Beloved Friends and Colleagues!
1. On this Sunday, the 6th of Easter, I bring you greetings of peace and joy. It is my desire on, a day like this, so to refresh your memories with some facts and some pieces of information about our Organization, some facts you have known before, but may need to internalize and make them more evident in your operations and activities.
2. Caritas Nigeria is a faith-based, not –for- profit, and non-governmental organization. As you know, this organization was set up by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria on 24th September 2010. Its vision is a harmonious society where everyone enjoys the fullness of life. While its mission is to advance the well-being of all through participatory measures in line with Catholic Social Teaching.
3. According the Statues establishing this Organization, the aims and objectives for the establishment include the following:
a. To establish a charity arm for the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria.
b. To promote the quality of life for all people thereby empowering people through development programmes in areas of basic needs like Agriculture, water, health and shelter, monitoring the use of natural resources for the benefit of the nation and protection and preservation of the natural environment and the ecosystem.
c. To enhance peace building and conflict resolution processes by so doing; training identified leaders in peace building and conflict resolution, monitoring crises areas and promotion of non-violence.
d. To make preferential option for the poor and the marginalized through empowerment and rehabilitation programmes, to get beggars off the streets and to rehabilitate them, to take care of destitutes and to generally contribute to the empowerment of individuals when they lack the opportunity to be better persons in the society.
e. To engage in activities aimed at alleviating poverty among women and youth in our environment to wit: organizing workshops, seminars and provision of Micro-credit to train participants.
f. To set up skill acquisition centers for the unemployed youths, widows and Refugees for the purpose of empowering them to be self-reliant.
g. To take corrective actions for the integral development and social welfare of people in needs assessment and fact finding, election observation, to strengthen and sustain civil society participation in governance.
h. To intervene in emergencies and aid victims of natural disasters, violent conflicts and other situations which deserve immediate response.
i. To build emergency response unites and an Early Warning System all over the country, regularly train Emergency Response Units and generate resources for preventive measures and relief Aid locally and internationally.
j. To partner with other charities, NGOs and Development Institutions in bringing about social development and behavioral change in society.
k. To raise partners and volunteers who will be trained in carrying out the objectives of Caritas Nigeria.
l. To establish, maintain and operate recreation centers, camps, rest houses and educational institutions and to visit hospitals, prisons, orphanages and destitutes homes for the purposes of enlightening the inmates and molding them into acceptance in the society, giving them a sense of direction and belonging and contributing in their rehabilitation, reformation and reintegration.
4. Beloved Friends, and Collegues, you can bear me witness, that the assignment before us is an ambitious one. It is such a herculian task that nothing short of faith and love are adequate enough for a solution. We require an enormous faith in God to accomplish the set objectives. It is therefore, not surprising that our Organization is a faith -based one. We live and work by faith. And so let us renew our faith and confidence in him, who is able to chart our paths and purposes to their ends.
5. We are consoled that we are not alone in this assignment. The Organization has a Board of Trustees comprising of three Archbishops who are always eager to come to our aid, with sound counsel and support. There is also the Board of Directors chaired by an Archbishop with a team of other Professionals in the various areas of Management, Finance, Medicine and Law including Corporate Governacne. The Senior Management Team of our Organization is also an asset. What do we say of you, who are experts in the various areas of our interventions? You give me hope and with it, I can face the challenges involved in the services we have been called to render.
6. I urge each and everyone of you, in all your works and interventions, where ever you are, in the states or at the Headquarter, irrespective of your type of work, you must bear in mind the aims and objectives of our Organization. These aims and objectives constitute the essence of our engagment. We would constantly remind us of this obligation.
7. Let it therefore be known, that there is No project or Program that has pre-eminence over the Organisation. Every Staff belongs to the Organization and not to any sinlge Project or Programm. The Oragnization is foundational. Projects or Programmes derive their essences and implementation relevance in the vision and mission of the Organization. In other words, Projects and Programmes could go, while the Organization could remain in diverse forms and styles. We would realize the vision and mission of our Organization through the interventions we do.
8. To internalize these realities, we would be emabarking on a number of measures. We would encourage the mainstreaming of basic Catholic Social Teaching in most of our Conferences and trainings. We would review and produce our policies and principles of actions and make them available to members. We thank the Committee working on the Standard Operating Principles and the Team of Editors working on the 99 months history and achievement of our Organization. The results of their endeavours would soon be made public.
