Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese RELEASE
10 Jul 2013
10 Jul 2013
In PNG Project Compassion supports skills and awareness programs
Project Compassion, Caritas Australia's annual fundraiser has broken all records to raise just under $11 million. Last year the Caritas raised $10.7 million but despite a tightening economic climate, Australians dug deep this year to help the world's poorest communities.
With a total just shy of $11 million, Caritas Australia's Head of Community Engagement, Helen Forde says every single dollar will make a difference and help change lives and offer those in poverty-stricken communities the chance of a better life and a better future.
"To raise this amount is an amazing achievement. Every year we are humbled by the continued support of the thousands of every day Australians and are overwhelmed by their generosity," Ms Forde says.
Caritas is the aid and development arm of the Catholic Church and with its Caritas Internationalis partners along with other aid agencies, is not only on hand to help during natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies such as the drought of East Africa last year or the floods that swept through Mozambique earlier this year, but has teams on the ground helping entire communities with education, health, hygiene, sustainable farming and water conservation.
Caritas is the aid and development arm of the Catholic Church and with its Caritas Internationalis partners along with other aid agencies, is not only on hand to help during natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies such as the drought of East Africa last year or the floods that swept through Mozambique earlier this year, but has teams on the ground helping entire communities with education, health, hygiene, sustainable farming and water conservation.
Flooding in Mozambique in January this year displaced 70,000
Ms Forde says it is thanks to the many thousands of supporters in Australia's schools, parishes, towns and cities that Caritas and its partners are able to change lives for the better and help create safe supportive environments for communities in more than 200 countries worldwide.
Project Compassion is a Lenten fundraiser and was launched on Ash Wednesday this year by the Archbishop of Sydney and former chair of Caritas Australia, Cardinal George Pell.
Now in its 49th year, this year's Project Compassion took the theme: "Open doors into the future," from Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI's 2007 encyclical Spe Salvi.
Specific projects which will be supported by some of the funds raised this year will go towards Early Childhood and Safe Motherhood initiatives in Bangladesh as well as helping the poorest communities of Australia's two nearest neighbours, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.
Caritas Australia has made important inroads in HIV/AIDS programs particularly in PNG and is also helping with the battle against the return of TB which has re-emerged in PNG with deadly consequences.
Sr Julienne Hayes-Smith with women in Fulbaria Bangladesh where she helped train midwives and worked closely with Caritas to reduce maternal mortality
While many nations imagine TB is a disease of the past, PNG has experienced a resurgence of the disease and the emergence of a particularly virulent drug-resistant strain.
Some of the other funds raised during this year's Project Compassion will go towards helping victims of the disastrous floods in Mozambique at the beginning of the year as well as towards helping those caught up in ongoing crises in central Africa where millions are battling drought, hunger and conflict.
"Every dollar donated to Project Compassion makes a difference and every person participating in Project Compassion plays an important role," Ms Forde says. "The money raised really does help change lives. It makes a huge difference. Without it we simply could not do the work we do in emergency aid as well as in ongoing programs to help lift people out of poverty and give them a future."
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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