Aid agencies need to reach themost vulnerable people, but fromAfghanistan to Gaza, Sri Lanka to Sudan, this central pillar of humanitarianismwas eroded. Providing a safe environment for aid workers is essential.

Caritas united in sorrow for the staff of its members and of partners who were killed or injured as they worked on behalf of the most vulnerable.

Ricky Agusa Sukaka, 27, was shot dead in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on 15 July. A Congolese national, he worked as an agricultural engineer with Secours Catholique- Caritas France.

“Raj”Anthonipillai Uthayaraj, 26, was killed in Mullivaikal, Sri Lanka on 8 May while helping civilians who were seeking safety from the fighting between government and rebels. He was a driver for SEDEC-Caritas Sri Lanka. In the same conflict, Caritas Vanni Director Rev. Fr. T.R. Vasanthaseelan and Rev. Fr. James Pathinathan were seriously injured in shelling in April.

A bomb went off in a church in Nepal while Caritas Nepal Director Fr. Silas Bogati was celebrating Sunday Mass. A woman and a girl were killed.

Caritas also said goodbye to...

Caritas lost a long-serving colleague, Mark Snyder of American Caritas member Catholic Relief Services (CRS), in July, due to complications from malaria. Brian McKeown, the inspirational founding director of the Irish Caritas member Trócaire, passed away in July. Elena Chaves, a distinguished volunteer for the Caritas Internationalis office at the UN in NewYork for more than 20 years until 2006, died in June. She died shortly after her husband, José Chávez, a former Colombian Ambassador, who also assisted Caritas advocacy at the UN.