Caritas Australia has brought together six Catholic partners in the country to budget and plan for the 2020 financial year.
The four-day program began on Tuesday, 18th June, and will conclude on Friday, 21st June, and is currently being held at Dream Inn, Port Moresby.
Present are representatives from the St Therese Sisters Centre of Hope from Madang, Mercy Works Sisters from Goroka and Hagen, Diocese of Bougainville and Wabag, Archdiocese of Mt Hagen and National Catholic Education Commission and Churches Institutional Strengthening Program (CISP) Commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands (CBC PNG-SI) and Caritas Australia. These are partners that are supported by Caritas Australia.
This is what each of the partners do:
- St Therese Sisters runs a safe house in Madang,
- Mercy Works Sisters conducts livelihood projects for underprivileged youths in Goroka and Hagen
- Archdiocese of Mt Hagen, Diocese of Bougainville and Wabag are developing ways to manage disasters
- Churches Institutional Strengthening Program (CISP) Commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference focuses on administrative formation of dioceses and targeted religious congregations.
According to the Development Secretary of CBC PNG-SI, through these partnerships the Catholic leaders are able to work together with leaders of other churches.
“Significant number of advocacy efforts through PNG Council of Churches, Churches Medical Council, Christian Education Council and Caritas Papua New Guinea and CBCPNGSI Secretaries are informed with a giant network of development partners this way,” said Marie Mondu.
“We are mentored to do project management with professionalism to meet good governance practices and remain credible to international donors and local investors.”
Caritas Australia is the Catholic Relief services of Catholic Bishops Australia. This is its 13th year to partner with the Catholic Bishops Conference of PNGSI to implement projects funded by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia.
Under a bilateral arrangement between the two governments, the Church Partnership Program (CPP) was initiated to grant Australian aid directly to seven mainline churches in Papua New Guinea. The program took root since 2009 and this year marks its 10th year.
The Catholic Church has seen and benefited from this program since. Many of the support provided through the CBCPNGSI Commission Secretarial Offices for diocesan workers from Education, Health, Family Life, Catholic Children Ministry, Caritas PNG, CISP, Right Relations are funded by CPP.
Some of the programs that are attributions of CPP are proposal writing, MYOB, Computing, Child Protection, Human Resource Management and a number of National gatherings and conferences. The strengthening and independence of Health and HIV Commission is another attribution of CPP.