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Every year, International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8 with great enthusiasm across the world to honour and treasure the women in one’s daily lives and womanhood in general. This year the theme for International Women’s day for 2022 was ‘ Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.” Caritas Sri Lanka –SEDEC celebrated International…

The feast day of St. Bakhita the patron saint for the victims of modern slavery and human trafficking was celebrated on 8th February. St. Bakhita, a Sudanese nun also known as ‘Mother Moretta’ experienced the moral and physical humiliations associated with slavery in the hands of kidnappers at the age of nine itself. Her story…

Sustaining interreligious dialogue in a persuasive manner has been a pressing need of the time. Examining the trends of interreligious dialogue requires continuous review, learning, and reflection. Hence, Caritas Sri Lanka in consultation with the Secretariat of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue convened a lecture and experts’ discussion, on 23rd January 2022, on…

Caritas Sri Lanka, the social arm of the Catholic Church has been instrumental in promoting sustained relationships through justice, peace & reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Our initiatives have focused on ensuring greater inclusion of vulnerable communities in social, political and economic life; access to quality basic services; freedom without exploitative practices; ability to voice their…

“Fish” contribute significantly to the protein intake of the people of Sri Lanka with 70 percent of the annual protein consumption being derived from fish. According to the statistics, Freshwater fishery contributes about 20% of the total fish production of the country. Aquaculture in Sri Lanka is based on pond fish culture and seasonal village…

A 2-day pre-orientation programme was held in Mahagastota, Nuwaraeliya on 29 and 30 November 2021 under the new programme designed for the empowerment of the tea plantation communities in Sri Lanka. The programme comes with a 10-year vision and is titled, “Lighting the Lives” – Empowering the Green Gold Harvesters, which is an extension of…

Caritas Internationalis celebrate its 70th Anniversary today, and it has passed seven decades since the constituent assembly of Confederation met in Rome from 12 to 14 December 1951. During the early years there were only 14 caritas members in the confederation while today there are 162 operating in 200 countries and territories. Since its inception,…

“I was so impressed with this VKC model to render distant services from a single window point to rural masses of remote areas” -Issatheen- Village Focal Point / Key local driver for knowledge service   Issatheen is one of our passionate smallholder farmers and retired government worker from Minukkan Village, – Mannar who has joined…

Mr. Aron Halfen, Senior Advisor, Caritas Norway visited the Food Security program field locations in Chilaw, Mannar, Jaffna, Vanni and Kandy on 17th to 22nd November 2021 accompanied by the Rev. Father Mahendra Gunatilleke, National Director, Mr. Priyantha Fernando, Program Manager, Mrs. Nilani Tissera, National Program Coordinator, and Mr. Nishanth, Regional Coordinator (North & East) from Caritas…

With the onset of the pandemic, the education of children has faced with numerous difficulties. According to the global statistics and reports from UNESCO, the closure and clock down situations have badly affected the usual education pattern of children, prompting many disadvantaged and vulnerable children to move away from the formal school education system. Further…

“OUR ACTIONS ARE OUR FUTURE ”Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life”  World Food Day was created by the UN in 1979, recognizing food as not a privilege but a right. It’s a day to draw attention to the hungry and the undernourished, and to ensure healthy diets for all. Caritas…

Social protection in Sri Lanka is a vast subject and it needs to be dealt with statistics and many aspects in detail to have a very clear picture of the subject. Since this cannot be dealt in 05 minutes I wanted to limit myself to same reflections which are common to Sri Lank and the…

Caritas Sri Lanka in collaboration with its local and international partners has been constantly engaging in work of humanitarian aid to strengthen and empower the less privileged communities of our nation. Especially the partners contribution as funding and capacity building has been brought about better living conditions, improved coexistence and positive appeals within inter-cultural setups…

The newly constructed CSL-SEDEC Building at the Caritas Sri Lanka compound was blessed and opened on 18th August 2021 by Rt. Rev. Dr. J. Winston S. Fernando S.S.S. President, CBCSL together with Rt. Rev. Dr. Justin B. Gnanapragasam, Chairman of the Commission of Justice, Peace and Human Development and Rt. Rev. Dr. Maxwell G. Silva,…

The obligation to establish a Social and Economic Development Centre for the benefit of the destitute, the downtrodden and marginalized people of the nation, fortifying the Catholic Social Teachings on the life and dignity of the human person and work of solidarity, was the development of late, His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Cooray. Fr. Joe Fernando…

Responding to the cry of the planet is an urgent call for action. Caritas Sri Lanka collaborated with The British Council Sri Lanka, to conduct workshops in the Diocese of Chilaw focusing on Climate Action using Active Citizens methodology. The workshops were conducted  in two batches from 1st March to 6th March 2021 and from…

Sethmini Caritas Ratnapura have been implementing a number of development programmes for the betterment of   the plantation community in the Sabaragamuwa Province. Estate workers in this region suffer due to poverty, daily wage system, line rooms, lack of access to safe water, low level of education, poor access to health, transport facilities and language barriers…

Caritas Sri Lanka-SEDEC is implementing this program by aiming to safeguard food security for subsistence farmer households in urban & rural poor and marginalized communities inclusive of war widows, women, youth, school children, pre-school children and their mothers by switching over to sustainable agricultural practices and to protect them from malnourishment by 2022. The program…

Caritas Sri Lanka is an organization which reaches out to uplift the lives of people in a holistic approach. We are concerned about the financial, social, psychological and spiritual aspect of every individual we serve and right now it is an urgent need to respond to the cry of the planet which is being destroyed…

In view of the next Strategic Plan of Caritas Sri Lanka – SEDEC, two contextual analysis virtual study sessions were organized recently. On 9th of June 2021, the discussion titled, “ An Analysis of the Present Socio Political Context of Sri Lanka” was organized and the guest speaker was Emeritus Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda from the…