By Jitka Kozubková
The Czech government has awarded Caritas Czech Republic with the Gratias Agit for 20 years of international humanitarian and development work.
The Foreign Ministry awarded the prize, given traditionally for spreading the Czech Republic’s goodwill abroad.
Caritas Czech’s president Mons. Pavel Posád and director Lukáš Curylo accepted the prize from Karel Schwarzenberg, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. “Throughout its years of existence, Caritas Czech Republic has a great reputation on the international field, both with regard to what it does, its professionalism and the effort it puts into its work,” said the minister.
“We were given the prize thanks to our foreign activities, but we also think it’s as acknowledgement of the work of Caritas Czech as a whole,” said Caritas Czech director Lukáš Curylo.”We successfully transmit the experiences of providing social services such as home care services from our country to others. And vice-versa, we also apply the experiences from the countries stricken by natural disaster during the floods now in the Czech Republic.”
Director Curylo said that the prize is an encouragement for the following years. Not just for after the floods, but also for the aid to Syrian refugees.
Apart from humanitarian aid, Caritas CR provides also development cooperation in many countries where it focuses especially on livelihoods, social work, heath care and education.