It needs to raise US$7 million to aid Rohingya refugees.

The refugees are victims of conflicts in Myanmar.

"We must not forget the Rohingya people or take the support of the Bangladesh Government for granted" says Alistair Dutton, Caritas's secretary general.

Help the most vulnerable

Rohingya families are "among the most vulnerable people in our world today without the right to work" Dutton told media on 6 June.

He had just returned from visiting Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, the world's largest refugee settlement.

Over a million Rohingya refugees from neighbouring civil war-hit Myanmar are existing at the camp.

Teenagers "have now spent half of their life in camps" he said.

Global aid is desperately needed.

Pope Francis is renewing appeals to solve the Rohingyas' refugee crisis. He met a Rohingya group during his visit to Bangladesh in 2017.

However, global aid for the refugees has decreased with other emergencies like the Ukraine war and the Palestine conflict taking centre stage.

Caritas Bangladesh says global funds to meet refugees' food expenses have reduced from $12 to $10 per month per person. Bangladesh is facing a foreign currency crisis and skyrocketing inflation.

Caritas plans to give the Rohingya community $7 million in aid this year.

Since 2017, Caritas has spent $45 million on Rohingya refugees and host community members in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh does not allow the refugees to work and their mobility is restricted within the camps.

Stateless child refugees

"Over the past six years, more than 200,000 children have been born in these camps" Dutton says.

They are stateless; they have never seen their home country and have no nationality.

How the aid is used

Dutton says temporary camps made of bamboo and plastic sheets can perish quickly.

There have also been two fires in the past fortnight that damaged hundreds of camps.

In the Rohingyas' home state on the southeastern Bangladesh border, the United Nations says 15,000 Rohingyas have taken shelter.

Caritas Asia says Caritas is working with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and India to help repatriate Rohingya refugees.

Given the current situation in Myanmar, repatriation is unlikely Dutton said.

In Myanmar Dutton plans to meet leaders of the bishops' conference where Caritas runs similar aid programmes for refugees.

Source

• UCA News

In recent weeks, the Russia's Patriarch Kirill has used religious language to justify his support for Russia's military aggression.

Even Kirill's own supporters are looking elsewhere, says Dew.

"The invasion has created new ecumenical tensions. As many as 160 Russian Orthodox parishes around the world have sought to join other communions as a result."

Dew says New Zealand Church leaders, together with many others around the world, have written to Kirill expressing their "great concern about his religious justification for the war and asking him to use his influence in Moscow to bring it to an end".

Kirill's use of religious language to justify his support for Russia's military aggression is failing to impress Pope Francis who recently rejected the idea put by the Patriarch Kirill that Russia's Ukraine invasion is a "holy war".

During his Sunday address and blessing, Francis continued his implicit criticism of Russia, calling the conflict in Ukraine an unjustified "senseless massacre".

"The violent aggression against Ukraine is unfortunately not slowing down," he told about 30,000 people in St Peter's Square.

"It is a senseless massacre where every day slaughters and atrocities are being repeated," Francis said in his latest strong condemnation of the war, which has so far avoided mentioning Russia by name.

"There is no justification for this," he added.

Moscow says the action it launched on February 24 is a "special military operation" designed not to occupy territory but to demilitarise its neighbour and purge it what it sees as dangerous nationalists. Francis has already rejected that terminology.

"I beg all the players in the international community to truly commit themselves to stopping this repugnant war," the pope said, drawing loud cheers and applause from the crowd.

"Even this week missiles and bombs hit civilians, the elderly, children and pregnant mothers," he said.

Source

• Supplied
• Reuters

With a background in strategic planning and the experience of serving as dean of a major Catholic business school—the University of Notre Dame's acclaimed Mendoza College of Business—Woo also brings a sharp business acumen to running an agency dependent upon the support of others to carry out its work.

In these excerpts from the interview we conducted with her for our May 2013 issue, Woo discusses business ethics, funding challenges, and passing on the faith.

How did you become interested in studying business?

My academic training was in strategy. There are very few people who specialize in strategy and strategic planning. I was 21 years old when I decided that I wanted to get a Ph.D. in strategy, although I don't know why I did it. It was a new field, people didn't know much about it and neither did I.

But it was the opposite of my undergraduate major, which was economics. I wanted something really broad, but it might not have been the best major for a person without experience. I grew to love it though. And now my role and my contribution to CRS is to make sure that we are strategically on track and that we are organizationally healthy in fulfilling our mission.

Having worked at a Catholic business school, how important do you think it is to teach ethics and values to business leaders in today's world?

Development cannot take place without business, because in the end, business is there to create jobs. They don't only create a market for products, but behind the products are people and talent. If there's no market, there's no place for exchange, and we will be tending to our own little plot somewhere. Continue reading

Sources

• U.S. Catholic
• Image: Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand

The Catholic aid network is urging donors to devote more resources to provide food, shelter and clean water to millions of people in need.

Heavy monsoon rains began to inundate large areas of southern Pakistan in late July 2011. As the months wore on, the floods swamped villages across the province of Sindh. According to the United Nations, more than five million people are affected.

In September, the U.N. called on the international community to donate $357 million US (258 million euros) to the crisis. Despite the scale of the need, the UN appeal has received only 20 percent of the required funding as of mid-October.

A Caritas Internationalis appeal for $4.7 million US (3.4 million euros) for food aid, shelter, and medical help is also underfunded with only 25 percent of the appeal covered .

Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Michel Roy said, "The desperate situation in Pakistan needs to be addressed by the international community quickly otherwise we will face an even greater humanitarian crisis.

"We have seen a series of emergencies across East Africa, Central America and South East Asia over the last few weeks and months. Each deserve our attention. Each put a burden on our resources in this time of economic uncertainty. That doesn't mean we can turn away from Pakistan."

"Millions of people in Sindh are at risk of disease and hunger because of the floods. As I have witnessed myself, the needs are very real. Families saw their homes and crops taken by the floodwaters. The homes there are made of mud, so they just melt. They are left with nothing. We must dig deep to provide the necessary funds for the people of Pakistan affected by this crisis."

Caritas is providing food, shelter, medical care and other aid to families in Pakistan through the national member Caritas Pakistan, as well as Catholic Relief Services (CRS is a US Caritas member) and Trócaire (Caritas Ireland).

Source: Caritas