Caritas Luxembourg Food Aid Benefitted 4.7k People in 2018

The 2018 annual report of Caritas Luxembourg has shown that 4,669 people benefitted from the NGO's food aid scheme last year. 

The report, published on Tuesday under the theme of "being close", highlighted 2018 as a year marked by efforts to help people in need find decent housing at the national level. Indeed, Caritas Luxembourg made a significant effort to raise owners' awareness of the benefits of social rental management and to increase the number of social housing units available to its beneficiaries. In this context, Caritas Luxembourg made a series of proposals to political parties, both before the elections and to the new government.

Last year similarly saw Caritas Luxembourg focus its efforts on the fight against precariousness in the Grand Duchy. In this context, Caritas Buttek has once again proven valuable in offering people in need of food and hygiene the essentials for free or at a third of the market price. In 2018, 4,669 people benefitted from Caritas Luxembourg food aid, including 1,313 children under 14 years of age.

Caritas Luxembourg has also set up various services aimed at ensuring that children and young people in difficult situations have a good chance of coping and hoping for a better future. In 2018, more than 10,700 children and young people benefitted from one of these services.

With regard to the reception and integration of refugees, the NGO continued its efforts made in recent years. The project "Neien Ufank", funded by the l’Oeuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte and which aimed to help 120 refugee families to integrate, successfully helped 326 people. This success means that Caritas hopes to continue this project in the future.

At the international level, Caritas Luxembourg helped more than 100,000 people through 89 projects in seventeen countries for more than €12.6 million. 2018 once again encompassed humanitarian aid to Syria, including the rehabilitation of homes destroyed by the war. Alongside this long process, the NGO has been continuing its activities in sixteen other countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Contributing to the success of these actions were donations, as well as the mobilisation of 765 collaborators, 657 volunteers, 40 trainees and the 103 people working alongside Caritas within the framework of a measure in favour of employment. In addition, in 2018, Caritas Luxembourg received over €3.5 million in donations.

2019 is also set to be an intense year for Caritas Luxembourg, as the NGO implements a series of homelessness prevention measures and relocates its "Wanteraktioun" to a new building in Findel. In summer, Caritas will also take over the new refugee centre being constructed in Esch-sur-Alzette. In terms of international aid, Caritas Luxembourg will continue to support the Syrian population, particularly through emergency aid and housing rehabilitation, as well as the people of South Sudan, where the NGO will launch new major food security projects, and in Laos, where the focus will be on rural development.