"Our partners on the ground in Papua New Guinea are currently conducting a rapid needs assessment in the affected villages to determine the most urgent priorities," Caritas Australia stated on its website on May 28.

"The recovery is expected to be long, and food, shelter, and clean water are amongst the most urgent needs for people who have lost their homes because of the landslide," the organisation said.

The landslide struck the Pacific island's Enga province in the early hours of May 24, leaving sleeping villagers barely any time to escape.

Read More

Released on 27 February, the first national Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) report also notes some say their employers could do more to uphold all their employees' dignity.

The WGEA investigated about 5,000 companies, each employing more than 100 people, to determine the gender pay gap data.

Catholic workplaces consistently reported a lower gender pay gap than the 19 percent national median gender pay gap.

The WGEA defined the gender pay gap as the overall difference between women's and men's average weekly full-time equivalent earnings in an organisation.

Catholic employers

Among those the WGEA investigated were the Australian Catholic University (ACU), Caritas Australia and the Archdiocese of Sydney.

The ACU reported a median pay gap of 14.5 per cent, Caritas 13.1 per cent and the Archdiocese chancery 12.2 per cent.

Many Catholic schools, clubs, health and welfare agencies showed smaller or negligible gaps.

In an employer statement Caritas, with a workforce comprising almost 70 per cent of women in the reporting period, said factors like parental leave options contribute to its pay gap.

"While reducing the gender pay gap can be complex, it is a critical objective for Caritas Australia" a spokesperson for the Catholic charity says.

"We wholeheartedly commit to further foster an inclusive workplace where everyone has equal opportunity to thrive."

ACU recently appointed its first Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) Kelly Humphrey.

A spokesperson says ACU's action plan to remove barriers to equity and diversity was recently awarded the Athena Swan Bronze Award. It is a national accreditation for gender equality in education.

"Analysis of salaries on a level-by-level basis shows pay is close to parity for women and men at most levels for academic and professional staff" the ACU spokesperson says.

"However, for some senior staff positions which are contract-based, a higher gender pay gap is evident."

The Archdiocese of Sydney' says it has worked hard in recent years to improve the representation of women at senior levels.

This effort has seen the first female member being included in the Archdiocese's curia - the governance body which assists the Archbishop.

It has also improved parental leave access, workplace flexibility and other entitlements for all employees, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese says.

"There has been a conscious shift towards improving our support and recognition of women, which is necessary."

The spokesperson says while there is still work to do, the archbishop is paying close interest.

He is particularly interested in finding out what is being done and what is still to be done to improve the lives of women and family lives of all who work at the archdiocese.

Abut half the employees in senior leadership roles at the chancery are women.

One says that while her situation in Australia is different from that of many women in other countries, she has always felt respected and heard, given opportunities and had her contribution valued at the chancery.

"Working for the equality of women aligns with Catholic social teaching in which the dignity of every person is upheld" she says.

Source

• Catholic Weekly

All are welcome to the service, which will take place via Zoom on Monday, 27th November, from 4:30 to 5:00 pm AEDT.

The service will be led by Michael McGirr, Mission Facilitator at Caritas Australia, with guest speakers contributing prayers.

Michael McGirr said of the service, "In a time of deep sorrow and anguish for us all, we look for hope and healing. Let us come together in love, prayer, and support. Let us acknowledge the reality that impacts us all as we share messages of hope."

Read More

The UN reports that Gaza's entire population is being deprived of electricity, water, fuel supplies, food, and medicine.

Ongoing bombardments and shelling have destroyed homes, hospitals and essential water and sanitation infrastructure, with growing fears that Gaza will soon run out of drinkable water. Hospitals are packed with injured people and running desperately low on fuel and basic supplies.

An estimated 1 million people have been displaced in Gaza with immediate food, shelter, health, and psychosocial needs. Even before these attacks, 8 out of 10 people relied on international aid.

Read More

Although hunger levels have ceased rising at the alarming rate witnessed in 2022, the numbers remain high, with 122 million more people experiencing hunger compared to pre-COVID 19 pandemic levels in 2019.

Food crises continue to grip numerous regions worldwide, with Africa being particularly hard-hit, where several countries are now at risk of famine.

As of 2022, 735 million people—equivalent to over 9 percent of the global population—struggled with chronic undernourishment, and nearly 3 in 10 people worldwide faced moderate to severe food insecurity.

The burden of food insecurity disproportionately affects women in every region, especially those living in rural areas, compounding the crisis's gender disparities.

Alarming predictions from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) indicate that approximately 600 million people will still face chronic undernourishment in 2030, significantly deviating from the zero-hunger goal set for the same year.

