Caritas Nigeria Launches Six-Year Strategic Plan with Focus on Peace Building

Lagos, 23 September, 2024 / 6:46 PM

The celebration of Caritas Day 2024 has ended in Nigeria with the launch of the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan of Caritas Nigeria which will focus on a number of interventions, key among them peace building.

In an interview with ACI Africa on the sidelines of the Sunday, September 22 event at Holy Cross Cathedral of Nigeria’s Lagos Archdiocese, the Executive Secretary of the development and humanitarian arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) said the plan contains the agency’s six-year mission in health through a number of other interventions.

“The plan encompasses elements like emergency relief and humanitarian response, reduction of poverty, a safe future for irregular migrants and refugees, good governance, peace-building, civic responsibility, care for mother earth, and basic education for all,” Fr. Uchechukwu Obodoechina said.

He said the organization has maintained strong partnerships with local and international state and non-state bodies, key stakeholders, and funders in line with its mission of achieving well-being for all through a participatory approach.

Caritas Nigeria is a member of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 162 member countries providing relief and supporting human development worldwide.

“The projects are funded by bilateral and multilateral donors and the donors are happy for their money is judiciously put to use,” Fr. Obodoechina said.

According to the Caritas Nigeria Executive Secretary, the agency through the church structures across the 60 Dioceses and Archdioceses, is impacting lives and the environment to sustain humanity.

The Nigerian Catholic Priest said that the agency’s projects, tailored towards the less privileged and vulnerable groups in hard-to-reach locations, were administered regardless of religion, ethnicity or political affiliation.

On his part, the Local Ordinary of Lagos Archdiocese, who doubles as Board Chair of Caritas Nigeria said that the organization through its interventions has impacted the lives of many people in Nigeria.

“The agency has been instrumental in providing agricultural input support to farmers, nutritional support to acutely malnourished children and young people, and education in emergency initiatives in many communities and needs support to sustain the good works,” Archbishop Alfred Adewale Martins said.

He added, “The agency, aligning with its international body, has provided water sanitation and hygiene services such as boreholes, latrines and water pumps.”