Where We Work







Caritas works in all regions of the world

The Caritas confederation is unique. Wherever there is need in the world, there is a Caritas organization to provide practical help, love and support. Caritas members on the ground respond to emergencies sparked by natural disasters and those created by humans.

Caritas comes to the assistance of victims of floods in Europe, to people caught in conflict in Africa, to those suffering the effects of climate change in Oceania. There, and in Asia, North and South America and the Caribbean and in the Middle East and North Africa, Caritas is an active, experienced and skilled provider of aid, long-term development, medical and educational services and advocacy for a better, more just world.

AFRICA

The Caritas network spreads all over sub-Saharan Africa. Caritas Africa brings together 46 national Caritas organisations. They are part of the local communities they serve.

Together, Caritas Africa members focus on human development, peace building and economic justice, while practically responding to some of the world’s largest and most complex humanitarian emergencies. These include Darfur, the Democratic Republic of Congo and food crises in the Sahel in the west and the Horn of Africa in the east.

ASIA

Caritas Asia was set up in 1999. It has 23 members who work together in the different parts of the region to better pool resources.

As the region is prone to repeated natural disasters, Caritas Asia focuses on creating better disaster preparedness and on building stronger local capacity to respond to emergencies. Addressing climate change and human trafficking – which are important regional issues – are also priorities. With emergencies created by conflict also affecting the region, Caritas Asia also invests in reconstruction, peacebuilding and inter-faith dialogue.

EUROPE

Caritas Europa brings together 49 Caritas organisations, working in 46 European countries. Together, they focus their activities on poverty, social exclusion and inequality as well as migration and asylum.

Based in Brussels, Caritas Europa brings the voices of its members to European institutions, EU member states and many other public and private partners. Caritas Europa also provides emergency humanitarian assistance and operates development projects all around the world.

LATIN AMERICA

Working together with a focus on peace, social and economic justice and safe migration.

The Caritas Latin America and Caribbean region covers a vast geographical area with great cultural and economic diversity. In many of the countries in the region, Caritas has a long history of working for the poor – over fifty years – tackling natural and man-made disasters and providing healthcare.

MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA

Members of Caritas in the Middle East and North Africa work primarily on emergency response, migration, education, development, women empowerment, youth and volunteering, human trafficking and peace building.

Their humanitarian assistance programmes have grown following the turmoil of the Arab Spring and increased conflict in the region. Cooperation and inter-faith dialogue are priorities as is response to the threat of HIV/AIDS. Other focuses for Caritas MONA include improving bilateral partnerships, investing in programmes for young people and creating more coherence around the issue of migration.

NORTH AMERICA

Caritas North America consists of three organisations from the United States and Canada – Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Development and Peace (Canada).

These three organisations have many tens of thousands of individual members and provide some of the largest emergency response, development, advocacy and other programmes to the united work of Caritas Internationalis. They work together with the Caritas Latin America and Caribbean region on common initiatives such as migration, peacebuilding and social and economic justice.

OCEANIA

Caritas Oceania brings together highly diverse members from the larger and smaller islands of the Pacific.

These include Caritas Australia, Caritas Papua New Guinea, Caritas Samoa, Caritas Aotearoa-New Zealand, CEPAC (Caritas Pacific Islands) and Caritas Tonga. Together, they work on climate change, emergency response, peace building and development – both in their own countries and in other parts of the world.