Helping families feed themselves
Another ongoing mission of Caritas is to empower people to earn a living. Throughout the world, Caritas gives people starter materials like livestock, sewing machines, fishing nets and more. Caritas trains them to create home-based businesses like tailoring or bakeries. With a steady source of income, parents can feed their children.
Examples:
- In Kenya, Caritas distributes goats whose milk families can sell.
- In Benin, Caritas teaches families how to use low-cost, easily available, healthful foods—like breadfruit flour they can make instead of flour they must buy.
- In Portugal, Caritas created large gardens where recovering drug addicts can get training and be certified in growing techniques. The produce from the garden will stock Caritas canteens/soup kitchens.
- In Somalia, Caritas helps widows grow and process moringa, a plant that is in demand. Caritas prepared the farmland, purchased and installed a water pump and grinding machine, helped the women germinate the seeds, and built a processing house for the leaves.
- In Peru, Caritas rehabilitated a quinoa processing plant so that small farmers could receive a better price for their grain. It also linked pineapple farmers with grocery stores so that the farmers have a reliable market for their fruit.