CONFERENCE ABOUT POVERTY AND SOCIAL INCLUSION

On the International conference organized on May 5th in Sarajevo was presented a first report about poverty and social inclusion which published Caritas of Bishop’s Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina named “We talked to the poor”. Report is based on a research about poverty and social inclusion done during year 2009. According to 2000 different questioners (about beneficiaries, families and community) Caritas gives quality descriptions of poverty and social inclusion seen by Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In a middle of research put the person with all their problems and characteristics. The results came from listening and conversations, don’t speak only about numbers, they also bring useful informations about the profile of poor and social excluded persons.

BASIC CONCLUSIONS OF RESEARCH ARE:
- Economical poverty isolates itself as one of the most represented problem in research of Caritas. Not only unemployed and without income are affected, on the contrary, there is the most of those who have some kind of income, but it’s not enough for a decent life. The pension are low, workers usually are underpaid, and social support insufficient for surveillance.
- Elderly persons can be seen as the most vulnerable population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Usually they live alone and completely isolated from a World. Most of them have serious health problems, and if they have incomes they are low pensions and almost none of support from public institutions.
- Situation with a person with special needs represents serious problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially the fact of marginalization and inclusion from a daily life of community. Every day they carry out with a number of physical and cultural barriers which influence them and don’t let them a decent life. On their situation especially influence architectonic obstacles, impossibility to find a job and insufficiently adjusted system of education.
- Persons which don’t have regular interaction with community or/and with neighbor are in poverty risk or social inclusion. So, the role of family, neighbors, friends and whole community in struggle against poverty and social inclusion has a great importance. Caritas underline the need of continues education of society for solidarity, and specially a need for promotion and systematical adjustment of community work.
- Public institutions don’t give up sufficient social, financial and expert support to persons in need. It’s needed universality change in approach and way of work with poor and social excluded persons. Caritas is prepared to do more, and better, but also look for an adequate treatment from public institutions.

SOME STATISTICAL DATA FROM RESEARCH:
- 64,3% of examinees (Caritas beneficiaries) don’t have secondary school finished, and just 3,4% of them have a higher level of education than secondary school
- 82% economical poor (Caritas beneficiaries) said insufficient incomes as a main problem
- 48,5% elderly persons in need (Caritas beneficiaries) feels lonely/abandon
- 100% person of Rom’s population (Caritas beneficiaries) said that they are affected with the economical poverty
- 71,9% of poor families examinees in this research have less than 150 KM per month for a one member of the family
- 43,1% poor families examinees in this research have non of persons in pension or employed person
- 100% included parish communities said that there is a large number of elderly persons in need
- In 86,8% there are a persons with a special need of included parish communities

