Caritas is calling for the European Union to act quickly as yet more migrants drown in Mediterranean Sea.
Address: 4 rue d’Alger, 1000 Tunis RP, Tunisia
Telephone: +216 71 33 86 38 / +216 36 11 10 52
Fax: +216 713 35 832
Email: [email protected]
www.evechetunisie.org
Caritas service in Tunisia goes back to the 1940s. At that time, it was a branch of Secours Catholique (Caritas France) present in almost all parishes, about 100 nationwide.
After independence and in order to be able to continue its activities, Caritas became the “Social Service of the Prelacy”, protected by the “Modus Vivendi” of 1964. From then onwards, Caritas collaborated with Tunisian organisations and gradually set about helping the most disadvantaged sectors of the population.
Caritas Tunisia, with its fifteen co-operators is probably one of the smallest Caritas of the MONA region. Despite the paucity of both human and financial resources, Caritas strives to meet the needs of a wide range of marginalized people. Caritas Tunisia is especially engaged in: creating micro projects, tutoring schoolchildren, providing recreational activities to potentially drop-outs, facilitating access to health care to local and foreign population.
Caritas also runs a foyer for migrants awaiting their repatriation, as well as a centre of women formation. Finally, it is worth mentioning that Caritas is the only association authorized to visit Christian convicts in Tunisian prisons.
Updates from Tunisia
For me, Tunis WSF experience reconfirmed the strength of Caritas and its capacity to act and react as a network in front of a diversity of challenges.
Caritas has been involved in the WSF since its beginnings. Caritas believes it’s an opportunity to exchange ideas and to build the momentum towards real change. This year Caritas will look at migration, trafficking, the right to food, corruption and tax evasion.
Many migrant workers from Bangladesh had been living in Libya for a long time, often for several years. Most of them were employed in the construction sector, in the capital Tripoli but also in Brak, Misurata or Nalut.
Yesterday, a lot of people had to pack their stuff at the Salloum border camp. Salloum looked like a crowded, badly-organised coach station. Dozens of buses were obstructing the access to the camp. There has been a lot of movement here in the last days. A lot of people could finally leave.
Credits: Fred Lauener/Caritas Switzerland Fred Lauener from Caritas Switzerland arrived in Salloum on the Libyan-Egyptian border on Thursday to support the ongoing Caritas emergency aid distributions for migrants fleeing the violence in Libya. Here are some of his accounts from the last days. (Read his original blogs in German) “Today, there have hardly been any ...
Migrants can call their families for free on arrival through Caritas and its partner OKUP. Credits: OKUP Caritas Bangladesh and its partner organisation OKUP are providing assistance to Bangladeshi migrant workers fleeing the social unrests in Libya on their arrival at Dhaka airport. Returnees are given some money, food and transport facilities to reach bus ...
Available in French Caritas staff Suzanna Tcalek and Sébastien Dechamps met Hassen and his family during their evaluation mission at the Tunisian-Libyan border. (See an account of the mission and view more pictures) “Hassen runs a little commerce in the city of Mansura some three hundred kilometers from the border. He has mobilized a collection ...
[slideshow]Credits: Sébastien Deschamps/Secours Catholique-Caritas France Available in French A Caritas assessment team made up of staff from Secours Catholique-Caritas France and Catholic Relief Services (CRS is a US member of Caritas) assessed this weekend the needs of migrant workers stranded on the Libyan-Tunisian border following to the social unrests in Libya. View pictures from the ...