coming up, a christian couple in africa trying to bring healing and hope to what the united nations has called the worst place on earth to be a woman. better conditions for immigrant farm workers in florida thanks to part to religious organizations.

welcome. i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. at the national prayer breakfast in washington, president obama said his faith plays a large role in public policy. he quoted scripture to plain why he wants to eliminate some tax breaks for the wealthy. >> i think that's going to make economic sense, but for me as a christian it coincides with jesus's teachers for to whom much is given, much shall be

required. >> the president pointed out that islam and judism have same teachers. they held what they called the people's prayer breakfast. tha they said their vent was open to everyone, not just the rich and powerful and pray for an end toconoc inequality. religious opposition continued to the obama's administration recent decision to require all health insurance policies to cover contraception. houses of worship are exempt from the requirement but several faith-based groups said religiously affiliated organizations like sharts and hospitals should be exempt as well. many wrote letters that were ad at cathic churches arod the country. the bishop of pittsburgh said the obama administration has

told catholics, quote, to hell with you. the contraception controversy became an issue in the ongoing gop presidential primary. at recent campaign stops, newt gingrich accused president obama of waging, quote, war on religion. especially against the catholic church. as for the catholic vote in last week's florida primary mitt romey got 56% while gingrich got 30% of his fellow catholics. evangelicals in that race divide their vote almost evenly between gingrich and romney. rick santorum picked up 19% of their vote and ron paul 4%. meanwhile, jewish groups are spearheading efforts to have obama administration to head off an disaster in sudan border

region. american jewish world service said the government must allow food aid for hundreds of,0 thousands of people facing starvation. some 400,000 people have been displaced in ongoing border conflict. we have a special report on a christian couple in congo trying to offset some of the inhumanity especially against woman caused by ilit fighting for the past 20 years over their country's vast mineral wealth. it's estimated the violence has killed 45 million people. fred de sam lazaro reports. >> reporter: there are few images of war's destruction in the eastern congolese city of goma. little was built in the

a series of peace agreements and two democratic elections have brought some stability here although very little development that still virtually no paved road in this whole country. the united nations says the democratic republic of congo is the worst place to be a woman. one place where you get an idea of what that mean s a refuge called heal africa. women work to shake you have unspeakable atrocities they have faced. the trauma have left most with injuries that render them incontinent. this woman wears a mask to conceal her maiming at a hand of militia men. >> my older daughter escaped from them. they told me to go get her and i

said she escaped from you, how can i catch her. they hit me in the head with a matchete after i fell down they cut off my lips. >> reporter: a volunteer help worker brought who are to heal africa. it's the only specialty care hospital in all of eastern congo. it was started 12 years ago by lyn lusi, devote christians who served years before that as medical missionaries. >> my husband was a surgeon. he finished in belgium in '84, and to this day he's still the only one. the only surgeon in the east of th couny. >> reporter: dr. jo lusi has performed,000s of surgical operations fixing everything from club feet and cleft palates to fistuulas, the vaginal,

sometimes rectal tearing that comes from rape and trauma or obstructed labor. heal kafr has trained nearly 30 young congolese doctors, paying for their education elsewhere in africa. it's bare bones emergency and intensive care are the only such services in a region of eight million people, supported by various private and international government grants. >> when you serve human, i don't see you like a human. i see you like an image of god, so to do that you have to be holistic. you have to be total. you have to know what about the spirit, about the flesh, about the soul. here people are lacking everything pch they don't food absolute poverty.

they are exploited. they are perishing because of the lack of knowledge. they are perishing because of the lack of justice. how do you do a holistic system. >> it stands for health, education, action in the community and leerdship components. all of those are components of a healthy society >> reporter: for many patients who come initially foredical care, healing is a years long process of rebuilding a life. this selter serves women whose fistulas have not healed. >> it's very different here from back in the village. people were laughing at me. she is smelly, she was raped. >> reporter: they are taught to sew and raise small animals thapds are allowed to grieve. >> i want to have a little shop.

