Articles

It’s Wednesday, January 5th, 2022. For the first time, I participate in the annual Three Kings Collection, and I become Kašpar for the next three hours. Together with Jarmila and Honza, we put on costumes and head off to Vinohradská street in Prague.

The Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague runs several social services for people without a home. „Many of our clients are motivated to take care of themselves. It is not a group of people we see on the streets in unkempt condition“, says Stanislav Fiala, director of the St. Theresa Shelter Home, disproving the myth of homelessness.

In 2001, the Child Sponsorship Programme (Adopce na dálku®) was launched in Uganda, following its successful implementation in India. We spoke about the two decades of work done by Prague’s Caritas in Uganda with Director Jaroslav Němec.

The Church of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help and St. Cajetan is the only church in the Czech Republic run by a professional provider of social services – Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague.

South Moravian Region was hit by a heavy storm with a hailstorm and a tornado on Thursday evening and Friday night causing severe damage. There was a number of casualties and hundreds were injured including children.

Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague has supported talented people with mental or chronic psychological diseases.

On Wednesday, the team vaccinated dozens of people with mental health and other conditions in Prague’s Holy Family Home, giving them hope they will be able to enjoy the full range of activities after months of restrictions.

The annual Three Kings Collection, the biggest fundraiser in the country, organised by the Catholic charity Caritas, has been forced to go online in 2021 due to the strict coronavirus measures in place.

We are told to stay at home and avoid unnecessary travel, but what if you don’t have a home?

The spring of this year was one of the most demanding times in the recent history of Caritas. JAROSLAV NĚMEC, Director of the Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague, likens the pandemic to a 100-year flood.

The Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague is celebrating 100 years of existence. For more than one-fifth of its history (the past 22 years), the organization has been headed by Ing. JAROSLAV NĚMEC, a man who has been instrumental in shaping the charity’s activities and bringing it among respected, reliable, and highly professional organizations.

This year, the Magdala Counseling Center, a facility providing one of the services offered by Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague, is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its establishment. Its services are presented by the center’s Director, ŠÁRKA DRŠKOVÁ.

The 2019 school year has begun in Zambia. Sarah Mwale, a young inventor from Solwezi went back to school after the Christmas holiday at home. She already completed her first year at Mukinge secondary school, the all girls’ boarding school at Kasempa district. She did well yet again in another competition for young inventors. Sarah is an orphan, she is being brought up by her grandmother and her studies are sponsored by donors from the Czech Republic.

In his continuing catechesis on the Ten Commandments, the Pope during his General Audience reflects on the eighth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour”.

Jana is a young woman from west Bohemia. She had a dream of working as a chef in a spa hotel, so she went to a college specialised in chef trainings. At the time, Jana met a partner on a social website. He was funny and she liked him a lot. Things moved on very quickly and they married four months after they first met. Very soon after the wedding their first daughter was born and later on a son with mental health problems.

Give a gift this Christmas, not only to your own loved ones, but also to an unknown battered woman. They live among us with hidden pain and suffering. They cannot enjoy a beautiful and merry Christmas. From their close ones they only receive wounds to their body and spirit, never gifts.

The streets of this big city are dangerous at night. A woman might prefer to ask a male chaperone to walk with her if she finds herself faced with the prospect of returning home through dark and deserted streets in the small hours of the night. But not everyone has a home to return to. In Prague alone, at least 800 women are living on the street. We met with some of them at the newly-opened women-only daytime center on Žitná Street – the only one of its kind in the Czech Republic.

On Wednesday, October 5, 2016, the Agel Foundation graciously agreed to act as patron for the Gloria Shelter Home. Women’s shelters help mothers overcome grave life crises, as they suddenly find themselves in the street, and are moreover at risk of having their children taken away and put into institutional care by child protection services. However, these shelters would not be able to do their good work without the kind support of donors.

As of July, people in need have been receiving food and other basic necessities under a program of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs which is financed from the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD). Distribution of this aid across the country lies primarily in the hands of Caritas and other non-profit organizations.

For the last six years, we have been organizing regular classes in Zambia that provide adults with basic education. Sixty individuals in Mukonchi and Solwezi are learning how to read and write in their adult years.