ASIA REGIONAL WEBINAR CARITAS COVID-19 RESPONSE IN ASIA
Capturing the COVID-19 response stories of Caritas Member Organizations in Asia
Asia is home to 25 Caritas Member Organizations that are consistently working with vulnerable communities in making them better prepared and more resilient to natural and man-made disasters. All through the years, the Caritas MOs in Asia have been at the forefront of responding to various disasters through emergency response or humanitarian programs carried out at parish, diocesan, national or regional levels.
But two months into the year 2020, humanity is faced with the vicious spread of COVID-19, which has disrupted literally all of humanity and triggered an unprecedented humanitarian situation that has caught the humanitarian sector, including Caritas, into quickly scampering for new approaches. COVID-19, which has been declared a pandemic in just a few weeks of its spread, requires a completely different approach, compared to the other natural disasters.
In responding to the enormous effects of COVID-19, the Caritas Confederation is inspired by the words of Pope Francis in his Holy Week Message ‘Creativity of love can overcome isolation’[1] and his 'Urbi et Orbi’ [2] message on Easter Sunday that challenges everyone to ban indifference, self-centeredness, division and forgetfulness during this time of COVID -19 – and to spread the “contagion” of hope. The Confederation also finds inspiration in the words of its president, H.E. Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, encouraging all Caritas organizations to face the global emergency as one confederation and working in unity[3] in spreading the “pandemic” of hope, caring, compassion and love through humanitarian assistances to smallholder farmers, migrants and refugees, children, elderly, people with disabilities, and vulnerable communities.
To date, Caritas MOs in Asia, have demonstrated a significant achievement in providing humanitarian aid to the people affected by COVID-19 in the region. The response varies according to the capacity of each MO.
Caritas Asia acknowledges great works done by Caritas member organizations in Asia in this challenging time and is organizing a regional webinar to provide a space for sharing of best practices and experiences on COVID-19 humanitarian response. This webinar is organized to celebrate the World Humanitarian Day (celebrated each year on August 19th) and is intended to deepen the ongoing discussion of localization in Caritas Asia.
Join us on August 19th, 2020 at 3 – 5 pm (Thailand Time) in this link to find out more on how the inspiring words of Pope Francis and Cardinal Tagle have been put into practice by the Caritas MOs in Asia through their respective humanitarian responses to COVID-19. Through the webinar, we intend to :
- Underscore best practices and experiences on COVID-19 response, in order to bring about possible areas of cooperation, replication, or synergy among MOs.
- Identify challenges and opportunities on Caritas humanitarian response in the Asia region, in the context of the changing humanitarian approach because of COVID-19.
- Explore ways of moving forward on Localization as a Caritas family in Asia by considering the current experiences of Caritas MOs in Asia in COVID-19 humanitarian response.
[1] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-04/pope-francis-holy-week-2020-message-coronavirus.html
[2] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-04/pope-easter-urbi-et-orbi-blessing.html
[3] Easter 2020 Message, Cardinal Tagle, April 2020 https://www.caritas.org/2020/04/cardinal-tagle-easter-2020-message-global-unity-in-the-face-of-the-pandemic/