Thank you for helping us promote and cultivate charitable deeds. Thanks to you, the Caritas team manages to gather involved volunteers and make heard the need for less fortunate children and helpless elderly people. We are grateful for your involvement. Caritas Austria the most devoted donor of Caritas Moldova, contributing to overcoming poverty by helping vulnerable, marginalized people.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Caritas Austria started its mission to help those most in need. Its first actions were to give food and clothing to alleviate the suffering of people during the First World War.

More than a century later, Caritas Austria’s broad range of programmes underscores its enduring commitment to prevent and ease the hardships of people in need. Initiatives include: disaster relief, hunger awareness and hunger aid campaigns, homecare for disabled people, shelters for homeless people and single mothers, counselling and support centres for people struggling with substance abuse, refugee aid, and occupational projects for the unemployed.

Throughout 2015, Caritas Austria helped provide for refugees within Syria and in the neighbouring countries of Jordan and Lebanon. From September, financial means were also needed in Austria for the roughly 800 000 people in transit and for those seeking asylum. Due to the enormous media attention as well as a poster and advertising campaign, Caritas was able to give extensive aid to the refugees.

At the heart of our work is a wide range of over 1600 social assistance programmes that target people in need in Austria. The range of social services includes provision of supplementary food vouchers for single mothers, covering energy costs for the elderly, finding homes for abandoned children, establishing 45 institutions for homeless people, and 1245 work placements for long-term unemployed people.

An increasing number of people in Austria can no longer afford to heat their homes sufficiently, equip their children with the necessary school materials, or pay their rent regularly. In 2015 the fundraising campaign provided supplies amounting to €2.49 million to help people manage through the cold Austrian winters.

The 622 Caritas foreign aid projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the poorest countries of Europe are wide-ranging, and cover areas such as emergency help for long-term livelihood protection.

Caritas Austria’s headquarters is located in Vienna and coordinates the work and supports the tasks of nine Caritas archdiocesan and diocesan offices in the country. In 2015, 14 871 salaried Caritas employees in Austria were ready to help elderly, ill, disabled, disadvantaged and/or suffering people on a daily basis. Approximately 55 000 volunteers also make an essential contribution to help people in need, including 15 000 within the scope of refugee aid.

Caritas Austria is a member of Caritas Europa and Caritas Internationalis, and often collaborates with members on overseas emergency and development programmes, such as the famine relief programme to provide humanitarian aid to people in several East African countries severely affected by drought and conflict.