Caritas India National Assembly of the Diocesan Directors of Social Apostolate echoed its commitment for transformation through strategic pillars of Empowerment Animation, Dialogue, Volunteering and Sharing Communities.

The biennial assembly on 17 and 18 October 2018 at St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, brought the Directors of Social work from across the country to a common platform for mutual sharing and learning from the exchange of knowledge, practice, challenges and way ahead.

The overarching theme of the Assembly ‘Faith4Impact’, is the vision of Caritas India and her partners to take the Good News and hope to the marginalised, by facilitating a force for transformation within them, through the faith inspired actions for sustainable impact.

Fr. Paul Moonjely, Executive Director of Caritas India in his introductory address said, “Our mission is to have actionable life and create impact in our own and others’ lives”. He stated that Diakonia is the guiding force – a mission for establishing and safeguarding justice and dignity through our operational reach.

Michel Roy, the Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis, joining in online, stated that Caritas and Diakonia were synonymous. Speaking about the synergy between the strategies of both Caritas India and Internationalis towards the common mission, he emphasised how being faith-inspired organisation, Caritas is different from just being another NGO and exists to translate the mission of the church to create broader impact. He stressed on building global solidarity to make Caritas confederation more effective.

In his presidential address, Chairman of Caritas India, Bishop Lumen Monteiro, underlined the challenges emerging from the imbalance of economic and social development indicators, socio-economic and political marginalisation and inequalities, which Caritas India and its partners as extended members of the Church need to take on through the Diakonia ministry, putting Catholic Social Teachings into action.

H.E. Joshua Mar Ignathios, Vice President – I of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India appreciated the move and said, “Caritas India is enabling and empowering the poor through its social action. The strategic pillars are well-calibrated process of envisioning definite direction in nation building with broad spectrum using knowledge capital, meticulous planning, and dialogue, and is a proactive response of Catholic Church”.

Caritas India strategic pillars Empowering Animation, Volunteering, Dialogue & Sharing Community were deliberated by eminent personalities like Rajendra Singh, popular as the ‘Waterman of India’; Antoinette Lopez, Volunteer Lead from ACCENTURE; Sandeep Chachra, Country Director of Action Aid India and Fr. Jegath Gaspar, Vision Head, ReGreen Chennai.

Babita Alick, Operations Manager, presented the context and process vis-à-vis core components of the Strategic Plan 2018-23, following which the Regional Forums got into an exercise deliberating how the Strategic Plan would be localised in their respective contexts. Subsequently,  the National Action Plan based on the deliberations was shared by Dr. Saju MK, Zone Manager-  West, Lee Macqueen, Manager – Advocacy & Child Rights and Dr. Haridas, Manager- Climate Adaptive Agriculture and Sustainable Livelihoods.

The two-day deliberations concluded with the adoption of the Assembly Statement reaffirming the commitment to implementing the Plan to empower people and enable sustainable transformation.

The event also witnessed the recognition of five innovative awards to the organisations for their good work done in providing social or community benefit. Purvanchal Gramin Seva Samiti, Gorakhpur was awarded for the innovative practices in inclusive development. Similarly, Seva Kendra Calcutta was recognised for its innovative practices in Climate Adaptation, Alleppey Diocesan Charitable and Social Welfare Society for its innovative practices in Social Communication, Social Service Centre, Shillong for its innovative practices in Social Communication and Karunya Trust, Mumbai for the innovative practices in Inclusion in Education.