Caritas Philippines – the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (NASSA) was created by the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines in 1966. Today it strives to help many of the tens of millions of people whose lives are afflicted by poverty.



Paid Staff

1,000

Volunteers

1,000

Beneficiaries

500,000

The Philippines was once one of South-East Asia's richest nations, but it has failed to develop enough well-paid jobs at home and has ended up exporting its cheap labour to other countries.

A major thrust of the agency’s work stems from the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) Integral Evangelization Programme, helping poor communities with development and advocacy work and to create the long-term conditions to overcome poverty.

In the village of Amurao in Cabatuan, the programme introduced sustainable agriculture, which saw farmers producing organic vegetables and crops such as corn.

BEC members set up a cooperative selling low-cost goods and offering emergency credit to those needing financial help. Funding came from partners Caritas Spain and Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional.

Other work often carried out under BEC, include:

  • Children and women. The children and women development and social services programme addresses lack of education resulting from poverty and violence;
  • Work includes an information and education campaign focusing on children's and women's rights, provision of legal services, and collaboration with private institutions and government agencies on policy-making;
  • Relief and rehabilitation: housing and livelihood projects, along with capacity-building and training, help to reduce vulnerability to disasters and increase self-reliance. Relief is also provided after disasters: church schools and parish centres became refuges for thousands of families after typhoon Durian in 2006;
  • Peace building: NASSA's peace-building programme addresses issues including insurgencies and tribal conflicts. Strategies include awareness training and forming peace groups, income-generation projects and microfinance development within the community, and advocacy and lobbying.