Disaster Preparedness

Flood preparation pays off in Bangladesh

Flood preparation pays off in Bangladesh

Monsoon rains in Bangladesh have driven thousands of people from their homes [View our photo gallery]. Caritas Bangladesh is providing food to 70,000 people as well as shelter materials and sanitation. Caritas also plans to run cash- for-work programmes for communities to help repair the damage. We asked them about relief efforts so far. What ...

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Rain only part of the solution for East Africa drought

Rain only part of the solution for East Africa drought

Caritas Internationalis humanitarian director Alistair Dutton explains why Caritas has a big focus on harvesting and storing water in drought-hit East Africa.  The simple answer to a drought should be for it to rain lots. The crops would grow, the animals would get fed and people would know where their next meal and drink would ...

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One year anniversary of the Pakistan floods

Floods in Pakistan in the summer of 2010 were the worst in 80 years. As one-fifth of the country lay underwater, 18 million people struggled to find food and water and to keep a roof over their heads. One year on, communities are still rebuilding their lives. Caritas is with the people of Pakistan as ...

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Changing lives in Bangladesh

By Caritas Bangladesh staff  Fishing for crabs in the vast mangrove forest of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh is a dangerous way to make a living. A local poem says you always have a ‘shiver of fear’ as you travel the complex network of waterways, mudflats and small islands because the Royal Bengal Tiger does not ...

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Long-term solutions in Haiti

Long-term solutions in Haiti

There is a long-term answer to alleviating poverty: helping people build up resilient livelihoods. Secours Catholique, the French national Caritas, worked with local people to improve their food production, supporting the most vulnerable with food rations so they did not fall back on eating seed stocks. Through food-for-work programmes in Les Cayes in southern Haiti, ...

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Prayer and Novena for Republic of South Sudan

Prayer and Novena for Republic of South Sudan

Novena for South Sudan South Sudan emerges as a new nation on 9 July 2011. The Catholic Church in Sudan is inviting all people of goodwill to take part in nine days of prayer for the future of the new state. This novena begins on  June 29, 2011 and ends on July 7, 2011. Day ...

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Sudan: Be calm but vigilant…

Sudan: Be calm but vigilant…

Statement from the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference Be calm but vigilant… (1 Peter 5:8) 7th April 2011 We the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, gathered in Extraordinary Plenary assembly in Juba, South Sudan, from 1st – 7th April 2011, have prayed and reflected together on the situation in our beloved Sudan. Mindful of our responsibility as ...

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Caritas helps Chile rebuild

Caritas helps Chile rebuild

By Lorenzo Figueroa, Secretary General of Caritas Chile  One year on from the earthquake and tsunami the poor are in a more precarious state. Indeed, an official government study reports that today Chile has 500 thousand more poor people as a result of the disaster. Road infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, has been rebuilt. ...

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