Early in 2014 I visited Mavisela, a Zimbabwean woman living in a small shack on the outskirts of a small town in South Africa.[1] She came to South Africa during the great migration from Zimbabwe in 2008, was granted an…
Faith-based organisations and local faith communities represent a major proportion of civil society capacity in many contexts vulnerable to humanitarian crisis. This makes strengthened engagement with such groups an appropriate element of strategies to enhance local and national capacity for…
The professionalisation of the humanitarian world since the Rwanda genocide in 1994 has tended to obscure the religious origins of much of humanitarian thinking and practice. The humanitarian work of UK-based international NGO CAFOD[1] is underpinned by Catholic Social Teaching…
The Catholic Church’s view of all individuals as endowed with an intrinsic human dignity is the basis for its commitment to live in solidarity with displaced populations and for the importance it places on accompaniment. Accompaniment is a way of…
Religion and faith are important factors which influence governance, social practices and beliefs affecting child protection. Child protection organisations – such as Swiss NGO Terre des hommes Foundation (Tdh) – have therefore sought to engage with religious discourses and faith-based…
Churches, monasteries, temples and mosques are located within, and are part of, local communities and know the situation on the ground far better than most. During the post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, the National Council of Churches was an…
In my view and in the course of my dealings with refugees and migrants of all kinds, faith is a spiritual attitude for reaching the core of the person – as a human being who can be called brother, friend,…
In late 2013 the Australian government launched ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’, ceasing all processing of asylum seekers for resettlement in Australia and controversially using the navy to turn boats back before they enter territorial waters. An aggressive military-themed advertising campaign was…
Caritas Luxembourg is a member of the international network of Caritas Internationalis and inspired by Catholic Social Teaching. The organisation regards itself as non-discriminatory, committed to international humanitarian principles and respectful of culture and custom. The collaboration between Caritas Luxembourg…
The Luxembourg government works closely with civil society organisations and multilateral agencies in order to improve the living conditions of populations affected by natural disasters or conflicts and to prevent and mitigate the effects of humanitarian crises. Neither the religious…