Caritas SED-Galle has partnered with numerous international and church donors for its work in Southern Province.  For the tsunami, this partnership has been especially close as staff from Catholic Relief Services (USA) worked in the Galle and Hambantota offices and Caritas Belgium staff in our Matara office since January 2005. These organizations provide added expertise and have helped increase our capacity to expand our programs to address the large needs in tsunami areas. 

Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service organisations working to build a better world, especially for the poor and oppressed, in over 200 countries and territories.
Caritas works without regard to creed, race, gender, or ethnicity, and is one of the world’s largest humanitarian networks.

Caritas provides a beacon of hope for tens of millions of women, men and children in times of hardship and contributes to the development of social justice in times of peace. Caritas’ mandate includes integral development, emergency relief, advocacy, peace building, respect for human rights and support for proper stewardship of the planet’s environment and resources.

 The Caritas approach is based on the social teaching of the Church, which focuses on the dignity of the human person.  Caritas’ work on behalf of the poor manifests God’s love for all of creation.

Caritas believes that the weak and oppressed are not objects of pity, but agents of change leading the struggle to eradicate dehumanizing poverty, unacceptable living and working conditions, and unjust social, political, economic and cultural structures.

What makes Caritas unique is its ongoing presence in communities, before, during and after crisis situations. Important, too, is that being part of civil society and incorporating the perspective of the poor, Caritas can continuously adapt its strategies to an ever changing environment.

Caritas fights poverty, exclusion, intolerance and discrimination. More importantly, it empowers people to participate fully in all matters affecting their lives, and it advocates on their behalf at national and international forums.

Caritas promotes partnership: local autonomy is paramount in ensuring effective teamwork for the good of all.  By pooling expertise and resources, Caritas is able to identify issues at the grassroots, analyse them at national and international levels, and then take action locally, regionally and globally.

Catholic Relief Services was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States to serve World War II survivors in Europe. Since then, we have expanded in size to reach more than 80 million people in nearly 100 countries on five continents.

 Photo by David Snyder for CRS
Our mission is to assist impoverished and disadvantaged people overseas, working in the spirit of Catholic Social Teaching to promote the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the human person. Although our mission is rooted in the Catholic faith, our operations serve people based solely on need, regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity. Within the United States, CRS engages Catholics to live their faith in solidarity with the poor and suffering of the world.

The fundamental motivating force in all activities of CRS is the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it pertains to the alleviation of human suffering, the development of people and the fostering of charity and justice. We are committed to a set of Guiding Principles and hold ourselves accountable to each other for them.

As the official international relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic community, CRS is administered by a board of bishops selected by the National Council of Catholic Bishops and is staffed by men and women committed to the Catholic Church's apostolate of helping those in need.

CRS maintains strict standards of efficiency, accountability and transparency. Last year, more than 94 percent of revenues we spent went directly to programs that benefit the poor overseas.

Caritas International Belgium was created in 1945 by the Belgium Episcopal Conference and became an independent association in 1948. The first goal was to assist European war victims and to reunite families torn apart by the Second World War.

Through today, assisting refugees and migrants remains one of the main tasks of Caritas international Belgium. Gradually we have been taking up a more active role internationally, assisting our partners from the initial emergency after crisis, over reconstruction, and through development.
Currently, Caritas International Belgium works in over 30 countries, with more than 100 different partner organisations. Most of our assistance is focusing on Africa.

Apart from own resources through fundraising in Belgium, Caritas International Belgium has funding from different donor agencies and budget lines like ECHO, the European Union, the European Agency for Reconstruction, the Belgian Government, the Belgian Survival fund, Fedasil, World Food Programme, UNHCR, and IOM.

In Asia, we have been actively rebuilding lives after disasters like the tsunami in Sri Lanka and India; floods in India, the Philippines and Bangladesh; and the earthquakes in Pakistan and Indonesia.
In Sri Lanka, Caritas International Belgium supports peace projects in the North and East as well as tsunami projects in the South. In addition, we are developing a project in the tea estates showing our commitment to a long term relationship with Caritas Sri Lanka and to assist the most vulnerable people in improving their livelihood security.

Cordaid combines more than 90 years’ experience and expertise in emergency aid and structural poverty eradication. We are one of the biggest international development organisations with a network of almost a thousand partner organisations in 36 countries in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America.

The counterpart organisations work on various themes, including health care, quality of urban life, access to markets and peace and conflict. Each year around 170 million euros is spent on initiatives in the South. Of that, over 30 million euros is available for emergency aid. A small part is spent in the Netherlands on lobby, public support and consciousness-raising.

Cordaid has a strong support base in the Dutch community
This is proved not only by some 370,000 contributors who support Cordaid financially, but also by the commitment of volunteers who collect clothing, organise meetings in their towns or parishes and assist in organising festivals.

People and organisations that set up their own projects can also count on Cordaid’s support. This large-scale commitment is of vital importance to Cordaid. It expresses the solidarity between people and with that forms the core of our identity Cordaid stands in the long tradition of Mensen in Nood (Caritas Netherlands), Memisa Medicus Mundi, the Dutch Bishop’s Lenten Campaign (Vastenaktie) and Cebemo.

Its history goes back to the beginning of the last century when the organisations were active in the area of shelter and (missionary) care for refugees, in providing direct aid in the event of disasters, in medical care and in the direct improvement of the social and economic position of poor people.

Supported by broad layers of the Dutch population, they were able to support the work of hundreds of Dutch priests, nuns, brothers, and volunteers in their care for the whole of humanity. Conditions have changed over the years. The missionaries have handed over their work to local organisations, which has resulted in a huge expansion in Cordaid’s partner network.

Caritas Coreana is a national committee of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea(CBCK) for coordinating the activities of the Catholic Church in the field of relief, welfare and development.
  
Caritas Coreana was established by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea (CBCK) on June 26, 1975 as a national committee of the CBCK originally by the name of the Human Development Committee and was renamed as the present name "Caritas Coreana" in 1991.
  
The goal of Caritas Coreana is to make a great contribution to building a genuine Christian community filled with justice and love where the neglected and poor can lead decent lives in a caring society with the divine right of self-respect regardless of faith or beliefs.
  
Caritas Coreana is (a) representing the activities of the Church in the field of relief, welfare and development works and maintaining close mutual collaboration with various organizations both on the national and international levels, (b) coordinating, encouraging, harmonizing and making policies on the social activities of the Church and (c) mobilizing the resources for those activities.

Development and Peace is the official international development organization of the Catholic Church in Canada and the Canadian member of Caritas Internationalis. It is a membership-based organization founded in 1967 by Canada's bishops, laity and clergy to fight poverty in the countries of the South, and to promote greater international justice.

Inspired by Gospel values, particularly "the preferential option for the poor," the goals of Development and Peace are to support initiatives by people in the Global South to take control of their lives and to educate Canadians about North-South issues.

Our education, advocacy and fund-raising work here at home is carried out by Development and Peace members from coast to coast.

Caritas SED-Galle Srilanka - 2007 - Info@caritassedgalle.org

Affiliated to the National Secretariat for Justice, Peace & Human Development Commission of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka incorporated by Act No. 17 of 1983 of the Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.