Caritas Guinea Bissau has recently devoted considerable resources to bringing aid to 30,000 displaced people in areas where fighting along the border with Senegal has isolated some communities. The displaced people were hosted by local families, but as food reserves dwindled Caritas Guinea-Bissau was able to supply 8,500 people with food, clothing, cooking equipment and hygiene kits and provided transport to take local products to markets to sustain the local economy.

In the course of its work, Caritas Guinea-Bissau also partners Catholic Relief Services and fellow Caritas members from other countries in projects promoting health, institutional development, and justice and peace.

The worldwide Caritas organisation, of which Caritas Guinea Bissau is a member, works on behalf of the poor and the oppressed in 200 countries and territories. One of its tenets is that the weak and oppressed are not objects of pity, but agents of change leading the struggle to eradicate poverty and improve living and working conditions and social, political, economic and cultural structures. Caritas is unique in its ongoing presence in communities before, during and after a crisis, adapting its strategies to the changing situation.

Caritas fights poverty, exclusion, intolerance and discrimination; it empowers people to participate in all matters affecting their lives, and it advocates on their behalf at the national and international levels.

Themes

The mandate of Caritas includes:

• Integral development;
• Emergency relief;
• Care for the poor and disadvantaged;
• Peace building;
• Advocacy for the disadvantaged and respect for human rights;
• Support for stewardship of the environment and resources.