Ahead of the fifth European Union donor conference on Syria, Caritas Internationalis shed light on the situation in Syria and urges the international community to act during the conference “Church and Caritas: 10 years of humanitarian response in Syria”.
Caritas has a unique global presence – one million staff and volunteers – guided by compassion.
When disaster strikes, it acts quickly and effectively to provide food and shelter, clean water and sanitation, medical help and the comfort of counseling to the bereaved and bereft.
Local Caritas teams have local knowledge and expertise, often built up over decades. They have the strong foundations of the Caritas family – the fellow members of the confederation – to call on for additional help. A national Caritas can ask for specialist staff, resources and funding by launching an Emergency Appeal.
Caritas also believes in being as ready as is possible to respond to emergencies by building preparedness and resilience. Stronger communities are more able to resist repeated natural disasters. Otherwise, the extreme weather brought by climate change will push people deeper into poverty. Caritas also invests in peacebuilding and conflict transformation programmes to ensure that lives and livelihoods are not lost in an emergency caused by conflict.
Caritas Updates on Emergencies

The closeness of Caritas with the vulnerable people of Syria has grown stronger and stronger during ten years of war. We look back at just some of the moments of Caritas’s work during ten years of war in Syria.

Elias Hamwi has worked as a Caritas Syria project coordinator in the eastern part of Aleppo for over three years. Here he reflects on the challenges facing Syrians and Caritas staff, who also face the struggles of life in a war-torn country.

Caritas Confederation has served more than 1 million Syrians annually over the past 10 years as they faced bombings, hunger and one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world.

Caritas Internationalis is with the Holy Father on this pilgrimage to Iraq, a crucial moment of expressing solidarity with Christians in the country and in the Middle East. It is moment to call for dialogue and reconciliation in a country recovering from decades of war.

Vaccines are to be considered as common property of humanity and must be made available for all with equity, justice and as a human right.

On 15 March 2021, the Syrian conflict marks its tenth anniversary. For ten years now the Syrian war is still one of the most complex and protracted crises at a global level. The lack of access to education by Syrian children risks having a devastating impact on the future of the country.

After the 4th August explosions in Beirut’s port area, Caritas Lebanon’s help was crucial to support the population in a country wracked by devastating economic and political crises and the COVID-19 pandemic.

For a city of just over 2.1 million inhabitants, the toll of 2,195 deaths in Manaus from COVID-19 in little more than a month, since the beginning of January, is very heavy. Caritas Brazil has launched a campaign for the immediate purchase of oxygen cylinders
Recent Emergencies
How Caritas works in Conflicts and Disasters
Caritas responds to emergencies across the globe, leads peacebuilding efforts in violence-ridden areas and helps local organisations prepare for potential disasters of all kinds. Learn more.