The Howard G. Buffett Foundation currently supports 3 Catholic Relief Services projects in Mexico: Jornaleros SAFE, Mas Manos Unidas, and Agriculture for Basic Needs (A4N).

Jornaleros SAFE is designed to prevent and reduce the abuse of migrating H-2A guest workers and their families in Mexico so that they will fully benefit from the fruits of their labor.

Mas Manos Unidas aims to help Mexican guest workers, agriculture employers and governments benefit from improved implementation of the H-2A visa program.

Agriculture for Basic Needs (A4N) aims to help 1,200 households to improve their capacity to lead their own development.

Agriculture for Basic Needs (A4N) project focuses on improving food security and increasing income through the use of environmentally sound, economically feasible and culturally acceptable methods of improved crop production, sales of harvests at fair prices, and better nutrition. These changes are expected to improve families' living standards and consequently result in less migration by members of targeted communities. The A4N strategy focuses on innovation and sustainability. Results and lessons learned are documented in order to encourage a similar approach by key partners.

Jornaleros SAFE is designed to prevent and reduce the abuse of migrating H-2A guest workers and their families in Mexico so that they will fully benefit from the fruits of their labor. Major achievements include:

• A reliable and secure database on incidents of guest worker fraud and abuse in seven Mexico states;
• A campaign to educate more than 20,000 migrants of their rights and common forms of fraud and abuse;
• Identifying abusive contractors, pressuring employers in the United States to take action to prevent these abuses, and referring specific cases of abuse for legal action under Mexican and U.S. law and regulations;
• Producing model policies and work for policy changes that protect guest workers and improve the current recruitment system.

The Mas Manos Unidas project is implemented by Centro Independiente de Trabajadores Agrícolas (CITA), a bi-national, not-for-profit grassroots farm worker organization with a vision to help restore America's agricultural workforce. The project aims to match Mexican guest workers with agricultural employers in the United States so that both parties can benefit from improved implementation of the H-2A visa program. CITA is planning to scale up its services and H-2A visa placements to at least 7,000 Mexican guest workers and 100 U.S. employers by 2015.

The Mexico Peace program helps citizens confront the violence through generating a new culture of participation and peace. CRS Mexico is supporting three of the Mexican Church's peace building efforts: the Peace Building and Conflict Resolution certificate program being taught at Loyola University of the Pacific; helping the Diocese of Acapulco train and equip its humanitarian crisis response in seven parishes; and supporting the operation and activities of the Pro-peace Council.