Caritas Swaziland was founded in 1977 to empower communities and reduce chronic poverty, as 70 percent of the population lives in poverty. Because of drought and disease, one in four struggle to have enough food. Since its inception, the agency has helped half a million people in a country with high unemployment and the highest HIV and AIDS rate in the world.
Caritas Swaziland programmes and social services provide assistance to over 23,000 beneficiaries every year.
Caritas Swaziland participates in Caritas Internationalis’ “HAART” campaign (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Treatment), a campaign launched by Caritas in 2009 to provide medicines to keep HIV-infected children healthy.
Training includes capacity-building to ensure institutions are in place to sustain development work, and monitoring and evaluation to improve projects. Loans and grants have helped the setting up of small enterprises. More immediate aid has included food and clothing.
Caritas Swaziland sees its main challenges in tackling the social inequalities that also contribute to poverty, and in reducing the HIV infection rate.
The Caritas Swaziland headquarters in Manzini coordinates local and national projects through a small staff and volunteers to carry out its activities. The main office works closely with 17 parish Caritas in the Diocese of Manzini.
As a member of Caritas Africa and Caritas Internationalis, Caritas Swaziland receives support from the global Caritas network, such as Catholic Relief Services USA, Caritas Italy, Caritas England and Wales–CAFOD, and other partner organisations.
While officially registered as Caritas Swaziland, we are known as Caritas Eswatini as the country changed its name in 2018.
