How Caritas Mthatha Promotes Women’s Leadership In March 2018, Caritas Mthatha/Catholic Development Centre initiated a program called Masiphunge Women Empowerment Program. Masiphunge is a Xhosa word meaning, “Come, let’s have a cup of tea together”. The concept is based on an idea that women used to drink tea together and began to share important information ...
Address: Caritas Mauritius, 1, Rue d’Estaing, Port-Louis, Mauritius
Telephone: +230 212 3405 / +230 212 3910 Fax: +230 212 3405
Email: caritas@intnet.mu/sgcaritas@gmail.com
Facebook: CaritasMaurice
Founded in May 1965, Caritas Mauritius was then defined by its founders as “an initiative in which Charity would at the same time be devotion and expertise”. Caritas Mauritius was initially geared towards emergency relief as, during the period following independence in 1968, many families were experiencing difficulties while the country went through a severe unemployment crisis and had to face all kinds of disasters.
In 2001, after the diocesan synod, the preferential option for the poor became the priority for the diocese of Port Louis. So today, thanks to support on the ground from the diocese and 47 parishes, Caritas Mauritius works to rehabilitate the poor, the excluded and the oppressed through an action of love and proximity by welcoming and listening to them, visiting and accompanying them, so that they may rediscover their dignity and build together a fair and united community.
With over 50 years’ experience of serving the needy, Caritas Mauritius is now a united network bringing together more than 1,000 volunteers in the service of 50,000 beneficiaries via its counselling centres located throughout the island.
Caritas Mauritius breaks down its actions into three services:
Accompaniment and development service
- Emergency relief, in the event of natural disasters, enables providing for the needs of victims in terms of food, transport, medical expenses and educational assistance.
- 46 counselling and development service centres, which welcome, counsel, accompany and support the poorest.
- 15 Pre-school centres for infants, which focus on raising the sensory and motor awareness of vulnerable children in nursery school.
- 1 community farm that offers training courses to improve life quality and food for the community.
Training service
- 64 functional literacy centres which offer a speaking, reading, writing and arithmetic learning method.
- The Life Skills Management Programme, a personal development training course with psycho-social counselling that aims to enhance trainees’ skills.
- The Centre of Learning, a community development service to combat poverty and exclusion through training and accompaniment of local residents.
- 2 Domestic science schools to train beneficiaries in housekeeping in a professional context.
- 1 cake and pastry making school which offers professional courses in cake making and baking with internships.
Accommodation service
- The accommodation assistance fund enables low-income families to have decent accommodation, to become homeowners and to avoid seizure of their home thanks to non-interest-bearing loans.
- 2 night shelters to welcome and accompany homeless people in their social reintegration.
- The Hope Inn, an Abbé Pierre house, which makes a temporary apartment available to families to help them save up to fulfil their housing plans.
In implementing its many actions, Caritas Mauritius works actively in partnership with state institutions, the private sector, UN organisations and foreign embassies.
Updates from Mauritius
This year, as part of the global Caritas Internationalis campaign to eliminate violence against women and girls (25 November – 10 December), Caritas South Sudan launched their national initiative Act Now: Prevent and Respond to Violence Against Women and Girls to celebrate and stand in solidarity with women and girls combatting all forms of violence ...
Nearly 10 years on, terrorism and violence instigated by militia groups continues to threaten the peace and safety of tens and thousands of families throughout Burkina Faso. Since 2015, men, women and children have been forced to flee their homes and leave everything behind. In more recent years, Burkina Faso has witnessed unprecedented levels of ...
Due to the conflict that broke out in Sudan last April, several men and women have been forced to leave their homes and villages behind in search of safety and for the survival of their families in other parts of the country and beyond, including Chad. In their flight, many displaced families did not have ...
“We have witnessed drought before, lost animals and crops, however, unlike other periods, we usually had enough livestock and crops to sustain ourselves until the rainy season. Now the rains have failed for the fourth time and we are not sure if the fifth rainy season will come,” shares Habey Maanur Mohamud, a 60-year-old mother ...
As part of the inauguration of the Global Year of Action of the “Together We” campaign, aimed at promoting integral ecology by simultaneously protecting people and our planet, Caritas Internationalis will launch its publication Displaced by a changing climate, highlighting the vital need for collective action to address the consequences of environmental degradation. Caritas Internationalis, ...
Since conflict erupted in Sudan in mid-April, it has become one of the most dangerous places not only for families and communities affected by the crisis, but for the national and international humanitarian workers and partners supporting them. Since the onset of the crisis, more than 4.3 million people, including aid workers, have been forced ...
Caritas Internationalis joins the appeal of His Eminence Cardinal Berhaneyesus, Rev. Kes Yonas, Patriarch Abune Mathias, and Rev. Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin in urging US Agency for International Development (USAID) and World Food Programme (WFP) to resume life-saving food distribution immediately. The food aid was suspended on the 30th of March 2023 in the Tigray region ...
Sudan has been embroiled in a devastating armed conflict since last April, triggered by power struggles among the country’s military factions. The fighting, primarily between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has had a profound impact on civilians, resulting in large-scale displacement and shattered access to food, water, health care, fuel, ...
“Everybody is trying to leave Khartoum because practically no one is sure of his remaining there and being safe. And so people run away. I also had to leave, I crossed the border by car. There is a huge need for help both in Sudan and in neighbouring countries to accommodate people fleeing the conflict”. ...
Caritas Africa Info
- Angola
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