With nearly 60 years of experience in India, CRS “works for equity among the disadvantaged in India's society with the overall goal of ensuring food security for the most vulnerable members of society.”  Its “network of 63 non-governmental organizations and 2,490 NGO operational partners [reach] out to the most remote areas of the country.” In the area of microfinance, CRS India promotes a self-help group savings-led methodology and is currently reaching more than 200,000 women.

Freedom from Hunger and CRS India have worked together since 2002 on the design, testing and distribution of Learning Conversations, a dialogue-based education tool to promote behavior change in areas such as financial savings, malaria and HIV/AIDS.  This collaboration built on the expertise and resources of both organizations—Freedom from Hunger brought expertise in adult learning, dialogue-based curriculum design and facilitation, while CRS harnessed the skill, experience and outreach of its staff in India to test and hone Learning Conversations in the field.  It will also allow both organizations to reach massive numbers of the poor—through CRS’ network of self-help promoting institutions (SHPIs) and through Freedom from Hunger’s Reach India network of service centers that will support thousands more SHPIs over the next several years.