About Us

Asia is a region that has been severely affected by a multitude of disasters and the possibilities of new disasters affecting the region in the coming years remain high. Many counties in Asia are considered to be in the disaster-prone belts for the recurrence of, among others, cyclones, typhoon, floods, earthquakes, and tsunami. In addition, climate change, political instabilities, rapid urbanization, urban vulnerability and human ecology are some of the main contributing factors that may trigger humanitarian crisis situation in the coming years, which impacts being amplified under the COVID-19 context.

The spread of COVID-19 in early 2020 disrupted literally all of humanity and triggered an unprecedented humanitarian situation that has caught the humanitarian sector, including Caritas Member Organizations (MOs) in Asia, into quickly scampering for new approaches. COVID-19, which has been declared a pandemic in just a few weeks of its spread, changed the humanitarian and risk reduction landscape and it requires a completely different approach, compared to the other natural disasters.

Asia is also a home of 25 Caritas MOs which consistently work with vulnerable communities preparing them to face and cope with disasters and to reduce future risks through various programs at parish, diocesan, national and regional levels. Through years of experience in helping communities and responding to the needs of the poor and vulnerable in the region, Caritas MOs in Asia believe that enhancing local capacity and leadership is crucial in disaster preparedness and risk reduction initiatives. Caritas MOs, in line with the strategic goals of the confederation and the region, are highly committed to continuously improve both institutions and personnel capacities, including volunteers, in responding to the occurring humanitarian crisis in the region by providing various capacity building opportunities and learning platforms for knowledge exchanges as well as participation in different regional and global conferences.

This page is available as a platform for knowledge and information sharing of various capacity building initiatives of Caritas organizations in Asia region.

PEACH

Asia region is prone to various hazards. In fact, the disaster trend in this region is raising on the last years, either because of natural or man made hazards. The risk in this region is getting higher due to some factors, such as climate change, political instabilities, rapid urbanisation and other ecological events. In this context, Caritas Asia and Caritas Austria developed the PEACH 1 and 2 Projects (European-Asian Partnership for Building Capacities in Humanitarian Action )to answer the needs of Caritas Member Organizations (MOs) in Asia in order to address issues on disaster and to respond the disaster victims on the present time and in the future.

PEACH 1 project was implemented from April 2016 to March 2018 by six participating members, namely Caritas Bangladesh, Caritas India, Karuna Myanmar Social Service (KMSS – Caritas Myanmar), Caritas Nepal, Caritas Pakistan and National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA – Caritas Philippines).

PEACH 2 Project was implemented from April 2018 to March 2020. In addition to the previous project participants, PEACH 2 Project was joined by two new members, namely Caritas Indonesia and Caritas Mongolia. These projects was facilitated by Caritas Czech Republic and Caritas Romania as the supporting partners and Caritas Austria and Caritas Asia as the program partners.

Within the period of four years, PEACH projects had been able to provide the MOs opportunity to develop their staffs and volunteers’ capacities through some trainings and workshops and also opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience on the humanitarian aid and volunteer management. Those capacity buildings were intended to fulfil the MOs’ needs both on the operational and strategic levels. Then, MOs will be able to strengthen themselves on the volunteer management and humanitarian aid according to the EU Standards.

Besides the capacity building activities, PEACH Project also provide an online platform which manage the knowledge and experience of MOs in the volunteer management and humanitarian aid fields. During the project, MOs could access and contributed to the database in order to get the training materials, best practices, success story, etc.

SHAPE

After completion of PEACH Project in 2020, Caritas Asia and Caritas Austria came into another agreement to sustain the learning and achievements of the previous two PEACH projects, but with regional approach and is open to all 25 Caritas Member Organizations in Asia (MOs) to participates.

SHAPE (Strengthening Humanitarian Action, Partnership, and Exchange in Asia) as the new project as well as the continuation of the previous projects, is designed to strengthen capacities and enable MOs to build capacities on the humanitarian aid and to respond the disaster timely, effectively and professional. Caritas Asia and Caritas Austria’s expectation is that the continuation of the past project will make MOs to be able to respond disasters and to fulfil the disaster affected population’s needs based on contexts of different countries. The online platform which was developed under the PEACH Project, is then maximised for use in this new project.

The SHAPE Project is expected to benefit the 25 MOs in the region and become the platform to strengthen humanitarian aid’s network in Asia. This project not only focus on the capacity building program but also on the regional support mechanism to strengthen the emergency response in the region. In addition, this project also provides an online platform to share knowledge and experience and endorse the community of practice to strengthen the organizations’ capacity in humanitarian aid and volunteer management. This project is started on December 1, 2020 and will end on December 31, 2025.