Caritas Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Caritas Australia is the Catholic agency for international aid and development. The charity funds development projects and emergency relief operations in communities all over the world.
The organisation aims to support development projects that help people to help themselves, regardless of their race, political beliefs, gender or religion. It support the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals which aim to reduce the rate of worldwide poverty by half by the year 2015. The work of Caritas Australia addresses a number of underlying issues of injustice and poverty including sustainable development, HIV/AIDS, gender and development, child rights, human rights, disability, peace and reconciliation.
The Caritas Australia mandate is to work towards the creation of a world that God desires to be just and compassionate. Based on the principals of Catholic Social Teaching, which stipulate that God created humanity to be in right relationship, the work of Caritas Australia seeks to foster right relationships by bringing freedom to the world's poorest communities. Their programs are based on the principals of community development, supporting people to help themselves out of poverty, hunger and injustice
The organisation keeps its administration and fundraising costs at or below 10% of its income. Also, 92% of all money raised by Caritas Australia during an emergency appeal is sent to the designated country.
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[edit] History
Caritas Australia was born in June 1964 as the Catholic Overseas Relief Committee. It formed to distribute funds the Catholic Church had received for overseas relief from the United Nation’s “Freedom from Hunger” campaign.
Three months previous, the first Lenten appeals for overseas relief were held in the Archdioceses of Adelaide and Sydney, and the Diocese of Wagga Wagga.
The organisers of these appeals encouraged the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to organise a national Lenten appeal in 1965. This Lenten appeal became known as Project Compassion and, in 1966, the agency which coordinated it, became Australian Catholic Relief.
As the organisation developed, it began to realise that responding to emergency situations was only a small part of the response needed to combat poverty. It began to branch into human development and programs focusing on community self-reliance. It encouraged its locally-based partners to make their own decisions, giving support and facilitating an exchange of ideas, rather than dictating terms.
Within Australia, the organisation endeavours to take on the responsibility of supporting development in communities within the majority world (formerly called the ‘developing’ world), via community education.
The organisation began to give the role of development education – of challenging the attitudes of Australians – increased importance. Resources were put into programs in Catholic schools, parishes and the general community, to draw attention to global inequality and injustice. These programs called upon the Christian responsibility to take action in response to these issues.
In July 1996 the organisation then changed its name to Caritas Australia to reflect its place as part of the Caritas Internationalis global network. Caritas is the latin word which means love and 'compassion'.
[edit] Project Compassion
Project Compassion is Caritas Australia’s annual awareness and fundraising campaign. Held during Lent, the six-week period before Easter, Project Compassion provides Catholic schools, parishes and the broader community with an opportunity to support development programs throughout the world. International speakers from partner organisations visit Australia to participate in a public speaking campaign about the work of Caritas Australia during the event.
[edit] References
- Caritas Australia and www.caritas.org.au reproduced with permission.
