? Actually, each of these elements, as they converged during a papal visit in September, caused me to look anew at my own life. For 34 years, I have been a Sister of the Good Shepherd. I am a Colombian whose life has held an ordinary history of joys, lights and shadows.

GSR Today - The U.N. began marking Oct. 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty in 1992. It is not lost on anyone what the price of poverty exacts on people's lives. According to the U.N., close to 800 million live in extreme poverty, and isolation and loneliness are part of that experience.

Ankur is a home for girls in need, situated on Mira Road in a suburb of Mumbai, India's commercial capital and managed by members of the Spanish Sisters of Charity of St. Anne. Gita Patel and Kalpana Dhile are among hundreds of young women the home has educated to lead a better life over the past 20 years. "We were here for 12 years," said Patel, who left home a few years ago after completing 10th grade. Patel thanks Sr. Primitiva Vela, the home's founder, for "picking me up from the slums and giving me a new life."

"My approach is to be grounded in a spiritual foundation. That's what sisters do best."

See for Yourself - "She's one incredible lady. Why, we all refer to her as the 'Mother Teresa of Real Estate,' on account of the clients and properties she shepherds."

Horizons - On a recent trip for a friend's first vow ceremony, we sat around the night before in a mixed group of sisters and friends talking about the vows. I teased now-vowed Presentation Sr. Mary Therese "MT" Krueger with the question, "What's your favorite vow?" and it soon became obvious that some around the table were unclear what these mysterious vows were all about.