What do they do?
Caritas is the Catholic agency for justice, peace and development. Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is part of Caritas Internationalis, which is a confederation of 154 Catholic aid, development and social justice agencies from around the world. Caritas agencies work in over 198 countries: delivering aid, supporting development, and working for justice.
How can I be involved?
Donate!
Campaigning – Caritas are involved in many campaigns, including Aid, Children, Cluster Munitions Crime and Punishment, Debt, Environmental Justice, HIV and AIDS, Human Rights Make Poverty History Millennium Development Goals, Submissions to NZ Government, and Trade. They offer excellent resources on their website to help you join with them to take action on these issues.
Well’ continues Hayden, fair trade is when companies buy goods such as cotton, tea, cocoa and coffee beans, and also craft items such as clothing, baskets, jewellery etc, from producers in places such as Africa, Asia and South America for a fair and consistent price. It also works to protect workers rights by preventing the use of harmful sprays around crops, increasing safe working conditions, and decreasing the numbers of child workers.’
Yes, I’m afraid so. The majority of the world live in developing countries yet it is the small percentage of the world’s population that live in developed countries (like us!) that have contributed most to this global problem. What people need to be think about Molly is how unfair is it that developing countries who are already losing out by unfair trade rules, will be expected to foot more than their fair share of the climate change bill. Realising this encourages us to think about how we can reduce our carbon footprint and reminds us how important it is to support fair trade. Throughout the Fortnight there will be loads of activities, competitions and events will be run all over the country. There’s more information at www.tradeaid.co.nz or www.fairtrade.org.nz.
I recently spent a year working in a youth centre in Port Vila, Vanuatu for out of school youth. In Vanuatu most young people finish school before they reach secondary level as there is no government funding for public schools and the school fees push a huge number of them out of the formal education sector. This means throughout Vanuatu there is a generation of young people cheated of a formal education who are looking to fill the gap. Some are lucky and get to enroll in Rural Training Centres, where they learn things such as building or mechanics. Others get a job working on a copra boat. Some return to their villages and work in the family garden, maybe starting their own patch of kava, or yam for sale. But for those who have joined the urban drift, and are living in Port Vila, the choices are somewhat limited. As with most capital cities, the cost of living in Port Vila is high, food and transport are expensive, education and training courses have high fees and most young people are living within a large extended family with a vast list of chores.
her mind “This isn’t a workshop! I’m wasting my time!” Nevertheless she stayed, and despite not getting a certificate for spending two hours with a literacy teacher she feels like she learnt something important during that time. The question I was left asking myself was, are the youth centres putting emphasis on the wrong thing? What is more important, actual learning or a certificate that says you have learnt something?’ Is it worth providing so many lunches and bus fares, for young tutors to come and learn just a fraction of what is needed to become an effective teacher?
opportunities, in the disguise of workshops on lifeskills.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, devastating small producers and workers with policies that allow cheaper, heavily subsidised US and Canadian goods to flood into the Mexican market. 
On the same day, 3000 members of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) seized six towns and hundreds of ranches in the Southern state of Chiapas, Mexico as an action of resistance against the imposition of neoliberal policies that favour already powerful multinational corporations. For two weeks, the state of Chiapas resounded with the chant “’¡Ya Basta! Enough is enough!” as the people called for an end to five centuries of indigenous repression and exploitation and of the encroaching globalisation of corporate hegemony and cultural homogenisation. The Mexican army responded with bombs and bullets, killing at least 145 indigenous people. Mexican civil society responded with massive demonstrations across the country calling for an end to the military repression, and a ceasefire was called on the 12th of January.
Indeed, the leaders of the movement famously mask their faces with balaclavas or bandanas to symbolise their anonymity and equality with the suffering indigenous, peasants and workers. The movement has organised countless consultations and meetings at community, national and international levels, but always prioritising the voice of the people. As a result, they have established strong, autonomous communities with health clinics, schools and cooperatives producing various goods as deemed suitable for the communities by the communities. A dynamic form of government, (el Buen Gobierno, the good government) modelled on traditional indigenous frameworks, has been established, where leaders are seen as servants of the people and extensive community involvement occurs.
