The fishing communities who survive on the produce of Manchar Lake in Sindh, Pakistan could never have imagined that the source of their livelihoods would one day destroy everything they owned. The lake is the biggest in Pakistan and has sustained generations of their families, with 20,000 people currently dependent on it for their survival. ...
Pakistan had seen nothing like it in 80 years when monsoon rains swept across the country in the summer of 2010. The subsequent floods affected 18 million people and put one-fifth of the country under water. People lost their homes and possessions, livelihoods and in some cases their lives. One year on, Caritas has helped ...
By Caritas Bangladesh staff Fishing for crabs in the vast mangrove forest of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh is a dangerous way to make a living. A local poem says you always have a ‘shiver of fear’ as you travel the complex network of waterways, mudflats and small islands because the Royal Bengal Tiger does not ...
Caritas Asia members promote organic agriculture and farmers’ rights across the region through the Sustainable Agriculture and Farmers’ Rights (SAFaR) programme. The Farmers’ Conference (FC) is one of the major yearly events of the programme. Here grassroots level farmers gather together, learn and share their concerns and raise their voice to protect their rights. We ...
A million North Korean children were vaccinated against hepatitis B in a campaign run by the Ministry of Health with Caritas support in 2010. The children, aged from six to sixteen, are from North and South Pyongyang, but an extended campaign aims to reach close to four million children countrywide.
“Financial reporting of a high standard is very helpful. It attracts extra financial and other resources,” said Dr Benedict Alo D’Rozario, Executive Director of Caritas Bangladesh, drawing on lessons he learned in his student days in the USA in the 1980s. Dr Alo shared his experiences with staff from the Caritas Asia and Oceania regions ...
In western Nepal’s Syangja district there’s been no snowfall for three years and water sources which used to flow all year round have run dry. The villagers know their climate is changing. Twenty-four-year-old Sita Sharma Dhakal is worried that now rainfall is unpredictable and there are hailstorms which damage the crops. Sita studied to become ...
“When I was watching our house burn down, I asked God for only one thing,” said Sohiba Mamatova. “To let my husband live. ”He did, though he was badly beaten by a mob in the street. This was Kyrgyzstan in June 2010, when ethnic violence turned neighbour against neighbour. Sohiba, 43, escaped with her teenage ...
Zhou Ma withdrew into grief when she and her elder 25-year-old daughter were both widowed by the April earthquake in China’s western Qinghai province. Zhou Ma, who is 45, felt the heavy responsibility of caring also for her 15-year-old younger daughter and grandson who was only four. It was a family tragedy and she became ...
At the end of August 2010, almost one fifth of Pakistan was underwater. Along its entire length, the Indus river had burst its banks, washing away homes, destroying crops and livestock and bringing disease. For the 20 million people affected by the floods, it was an unparalleled disaster. “We were sleeping when I heard screams ...