How We Work

CARITAS for Children focuses on the development of resources and provides assistance in creating and identifying the tools and communications needed for its partners to carry out the work in the field…where the children and families being served live. It starts by identifying the local needs in which each program exists and in almost 100% of the time, the work in the field is conducted, led and or managed by communities of recognized Catholic men and women religious.

Our choice about with whom to partner was simple and practical…as well, it provides many intrinsic benefits to maximize the investment of money being raised and used to carry out the respective missions. To build a force of lay people, trusted, competent, willing and dedicated to the vocation of serving the needs of others is possible, however, it takes many years and millions of dollars, extensive systems of management control and leadership…all of which are uniquely provided by our partners from the moment a new program location is identified.

There are religious communities through out the world that have existed for well over a thousand years whose Orders were founded on the Rules of St. Francis, St. Ignatius, St. Augustine, St. Dominic, St. Benedict and others. The services being provided in all cases have already been well established at least in principal if not in practice for decades to hundreds of years. We are pleased to work with these fine and educated people of God because they already know the mission at hand. They understand the love of God and they have dedicated their entire lives to this service.  We can not think of any other similar situation where such a combination of development, training, love and care can better be found to carry out this work.

“Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up. So then, while we have the opportunity, let us do good to all, but especially to those who belong to the family of the faith.” (Gal. 6:9-10)

CARITAS partners were born, raised and speak all the languages needed to reach the people they serve. We could not achieve or trust more than we can with these people. We believe that our donors, sponsors, overall financial and prayer supporters could not more earnestly agree and require CARITAS to have this level of accountability.

In practice, the major points of our missionary work are:

“Love—caritas—will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love. Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such. There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbor is indispensable. The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. […] This love does not simply offer people material help, but refreshment and care for their souls, something which often is even more necessary than material support.” (Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI)