Caritas Africa, one of the seven regions of Caritas Internationalis, a public canonical juridical person dedicated to the service of the poor and to the promotion of charity and justice, regroups 46 national Caritas organisations of sub-Saharan Africa.
[mappress mapid= »1″]
In July 2013, the Bishops, members of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), decided that Caritas Africa be an integral part of its structures and its headquarters, which were until then in Lomé, Togo, to be moved to Accra, Ghana. The Statutes and Internal Rules of Caritas Africa were ratified by the Bishops in October 2014 before being submitted for study to the Pontifical Council COR UNUM shortly before the regional Conference which took place during the month of May 2015 in Rome.
Caritas Africa is at the heart of the Church’s mission in Africa. In serving the poor, it is a sign of God’s love for humanity in Jesus Christ. The work of Caritas is inspired by Scripture, Catholic Social Teaching and by the experiences and hopes of people who are disadvantaged and are living in poverty. Caritas works with people of all faiths and none.
The strength of Caritas in Africa is its widespread network. It is not only present in 46 countries, but also in every country, it works actively at diocesan and parish levels. Thus Caritas members in Africa employ more than 38 000 people supported by more than 453 000 volunteers.
Altogether, Caritas organisations in sub-Saharan Africa reach out more than 73 million beneficiaries. It is estimated that the overall annual budget of all these organisations amounts to more than 182 million euro combined with the work and resources mobilised and used by individual sub-Saharan Caritas member organisations. This does not include the programmes and budgets of other individual Caritas Internationalis members that support the socio-development in Africa which amount to thousands of millions euro.