Africa suffering, Asia improving

Progress in combating food insecurity has been uneven across different regions, with Africa continuing to suffer the most.

Approximately one in five people on the continent face hunger, more than double the global average.

Alarmingly, this marks the tenth consecutive year that hunger levels have increased in Africa.

In contrast, progress in Asia has been more promising, with the number of undernourished people projected to decline from 402 million to 242 million by 2030.

Events such as the war in Ukraine and the global pandemic have negatively impacted efforts to address global hunger.

The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for vulnerable communities, cannot be overlooked.

The global economic recession triggered by the pandemic reversed three decades of progress in poverty reduction, leading to an additional 122 million people suffering from hunger in 2022 compared to 2019 levels.

The war in Ukraine, which erupted in February 2022 and involved two major agricultural commodity producers in the world, has further exacerbated the food crisis.

The war's disruption in the supply chain has contributed to rising food insecurity in Africa, where many countries rely heavily on imports from Ukraine and Russia.

Despite the challenges, aid agencies and governments continue to combat the hunger crisis to get back on track toward achieving the goal of a hunger-free world by 2030.

Sources

Caritas Australia

Caritas Australia expresses gratitude for Australia's commitment of $6 million in urgent humanitarian assistance to address the escalating conflict in Sudan.

The conflict has exacerbated the existing humanitarian crisis in Sudan, a country already grappling with drought and chronic instability.

Even prior to the current turmoil, over 15 million people, one-third of Sudan's population, faced acute food insecurity. A further 3.7 million were internally displaced and heavily reliant on humanitarian aid.

As the conflict unfolds, hundreds of thousands of people, including those previously displaced, have been forced from their homes.

"This initial commitment by the Australian Government is a solid first step towards addressing the humanitarian needs of this crisis in a region that is already suffering," said Melville Fernandez, Caritas Australia's Humanitarian Emergencies Associate Director.

Read More

Among those providing support is the Catholic charity Caritas Australia, who is working directly with Caritas Ukraine and its local partner Caritas Spes.

Funds to support the charity's work in Ukraine have started to arrive.

So far the Australian Government has provided an initial $35 million commitment - support Caritas is welcoming with gratitude.

"This humanitarian aid is desperately needed in Ukraine right now," said Kirsty Robertson, Caritas Australia's CEO.

"Over half a million people have already been forced to flee their homes."

Robertson says refugee numbers could "balloon into three or even five million in the coming weeks as more villages, towns and cities are victims of air raids and attacks."

Caritas Spes and Caritas Australia, together, offer support to Ukrainian families who have fled their homes, providing emergency supplies including food, hygiene kits, clean water and psychological help. Emergency shelter is provided to displaced families.

Among those helping relieve suffering is the executive director of Caritas-Spes, Catholic priest Father Vyacheslav Grynevych.

He is coordinating humanitarian efforts from a basement bomb shelter, where he has taken in 36 people, mostly children and their pets.

Despite the conditions in Ukraine, Grynevych says Caritas-Spes is continuing to prepare projects and coordinate activities.

In an online press conference via Zoom last Tuesday, Grynevych said:

"As a priest, I have my reflection about the situation … because, you know, war makes both adults and children cry … We learned it when hiding in basements during the airstrikes.

"Aside from material losses that can be revealed over time, the pain and fear that people will experience will take very long to recover."

Grynevych says Caritas-Spes is also supporting people who have gathered at Ukraine's western border, providing temporary housing in shelters.

The charity has the capacity to help shelter 400 children and as of last Tuesday had already accepted half that number.

"We are equipped with shelters in five cities, one of which is in a children's hospital for pregnant women, women who just delivered, and children," he said during the Zoom meeting.

"This humanitarian need will likely increase over the coming weeks and months," Caritas Australia's Robertson says.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Caritas Australia (supplied)
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The two charities' goal was to reconfirm their commitment to collaborating on their shared objective to address global poverty and inequities.

The two Catholic organisations have a long history of both informal and formal collaboration. Their last bilateral meeting was held in 2017 at the conclusion of the Caritas Oceania Forum in Cairns, Australia.

"We have collaborated together on numerous projects over the years, and our relationship has always been strong. But as we live in a changing world, the contexts we work in are becoming more complex and challenging.

"Together, we are examining better ways to work towards our shared goal of a just world for all in the face of rising global poverty levels and climate change," said Julianne Hickey, Director of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand.

"The opportunity to exchange our skills and learnings from the past few years has meant that we have been able to strengthen our relationship, and discuss new ways to work together in the future," Kirsty Robertson, CEO of Caritas Australia said.

