The Prince of Asturias Foundation
Cáritas Española is a branch of the Catholic Church devoted to charity and social work; it works unflaggingly in the struggle against the causes and effects of social ostracism, inequality and poverty. Cáritas Española organises its programmes around its General Services and its Parish and Diocese Cáritas groups, where work teams strive to be a model for the Christian community they form part of, and whose basic task is to involve individuals and communities as a whole in the search for solutions to the social problems that arise within the community. At a national level, Cáritas uses teams of sociologists of proven ability and reliability to constantly analyse, study and assess the different kinds of poverty that exist in our country.
While Cáritas works to support marginalised groups, it also campaigns against the structural causes of poverty and social ostracism. The elderly with no economic resources, victims of broken homes, the long-term unemployed, young people in search of their first job, AIDS victims, rural populations suffering economic depression, immigrants, the drug-dependent, the handicapped, ostracised social groups such a vagabonds and the homeless, and members of ethnic minorities are all the immediate focus of attention for this organisation dedicated to providing help and solidarity. In 1998, it invested over 20,000 million pesetas in humanitarian and social aid and in improvement programmes. These resources are of diverse origin, ranging from voluntary contributions from private individuals (75%) to grants given by public bodies, such as the funds obtained from Income Tax contributions (about 25%). Cáritas Española forms part of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 162 Catholic providing relief, development and social service organisations which is present in over 200 countries. Caritas Internationalis is divided up into seven regions; Cáritas Española belongs to one of these, Caritas Europa, which is made up of 49 Caritas organisations in all. The network works jointly with European institutions, EU Member States and various public and private partners. Caritas Europa’s activities focus on advocacy work before the European institutions in relation to poverty, social inequality and migration. It likewise provides firm support to all its members in international cooperation, humanitarian aid, development and peace activities.
Cáritas Española has a staff of 65,000 volunteers and 4,481 hired professionals.
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