Cáritas invested 486 million euros to launch its resources and aid programs both in Spain and abroad throughout 2023, a year in which it has assisted 2.5 million people in need.
The item in which the greatest percentage of the economic effort has been invested is that corresponding to the Solidarity Economy, which includes the areas of social economy, employment and fair trade, (28.12%), followed by the Welfare and Assistance programs. which have dedicated more than 96 million euros, which represents almost 20% of the total.
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More than two-thirds of Cáritas Española’s budget in 2023 comes from private funds, including almost 120 million euros contributed by donors.
This is reflected in the Confederal Memory of Cáritas which was presented this week in Madrid and which reflects that the number of people treated in Spain has returned to the levels prior to the pandemic that began at the end of 2019.
The general secretary of Cáritas Española, Natalia Peiro, explained at the presentation of the data that the people who have been assisted (1.3 million in Spain and 1.2 million abroad) have “a multitude of needs, with a feeling of exhaustion and wear and tear due to the continuous effort in the search for how to resolve those basic needs.”
According to the report, a third of the people who have received help from the Catholic Church on pilgrimage in Spain through Cáritas were in an “irregular administrative situation” and half, despite having work, suffer serious difficulties in getting away from the threshold of social exclusion.
In this sense, Peiro has pointed out that “with a rate of 11.9%, Spain continues to be one of the EU countries with the highest rate of working poverty due to partiality, low salaries and temporary employment.”
At the international level, Cáritas Española focused especially on Morocco, Turkey and Syria, affected by the earthquakes, along with the Holy Land and Ukraine, without forgetting places outside the media spotlight such as Mozambique, Ethiopia or Lebanon.
To carry out its work, the entity that embodies the charitable action of the Catholic Church has had more than 70,000 volunteers and almost 6,000 workers. The Cáritas social network is made up of 70 diocesan entities, almost 4,500 parish entities and almost 1,000 inter-parish entities.
Nicholas de Cardenas
Born in 1980, I am a Spanish husband and father and journalist with more than 20 years of experience in print and digital media, specializing in sociopolitical and religious information. I have worked for more than 10 years in defense of human rights and have accreditations in Journalism and Comprehensive Communication. Since July 2022, I have been a correspondent for ACI Prensa and EWTN Noticias in Spain, covering international events of the Catholic Church.