Coastal communities in Oceania are being forced from their homes by rising sea levels and erosion in a situation assessed as severe, says a new report from Caritas.
Global temperatures averaging almost 1oC above normal. For people in some parts of the world, this might still seem like a technical measurement, or a future concern. For us in Oceania, it is rapidly becoming a matter of life or death.
Lilian Chan, Caritas Australia Online Editor, was working in Kathmandu when the earthquake struck. She shares her experience of being thrown into a major humanitarian emergency.
Groups of locals have taken to the streets of Port Vila, Vanuatu to help clean up the neighbourhoods hardest hit by Cyclone Pam as part of Caritas relief efforts.
Caritas Australia and Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand are leading the Caritas Internationalis response in Vanuatu with the Catholic Church after the Pacific island nation was devastated by Cyclone Pam.
Up to 90 percent of buildings on one of Vanuatu main islands have been destroyed or damaged as aid workers rush to help survivors of Cyclone Pam. Caritas has sent emergency staff to Vanuatu to link up with local church structures.
UNAIDS is moving from a strategy of ‘zero new infections, zero AIDS-related deaths, zero discrimination’ to one where 9 out of ten people who are living with HIV know their status, receive therapy and that the virus is surpressed in their bodies.
New technologies offer hope to sick people living in poverty. At an AIDS conference in Melbourne, Australia, four scientists associated with Catholic institutions discussed ways to measure HIV infections and treat them.
Wellness is not simply the absence of disease, but is rather a dynamic state of complete physical, mental, spiritual, and social well-being.
Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, emphasized the importance of putting people first in the fight against AIDS, and reported “we have seen HIV infections drop by 38% since 2001