people will bring me things to sew. i will make baskets. >> reporter: for now for practical purposes, such dreams are fantastic si thanks to lingering health problems and also militiamen who continue to raid villages. she reacted to a suggestion she might report them to the police. >> i'm terrified. they could kill me. only god can punish them for what they did. >> reporter: but heal africa has begun working to bring a more immediate justice to victims of rain. in partnership local workers work to apprehend suspects and put them through the legal system here. it's flawed and corrupt but lyn lusi says only when congolese

begin to buy into it will it begin to work for them. >> i will always encourage our legal aid to work ten times more on the issue of bringing the community in lines with the law so that they appreciate what the law is trying to do and they agree with it and there's a social pressure, there's a desire within the community for zero tolerance of sexual violence. >> reporter: that's what brought this 15-year-old girl and her father to the legal clinic to bring charges against a young man who raped her while she went to collect water for the family. >> i want him not only to be put in prison but pay for the damages he caused. last year i turned 75 yars old. when we were growing up we never saw this kind of behavior. when you liked a girl, we would get married. i'm really astonished. i'm not sure what's going on, how they can take little girls and assault them. >> reporter: lyn lusi thinks

it's a consequence of fighting for two decades destroying any sense of community. >> you have seen your village destroyed, your people killed, you're a young man with no future. you have every reason to fight. you have every reason to go off and join the military. there's also the militia that will kidnap children and take them into air army to reenforce their ranks. they have no fear and no conscious. >> reporter: where does one begin to repair this? the lusi's say they worked to tap the enduring fai of most congolese. >> here is mandate to care that's in the christian community and it's present in every single locality in congo.

you can say that probably 95% of congolese will go to place of worship once a month, at least. this is an amazing power within the community. if we knew how to mobilize people correctly, then you can make a big imact on a social problem. >> reporter: heal africa has gathered religious leaders and others into so called nehemiah committees. they mediate local business disputes or land claims before they escalate. lyn lusi says it's a start. >> i don't think heal africa is going to empty the ocean, but we can take out a bucketful here and a bucketful there. there is so much evil and so much cruelty, so much self-ness,

and it is like darkness. if we can bring in some light, the darkness low pressure not overcome the light, and that's where faith is. we believe that. >> reporter: for her work, lusi was awarded the 2011 opus prize, a $1 million award given by the minnesota-based opu surks function. this is fred samazaro in goma. >> imagine living in a country in which militia kidnap children because they have good soldiers who have no fear and no conscience. there's a debate over whether the nobel peace prize is being awarded to the wrong people. in a prom innocent peace activist says the award has been

going to humarightampaners and environmentalists in violation of the attention of alfred nobel. in 18949 he wrote in his will that the prize should go to quote, the person who shall have o done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations. president obama got the prize in 2009. dr decades religious organizations such as the council of churches and oers have been working with labor organizers to try to improve conditions for farm workers. there's been some success. most recently in the tomato fields of south florida where immigrants harvest nearly all the winter tomatoes this country

grows. our report is from saul gonzalez. >> reporter: florida may be better known for its oranges but it's tomatoes that rule. during the winter months, nearly all of america's domestically grown tomatoes come from this part of florida. >> tomato harvesting is still very much by land work. there's no machine that exists? >> that is correct. >> reporter: steve is harvesting manager for pacific groers. >> it's somewhere around 12 to 1400 boxes and we pack 25-pound boxes. >> it's industrial scale.

>> correct. >> reporter: flst flst tomato workers exploited workers. that's turned tomato fields into the front lines of a national campaign to improve the lives of farm workers. >> people whoork in agriculture are among the least paid, least protected workers in the whole country. >> reporter: jordan buckley and his colleagues are with the coalition of immokalee workers. >> for people of faith, for us this is a northerly issue, you know how the people who pick our food are treated. >> reporter: to understand the flight of farm workers, you have to know something about their place in america's industrial food economy. >> some ofhe poorest workers in our country and yet not for a lack of hard work. it's not some kert of industriness. the increasing consolidation of

purchasing among retailers. you have fast food and food service and supermarkets squeezing their suppliers and demanding cheaper cost for tomatoes, that's resulted in growers squeezing their farm workers. they why farm workers haven't seen real wage increase in upwards of three decades. >> reporter: they are usually paid by how muchhey pick getting 45 to 50 cents for every 32-pound bucket they fill. that means to make a day's minimum wage they have to pick two and a half tons of tomatoes a day. what does that mean for the daily lives of farm workers and their families. 28-year-old darinal sales struggles to support his wife and two other girls. because father other farmers