Help for Haiti

Caritas Internationals has been providing aid to survivors of the earthquake in Haiti. Their priority in the first weeks of the crisis has been getting food and shelter to hundreds of thousands of people in need. A team from Caritas Internationalis has been coordinating relief efforts, led by Caritas Haiti, the Catholic Church in Haiti and other Caritas members. In the midst of this tragedy, our hearts have been won by people from different countries working together as brothers and sisters to bring hope to the people of Haiti. By 27 January, 170,000 dead bodies had been counted and the final death toll is likely to exceed 200,000. Over 20,000 commercial buildings and 225,000 homes have been destroyed, 800,000 people are homeless and 340,000 people have fled the capital.
Hospitals, schools, government buildings, the United Nations compound, water pipes, electricity cables, communication lines, churches, roads, and the port were all badly damaged or destroyed in the earthquake.
Haiti is one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries. At least 80 percent of the population live on less than 2 a day. Over half do not have access to healthcare and are illiterate. A fifth of children are malnourished.
Caritas Haiti has been working on emergencies, development and social justice for 35 years. It works through 10 diocesan offices, through staff, and parish priests and community volunteers. In 2008, Caritas Haiti responded to a series of hurricanes providing food rations, cleaning up schools and homes, helping people build shelters, and providing scholarships to children so they could go to school.
Caritas Haiti is well supported on the ground by other Caritas members, with Catholic Relief Services (CRS is a Caritas member in the USA), Secours Catholique (Caritas France), Caritas Switzerland, Cordaid (Caritas Netherlands), and Caritas Spain having programmes there before the earthquake, and Caritas Dominican Republic being close by to offer assistance. CRS had a significant presence with an office of 300 people. The Caritas and CRS offices and all our staff survived the quake.
Caritas Dominican Republic and CRS had a warehouse and volunteers across the border in Santo Domingo. Working 18 hour days, the Caritas volunteers had prepared enough food buckets to feed more than 5000 people and another 500 hygiene kits within the first 5 days of the earthquake.
Haiti’s hospitals were badly damaged in the earthquake. No theatres for surgical procedures remained functioning in the capital. The hospitals that were operational were quickly overwhelmed by the disaster with dead and wounded. Caritas had a track record of providing healthcare in Haiti, supporting some 200 medical centres. Caritas set up mobile health clinics to help respond to the emergency. CRS organized a visit of a team of Belgian doctors and fire-fighters. The firemen dug into the rubble of the hospital and accessed the medical supply room. More medical supplies were found. Volunteer nurses and doctors from around the city started examining people in the courtyard. Caritas Haiti and the Bishops of Haiti have been leading the Catholic Church’s response to the crisis in Haiti. Caritas Internationalis set up its coordination crisis centre at the Caritas Haiti compound to ensure that all Caritas members worked effectively together under guidance of the national Church in Haiti. We have been inspired by the leadership of the Church in Haiti. Caritas Haiti President Bishop Pierre Dumas has been a leading figure, despite grieving for two lost family members. He sent us a message on how the symbols that unified the country – the Cathedral, the Presidential palace, the schools, and homes – are destroyed. Caritas is appealing for US$ 42 million (Euro 30 million) to provide 200,000 Haiti quake survivors with immediate food, shelter, medical help, and clean water. Caritas will work directly in 20 camps, but also distribute aid through its contacts with priests and religious working in 32 parishes with 150,000 people in need. The two month appeal will be followed by a longer 12 month reconstruction programme. Once the initial phase is over, Caritas will look at the longer term rebuilding and reconstruction in Haiti.
Support received at the time of writing is over US$ 60 million. That is a humbling reflection on the trust people put in Caritas and the Church to deliver humanitarian assistance. The money will be used to build a brighter Haiti, to build better schools hospitals, homes and lives for Haitians. But solidarity hasn’t only been reflected in financial assistance. We have been receiving prayers and messages of support from all over the world. The staff of Caritas Haiti and of Caritas Internationalis has already done a tremendous job in beginning what will be a long project. Caritas is a community response. It is the volunteers filling food buckets, the parish priests organizing distributions, and the many others. Our thoughts and prayers are with these communities in Haiti, but also our deep gratitude, as we all play our part.
Caritas of Bishops conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a member of Caritas Internationalis network. We also have an action for people in Haiti. Our action started in the end of January 2010, and we can be proud because in a few days of action many people and businessmans showed their solidarity with those people by donating some money. So, our action is still on, and we hope to collect more money to support those people in need in Haiti. Below you can donate on this account number, and if you live in Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina territory you can call our humanitarian telephone number and donate 2, 00 KM (2, 00 KM convertible marks = around 1 euro).

Account number is:
UniCredit Bank d. d
Alipašina 45 a
71000 Sarajevo
Bosnia i Herzegovina
Account for KM (convertible marks)
338 320 22007 22429
With denote: For people in Haiti

Bank account from abroad:
338 060 48937 86133
S.W.I.F.T. CODE: UCRBA 22
IBAN: BA393380604893786133
With denote: For people in Haiti

And the telephone number is: 090 291 078