The Caritas Nigeria, on Sunday inaugurated a six -year human development plan to commemorate its 14th anniversary and Day celebration.
The theme of the Day and anniversary celebration,which held across all doiceses on Sunday, was “Giving Back to the Community”
Caritas, the charity arm of the Catholic church was formed at the instance of the Catholic Bishop Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in 2010 to carry out humanitarian work for the church.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the plan tagged “Caritas Nigeria Strategic Plan 2024-2030” contains the agency’s six-year mission in health through a number of interventions.
The plan encompasses elements like emergency relief and humanitarian response, reduction of poverty, a safe future for irregular migrants and refugees, good governance, peace-building, civic responsibility, care for mother earth and basic education for all.
The plan, the highlight of the anniversary celebration, was presented to the Church by the Caritas team, led by its Executive Secretary, Rev. Fr. Uchechukwu Obodoechina.
The catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most. Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins, who doubles as Caritas Board Chairman,while receiving the document at the Holy Cross Cathedral ,Lagos,solicited support for the agency.
The archbishop said that the organisation through its interventions had impacted no fewer than 15 million people in Nigeria.
“Through different services such as direct food aid, non-food items, health services, unconditional cash transfer, income generating activities in area of vocational skills acquisition and offering trainees with start-kits.
“The agency, aligning with its international body ,has provided water sanitation and hygiene services such as boreholes, latrines and water pumps,
“The agency has been instrumental in providing agricultural input support to farmers, nutritional support to acutely malnourished children and young people and education in emergency initiatives in many communities and needs support to sustain the good works,” he said.
Speaking at the plan presentation, Obodoechina said the organisation maintainsed strong partnership with local and international state and non-state bodies, key stakeholders and funders in line with its mission of achieving well-being for all through participatory approach.
“Caritas Nigeria is a member Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 162-member countries providing relief and supporting human development worldwide.
“The projects are funded by bilateral and multilateral donors and the donors are happy for their money is judiciously put to use,” he said.
According to the Caritas boss, the agency through the church structures across the 60 dioceses and archdioceses, is impacting lives and the environment to sustain humanity.
He said that the agency’s projects, tailored towards the most deprived and vulnerable groups in hard-to-reach locations ,were administered regardless of religion, ethnicity or political affiliation.
(NAN)