live in the same trail ter, his whole family shares one small room. >> it's because of the situation at work that we live like this. our pay just doesn't last and how us to live in a better way. >> reporter: immokalee is a town full of young men from mexico, central america and haiti mp many undocument who had have come here to scratch out a better life for themselves by harsting orida's tomato crops. some of them end up victims of the industry's worst abuses, including incidents of modern day slavery. >> there's been nine federally prosecuted slavery operations in the last 14 years. >> slavery? >> yeah. right here on third and boston. we go down four blocks workers were locked in the back of cargo truck literally shackled. we saw bruises on their wrist where they had been restrained

by their employers. >> reporter: despite the dangers and low pay, farm hands are eager to work. to see how eager, you have to get up very early. every morning in the pre-dawn hours this parking lot becomes a giant open air labor market. hundreds of farm workers come here looking to make contact with labor bosses. if they are lucky they will be picked for another hard day of work. >> reporter: the men and women select redirect examination the ones boa boarding buses. he worked in the tomato field for nearly 30 fields. >> americans really like their vegetables and frults. who is going to pick it. the people born in this country have better kinds work, and they're not going go to the fields. >> reporter: things are slowly starting to get better for florida's tomato field workers. -year after more than a decade

of patient organizing work, the coalition of immokalee workers reached a mands mark agreement with growers and corporate tomato buyers like mechanic donald's and burger king. the agreement gives them a penny more for every pound of tomatoes they pick. that doesn't sound like much but that one cent increase translates into an additional 32 cents for every bucket picked by workers. that in turn will boost each pardon me hand's pay by about $5,000 a year. >> we're entering this threshold of entering into this new industry in having rights protected and their being the consensus among buyers that we demand humane labor conditions.

>> historically, it has not been the poster child for good behavior and good treatment of its workers. >> you admit to that? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: sarah goldberger is a spokesperson for pific tomato growers. she says the agreement between the workers and the tomato industry has replaced deposition with cooperation. >> it has been sop nonadversarial. >> that's a big change? >> yes. >> reporter: other changes in the fields like this one owned by pacific tomato include greater access to drinking water and more rest periods and regular bathroom breaks. now that the coalition of immokalee workers have an agreement, they are spreading the word about it. the small community radio station tells workers listening about their rights, pay and future organizing plans.

worker advocate and former field hand lucas benitez met us at the early morning labor gathering to talk about the changes. >> that'shat we want, work with dignity. where every worker, every person who goes to the fields feels pride in being part of the agriculture industry that's putting food on millions of tables every day and that the worker is getting patd enough to put food on the table of his own home. >> reporter: the coalition of immokalee workers and its allies in religious faith groups say they have much to do. that includes a new national campaign focused on supermarket

chains which have decline tods participate in the penny-per-pound pay agreement. >> the leaders of the fast food industry are on board. all that remains are the supermarkets. >> an opportunity to keep what we have. >> reporter: to keep pressure on the stores, farm workers regularly reach out to religious leaders and congregations. this morning jordan and workers from immokalee are addressing a church in naples, florida. these speaking engagements are part of a sustained campaign p to get people of faith thinking about fairness and jfrs when they sit down to eat. brigitte gynther of interfaith action has opinion working in immokalee for eight years on behalf of workers. >> where does that food travel? who picked it? that's something we don't think

about. we are called to think about the connection between us and those who toil in the fields day in and day out to put food on our plates. >> reporter: for the men and women who pick florida's tomato, their most important harvest has been some measure of justice and respect. i'm saul gonzalez in immokalee, florida. in other news, the former archbishop of philadelphia died this week. he was 88 and suffered fro dementia and cancer. he led from 1988 to 2003. his death comes amid a high profile sex abuse case there involving two priests and a church official who served under him. on our calendar this weekend, muslims celebrate the

birthday of the prophet muhammad. tuesday is the new year for trees. it's become a special day for efortso protect the environment. that's our program for now. i'm bob abernethy. you can follow us on twitter and facebook, find us on youtube. watch us any time, any where on smart phones. there's also much more on our website. you can comment on our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, 11-year-old jackie ivanko performst the national prayer breakfast in washington.