CARITAS For Children was initially established to bring hope to orphaned and disadvantaged children around the world by partnering with Catholic religious communities to provide life-changing health, education and general welfare services.
By working with Catholic communities who are native to the places where we serve, CARITAS was (and is currently) able to develop effective programs right in the center of where the poorest people live.
This not only allows us to identify the most pressing needs, but also makes it possible to provide the most natural and efficient solutions, while also respecting the cultures of the people we serve.
Choosing congregations to collaborate with was a simple and practical way to make a difference. Instead of focusing on building schools, we have helped to fund already-established Catholic schools to educate, feed, nurture and develop children within these poor countries.
This results in a lower overhead expense while also providing the tuition funds directly to Catholic schools run by Catholic religious congregations. In addition, these consecrated men and women were born, raised, and speak the languages of the people benefitting from our programs, making them the best possible ministers to bear the message of God’s enduring love.
In all our programs, we’ve decided to follow the same model of sponsorship focusing primarily on relationship between sponsor and beneficiary. Although it is useful to have a general fund, we know that the relational aspect of these sponsorships is where God’s love and grace are more easily noticed.
Most recently, we have also added an Adopt-a-Grandparent program to assist the elderly people in these poor countries. We see them as God’s “not-so-young" children who also can be blessed through Caritas. We are hopeful that all these programs will continue to web networks of charity across the globe, spread the gospel globally, while impacting faith locally.