Caritas Asia


Caritas Asia is a pan-Asian nonprofit organisation and one of the seven regions of the global Caritas Internationalis confederation. Caritas Asia refers both to its regional secretariat, based in Bangkok and its network with 25 member organisation.

Background

Caritas Asia's predecessor was the Asia Partnership for Human Development, founded in 1973 and bringing together more than 23 Catholic development organisations from Asia and the West.
The current structure was established in 1999 during the general assembly of Caritas Internationalis in Rome, where the request of its Asian member organisation to create a regional secretariat was approved. The goal of Caritas Asia is to coordinate the work of its member organisations, especially in the context of responses to natural disaster, as well as to strengthen the technical capacities of the network.

Membership

Caritas Asia consists of 25 national member organisations operating in 24 Asian countries. In Singapore, there are two member organisations: Caritas Singapore and Caritas Humanitarian Aid & Relief Initiatives. Not all Asian national Caritas organisations are members of Caritas Asia; those in the Middle East, despite being geographically located in Asia, such as Caritas Jordan, Caritas Iraq and Caritas Iran, are members of Caritas Middle East and North Africa, while Caritas of Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Turkey are part of Caritas Europa.
The membership of Caritas Asia is further grouped under four subregions, each having their own sub-regional office. These are Central Asia with an office in Kyrgyzstan, East Asia with an office in Macau, South Asia with an office in Sri Lanka and South-East Asia with an office in Singapore.

List of Member Organisations

Sub-regionCountryMember organisation
Established
South AsiaCaritas Bangladesh1967
South East AsiaCaritas Cambodia1972
East AsiaCaritas Hong Kong1953
South AsiaCaritas India1962
South East AsiaCaritas Indonesia 2006
East AsiaCaritas Japan1946
Central AsiaCaritas Kazakhstan1997
Central AsiaCaritas Kyrgyzstan2011
South East AsiaCaritas Laos?
East AsiaCaritas Macau1951
South East AsiaCaritas Malaysia2020
Central AsiaCaritas Mongolia2000
South East AsiaCaritas Myanmar 2001
South AsiaCaritas Nepal1990
South AsiaCaritas Pakistan1965
South East AsiaCaritas Philippines 1966
South East AsiaCaritas Singapore2006
South East AsiaCHARIS2010
East AsiaCaritas Korea1975
South AsiaCaritas Sri Lanka1968
East AsiaCaritas Taiwan1969
Central AsiaCaritas Tajikistan2007
South East AsiaCaritas Thailand1972
South East AsiaCaritas Timor Leste1999
Central AsiaCaritas Uzbekistan2002
South East AsiaCaritas Vietnam1965

Leadership

Presidents

  • ...
  • 2007–2011: Joseph Vianney Fernando
  • 2011–2019: Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi
  • 2019–2023: Benedict Alo D'Rozario

    Regional Coordinators

  • ...
  • 2008–2012: Fr. Bonnie Mendes
  • 2012–2023: Eleazar Gomez
  • 2023-now: Shimray Mungreiphy