Caritas Zimbabwe

Caritas Zimbabwe as a Catholic agency

Caritas Zimbabwe is a member of Caritas Internationalis (CI), a worldwide federation of the Catholic Church relief and development organisations. Caritas Zimbabwe is an active member of CI at the zone level (Inter Regional Meeting of Bishops in Southern Africa- IMBISA) whose membership comprises countries in the southern Africa region .

Caritas Zimbabwe was established in 1972 as a development initiative and also responds to the emergency situation that prevailed in the country at the time that a liberation war was being fought.

The purpose for which Caritas Zimbabwe shall exist in Zimbabwe is to carry out community developmental and humanitarian work involving the deprived children, their families and communities in order to improve their economic and social conditions. Catholic Church’s social teachings are the basic foundation of the organization.

The objectives and policy guidelines of Caritas Zimbabwe are described in the Operations Guidelines, Strategic Plans and other relevant Caritas Zimbabwe documents.

Today, Caritas Zimbabwe operates with staff stationed countrywide. 100% of staff in the dioceses is recruited locally. Volunteers from local communities help implement Caritas Zimbabwe’s projects in the dioceses. Caritas Zimbabwe is currently working in 8 Program dioceses with a total country caseload of over 245,000 beneficiaries. The Dioceses are namely, Harare, Mutare, Masvingo, Bulawayo, Gweru, Chinhoyi, Hwange and Gokwe.

Program Themes/ Focus areas
The program themes define the scope of Caritas Zimbabwe's work implemented in dioceses and these are: Emergency Relief Program seeks to restore human dignity with love by responding to needs of victims of various calamities regardless of creed, race, gender, ethnicity or other social grouping. Includes refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), orphans & vulnerable children (OVCs).

Public Health Program: seeks to ensure the survival ...more	Education & Training Program: seeks to ensure that children, youth ...more	Water & Sanitation Program: seeks to ensure that families live in secure, ...more
HIV/AIDS Program: acknowledges that the coping mechanisms ...more	Livelihood & Food Security Program: seeks to increase food security and ...more