ST. PAUL, Minn., March 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sisters Rising Worldwide (SRW) has launched the public PeaceRoom, a groundbreaking platform connecting donors directly with community-level projects led by Catholic Sisters worldwide. The launch comes as funding cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other international aid organizations create widening gaps in global humanitarian support — gaps that Sisters Rising Worldwide’s network of 650,000 religious sisters are uniquely positioned to fill through grassroots efforts addressing poverty, healthcare, human trafficking, education, and disaster relief.
Visitors to the PeaceRoom gain unprecedented direct access to vetted, sister-led grassroots humanitarian efforts anywhere in the world. They can select projects by country or issue and donate directly to those that resonate with them. Visitors can also directly see the impact of their support on Sister-led solutions.
Originally introduced in 2021 as a private, secure collaboration hub for sisters to facilitate seamless communication, share best-practices, and respond quickly to emerging solutions, the public PeaceRoom now provides a glimpse into the sisters’ critical work. The Catholic Church does not typically fund sisters’ efforts, which is why the PeaceRoom is critical for amplifying and funding the solutions that sisters lead in their communities.
“Since sisters are trusted and live in the communities they serve, they identify problems quickly and work with residents to develop innovative solutions,” says Sister Irene O’Neill, CSJ, EdD, SRW founder and president. “With the public launch of the PeaceRoom, donors can now see how their donations drive immediate relief and transform communities worldwide.”
In 2025, donors’ contributions to SRW provided $1.1 million to empower 62 Sister-led projects across 28 countries and served 237,868 people with job skills, healthcare, education, clean water, and food. Because each project requires a unique community focus and cost-effective solution, sisters develop targeted approaches that address the root causes of problems to empower women, protect the vulnerable, and provide crisis relief. For example, keeping girls safe from traffickers, helping farmers replenish their soil, or operating in a war zone, such as Ukraine.
“Sisters are highly educated and bring their diverse professional backgrounds — as doctors, lawyers, educators, and visionaries — and work together to solve problems inventively and affordably,” says Kelly Mallon Young, SRW chief operations officer. “People may be unaware of the innovative, low-cost methods that sisters implement to tackle complex problems but, with the PeaceRoom, now people can see how their donations have a direct impact.”
Sisters Rising Worldwide’s goal is to help sisters create systemic, long-term changes, such as:
- Sisters at Lifeway Network in New York City teach trafficked survivors how to build job skills and practice interviews. Sisters live alongside the survivors to ensure program success. To date, 155 survivors have participated, 79% have found employment, and none have returned to trafficking.
- In Kenya, sisters observed that school-aged girls miss school to collect untreated lake water, which may contain harmful bacteria. The sisters’ solution was to install a system to capture clean water during the rainy season. Now, with reliable access to water, girls can attend school, farm, and transform their education.
- When extreme acts of violence in Manipur, India, injured and displaced thousands, sisters worked to empower young adults by providing them with skills to secure employment to help support their families, who had lost everything.
The PeaceRoom right now amplifies 96 sister-led projects with $3.2 million in needs that will impact 468,000 people. Currently, there’s a dire need in Kenya to support the region’s only refuge for abandoned and abused children. As the number of vulnerable infants increases, the sisters need funds for essential bedding and life-saving neonatal incubators to reduce infant mortality and strengthen child welfare.
Due to a small group of generous backers who have covered all operational costs through 2026, 100% of all gifts go directly to sister-led projects. The public can support sister-led solutions by donating to a project through the PeaceRoom.
About Sisters Rising Worldwide
Sisters Rising Worldwide (SRW) is a 501(c)(3) global nonprofit powering Sister-led solutions to the world’s most urgent social challenges. Through the PeaceRoom, a first-of-its-kind digital platform, SRW has a goal to connect the potentially 650,000 Catholic Sisters across 190 countries directly to the funding, resources, and global visibility needed to address the root causes of poverty, human trafficking, displacement, hunger, and injustice. Sisters are often the first to respond and the last to leave in impacted communities, and SRW ensures their work is seen, funded, and scaled by accelerating systemic change through trusted local leadership. Learn more at www.srw.org.
Contact:
Sisters Rising Worldwide
Gina Meagher
[email protected]
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6d5d848c-351d-4142-a764-50ab7848004d