Caritas
Overview
Caritas vision: A society where people work for their sustained development through widened
and deepened evangelization.
Caritas mission: To witness the Gospel of Christ through integral development for the common good of all people.
Core Working Areas
Caritas work is based on five key Program areas:
1. Capacity Building
2. Humanitarian
3. Livelihoods
4. Women and Gender Development
5. Information, Research and Advocacy
Caritas Activities
Caritas Objectives
Our objectives are as follows:
Caritas Kitale aims to achieve the following:
1. To improve the livelihood of the people in the Diocese starting from our small Christian
communities.
2. To protect our environment in the spirit of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si with sustainable
approach in the use of our resources and.
3. Women & Gender Development and Children rights.
4. To embrace Caritas Day (Every second Week of September) and use it as a basis for having
our hand in helping the poor & the needy in the society and development work in the
Diocese.
1. Embracing gospel values and social teachings of our church.
2. Dignity to all-Human person has to be dignified and also pay respect to our social
cultural progress.
3. Capacity and institutional strengthening so that the church mission is realized fully.
4. Solidarity-By enhancing a sense of working together harmoniously in pursuit of our
common mission.
5. Option for the poor by striving to combat the menace of dehumanizing poverty.
6. Enhancing social, economic, political and cultural advancement for all through ensuring
to seek for equitable distribution of resources.
7. Always making an effort to promote social-pastoral mission of the church.
8. Striving to instill a genuine sense of solidarity in dealing with our partners both locally
and globally.
9. Promoting a sense of stewardship with the resources entrusted to as in an efficient,
effective, transparent and accountable manner.
10. Mutual participation and integral human development in our endeavours and daily
undertakes.
Caritas Day
"In solidarity with the poor"
In The Catholic Diocese of Kitale, Caritas Day is celebrated every second Sunday of September.
The day is preceded with preparation in the caritas week which eventually culminates to Caritas Day on Sunday.
A 15 year agenda. Agreed by 193 head of states. 17 goals also known as the global goals for sustainable development. 169 targets. Key principles: universality, leave no one
behind, integrated and indivisible, participation. Addressing social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Strong voice of the church in line with catholic social teaching principles and values. This ambitious plan needs all of us!
Global goals = global efforts Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato Si is addressing the connection between dignity, development and human ecology. The church can build
public awareness for an understanding, ownership and participation in this agenda. The church can act internally – guiding the work of its Caritas organizations in line with the encyclical letter and the SDGs.
Steps to Localizing the SDGs
1. Awareness Raising: Getting To Know the SDGs at Local Level
2. Advocacy: Including A County Perspective In National Sdgs Strategies
3. Implementation: The SDGs Go Local
4. Monitoring: Evaluating And Learning From Our Experiences
The Caritas Diocesan Contextual Analysis highlights the challenges faced by vulnerable communities due to severe drought, frequent floods, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Access to basic needs like food, water, and shelter has become difficult, and conflicts over natural resources have arisen. Global challenges, such as moving closer to wild animals, have potentially contributed to the contraction of viruses like COVID-19. The pandemic has pushed over a billion people into poverty, derailing efforts to uplift the vulnerable. Excess chemical use has led to pollution and health problems, affecting relationships among people.
The analysis calls for stakeholders to embrace homegrown solutions, listen to each other, and work together to address these issues. Supporting those displaced by natural or manmade factors is essential. Education is crucial in nurturing conservation efforts, caring for others and the environment. The use of green and clean energy is encouraged to reduce emissions. The Caritas family supports initiatives tackling global challenges and emphasizes the importance of responding to the needs of the vulnerable.
Teachers are urged to instill values in students to become future leaders, environmentalists, and advocates for transparency and accountability. Taking care of the environment will create a safer place for all and pave the way for a better future. The Caritas Diocesan Director is responsible for coordinating various development-related departments in the Diocese and facilitating development programs and projects.
Overall, the analysis stresses the need for collaborative efforts, education, and sustainable practices to address social, economic, and environmental challenges faced by vulnerable communities.
The current Diocesan Caritas Director is Mr. Alexander Barasa.
Our Programs and Projects
The official Diocesan Tree planting exercise and environment conservation was launched on 3rd April by Our Bishop Henry Juma Odonya at Mary Immaculate Primary. We appreciate our Bishop for being the leading environmentalist in our Diocese and for making the function successful. Partners, Kenya Forest Service and Kenya Seed Company, we appreciate you. Our Vicar General, all our priests, institutions that attended and Diocesan staff thank you and let us continue with the spirit. We urge all stakeholders to come together and continue with conservation and protection of our environment, foster environmental education and plant trees.
Sun24 has developed a way for smallholder farmers to make free organic fertilizer that will double their crop yield. Our aim through this project is every farmer to easily make their fertilizer in two (2) years.
Most African farmers burn piles of maize stalks after every season. They make large piles, light the piles on the side, the pile explodes into smoke and they let the embers burn to ash. (Left pile in the video.) Instead, we train farmers to light the pile on top. The smoke magically disappears. The farmers then smother the embers with dirt to make free BIOCHAR.
Biochar is an amazing organic fertilizer. It is nearly pure carbon that will improve soil forever. (Chemical fertilizers destroy soil after years of application.) When “charged” with nutrients, biochar is a better fertilizer than expensive chemical fertilizers. We train farmers to charge their biochar by soaking it with their family’s human urine. Urine is loaded with nutrients which are
absorbed by biochar.
When planting maize or shortly after the plant emerges, a handful of biochar can be applied to each stalk. The farmer will double his yield. With our partners each institution i.e. school or farmer has to sign a contract with Caritas Kitale so that after harvest some maize is shared with us to further the project. There are several interventions in the pipelines which together with our stakeholders we will share with you in due course.