Ghana

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Address: Department of Human Development, National Catholic Secretariat, Centenary House, Near Gulf House, Accra, Ghana
Postal Address: National Catholic Secretaria, P.O. Box KA 9712, Airport, Accra, Ghana, West Africa
Telephone: +233 307 010 368
Email: szan@ighmail.com
Facebook: gcbc.ncs Twitter: CaritasGhana YouTube: Caritas Ghana
www.caritas-ghana.org

Caritas Ghana is a charity organization of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) and operates under the National Catholic Secretariat, the implementing Arm of the Bishops’ Conference established in 1960. Throughout Ghana, there are twenty dioceses and four Directorates: Social Development, Education and Religious Education, Health and Governance, Justice and Peace.

Caritas Ghana works in the following thematic areas namely; Social Development, Livelihood promotion, Social services, Promotion of Social and Environmental Justice, Public Policy Advocacy, Promotion of Pro-poor policies and Action Research.

Work on public policy advocacy on behalf of the poor and the promotion of the common good is central to Caritas Ghana. One example is its effort to include the ‘Right to Health’ in the National Constitution Review. Caritas Ghana expands the frontiers of its work to influence public policy which will leverage opportunities for vulnerable and excluded groups and individuals in line with the Catholic social teaching. For this purpose, Caritas Ghana implements strategic dialogue meetings with key state and non-state agencies like the Parliament of Ghana, Government Ministries and decentralized agencies, Office of the President and National and Local Civil Society Organizations.

Caritas Ghana has also picked up education campaigns as part of an advocacy plan aimed towards improving education. Within the nation, the Catholic Church is the leader in the provision of educational services after the government. It has built and run educational institutions from kindergarten to the university level. Caritas has piloted peer-learning on best practices in education which resulted in a publication “A compendium of some best practices in education: Education Managers’ Peer learning experience” (available on www.caritas-ghana.org).

Caritas Ghana is very active as for the provision of relief services to affected victims of war, flood and other disasters. The national Catholic Secretariat in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency provides relief services to refugees displaced into Ghana as a result of conflicts in neighbouring countries to Ghana. Relief services are also offered to victims of natural disasters through the use of the cash voucher system aimed at providing remedial solutions.

Caritas Ghana uses participatory social research tools to collect data on issues of education, health, governance, elections, among others. This research is carried out using local community structures like youth groups, women groups, persons with disabilities, traditional authority and decentralized government agencies. Based on the findings of the research, the outcome of Caritas Ghana Social Research work is usually a monitoring report that is used for the dialogue with the government.

Caritas Ghana seeks accompaniment from both local and external partners, to promote its institutional development, learning and partnership building. Some Caritas partnerships include: the Christian Council of Ghana, Office of the National Chief Imam, STAR-Ghana, UNHCR and members from the Caritas confederation.

Updates from Ghana

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