The visit started with a powhiri, kapa haka and a hangi. Among those present were Cardinal John Dew, Archbishop of Wellington and the Executive Officer of the New Zealand Bishops' Conference, Siobhan Dilly.

Other cultural activities the visitors were treated to included a visit to Matairangi/Mt Victoria and the hidden collections at Te Papa Museum.

The visit concluded with a Poroporoaki farewell.

"Over the course of this bilateral meeting we have been able to discuss better ways of responding to humanitarian emergencies together, and how we can further support our Pacific neighbours on Disaster Risk Management and resilience.

"As a fellow Pacific country, Caritas Australia is a great ally to continue our work in supporting our region," Hickey said.

Source

• Supplied - Caritas

Paul O'Callaghan spoke out after Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced an expansion of assistance to the Pacific. The assistance will include introducing long-term loans for new infrastructure projects.

Infrastructure is not a top priority for Pacific Islanders, O'Callaghan says. Rather, their focus is on climate change financing and local aid.

"As a former Australian High Commissioner to Samoa, I am aware that the highest policy priority presented by the Pacific's political and Church leaders has been for Australia to demonstrate leadership in its own climate policy, particularly on national emissions and to commit a reasonable share on climate finance.

"The latest announcement continues to ignore that regional priority.

"Our Pacific partners from Kiribati to Fiji are the worst affected, while having contributed the least to global warming. They look to Australia to take real action on reducing emissions, so that the region's future is secure.

"Ignoring the single biggest item of policy concern for regional leaders and then introducing a model for financing [infrastructure] that has been found for 40 years around the world to often lead to the most vulnerable countries getting into a debt trap … is not an ideal approach," he says.

"Vulnerable, poor countries, just like individuals in our own society, sign on to loans and five years later they find themselves in a diabolical situation.

"Back in the 1980s, both sides of politics in Australia came to realise that there were major dangers in using concessional loans in the aid programme and that's why we ended up with a solid bipartisan commitment to not use those loans.

"It's a bit odd that Australia would now decide that is the model for us, which, by the way, is the Chinese model."

O'Callaghan says about 65 percent of China's financing to Pacific countries is through concessional loans.

Source

• Catholic Leader
• Mirage News
• Image: The Catholic Leader

'Imagine your brothers, sisters, your mothers, your nieces, your nephews, your children, everybody that makes you smile, the good time you're having,' she says.

'Open your eyes. The time that you took closing your eyes and thinking of your people, imagine now everybody you thought of disappeared from the face of this earth just in that minute. That's my life in the DRC.'

There is stunned silence.

It's lunchtime in Sydney and we are sitting in the shadow of the beautiful Harbour Bridge, a symbol of wealth, progress and equal access for all.

In Lulu's homeland, the ironically-named Democratic Republic of Congo, it is not yet dawn; soon the cockerels will begin crowing and the women will rise to start their work for the day, stoking fires, collecting water, tending crops, dodging the men — soldiers and militia and civilians — who will almost certainly threaten to rape and abuse them.

Northwest of there, in Nigeria, parents of around 300 girls abducted in the past month by Islamist group Boko Haram will have in all likelihood spent the night sleepless, wondering in the agonisingly slow pre-dawn hours how it is that evil is allowed to reign in a world as powerful and learned as ours.

It's a stark contrast and one that can no longer be used as an excuse by westerners who turn a blind eye to the evils that millions of people — girls and women in particular — endure in countries far removed from our own.

It is also a reminder of our willingness to be led by the media when deciding which events and atrocities to solemnise, rather than speaking out about all issues — and brainstorming responses to them — even when they're not trending on social media or being glamorised by celebrities. Continue reading.

Source: Eureka Street

Image: Melbourne Archdiocese

Previous events have left countries with decaying venues and huge bills that take years to pay off.

Local communities are increasingly unhappy that a large portion of their government's funds are directed towards events that might line the pockets of corporations, but do little to support local industry.

The $51 billion Sochi Winter Olympic Games — believed to be the most expensive Olympics in history — may have showcased modern Russia to the world, but it also shone a spotlight into the darker corners of the country's society: its treatment of LGBT people, the crackdowns on free speech of groups like Pussy Riot, and the corruption among the country's elite.

The spotlight will soon turn on Brazil, with the World Cup kicking off in June.

Here too, the event has brought world attention to the country's issues.

Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to protest the enormous financial costs, the forced evictions of communities, and the exploitation of construction workers.

Marginalised people bear the brunt of costs for these global events.

A new report from Caritas Australia estimates that around 200,000 people have been forced out of their homes in favelas in Brazil to make way for the construction of venues for the World Cup - that's one in every 1000 people. Continue reading.

Source: Eureka Street

Image: ShutterStock