Penang city has a relatively low poverty rate (approximately 2% – refer Penang Institute research data). However, due to the rising living costs sparked by the rising global inflationary rate – there are certain groups that are affected, namely the senior citizens that unable to cope with cost from their savings, the disabled and where the family/person is affected by severe illness i.e. cancer, accidents etc.
Caritas Cathedral of The Holy Spirit (Caritas CHS) was set up to help the poorest community within the its territory. It is a pastoral body of parish community whose task is to animate, coordinate, promote and witness charity with special accent on its pedagogical role. In other words, Caritas CHS not only helps the poorest within the church’s territory but also involve the whole parish community to live the commandment of love.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, Sharing Hope started as simple parish project: providing dry provisions for the low-risk covid patients at the quarantine centres. As time passed, the number of patients went down and the quarantine centres were moving to the mainland. At the same time, the volunteers received feedback from the people saying that the need is greater for non-covid patients as many has lost their jobs and source of income. There were also the urban poor who previously may have had lucrative jobs but their income was reduced or gone due to the effect of Movement control order (MCO).
Sharing Hope 2.0 took shape to take care of this group of people. It is a platform where it encourages all who wish to reach out to the poor in the parish. This project received a big support from the parishioners: Society of St Vincent de Paul, Agape Meal, Ministry of the Poor, BECs and many individual also participated. They have a team who purchase and prepare the items, the volunteers would come to collect the provisions and deliver it to the people.
To date, Sharing Hope also work with other Penang island parishes to provide ration for the poor, regardless of their race and religion. If there is anyone who is in need of food, upon investigation, the team will quickly dispatch the ration to the family.
Caritas CSH fells under the umbrella of service and outreach cluster. They works together with many ministries within the same parish and other parishes, and the diocese to help the needy.
During the pandemic during the 1st lockdown in year 2020, a team was form at parish level to actively helping the poor or those affected by the lockdown across Penang through various means and channel.
Caritas HNM needs volunteers to run projects to help the poorest within the church’s territory. Do you like to offer your talent to serve Jesus in the poor? Contact the Caritas Representative to learn more.
Caritas is the charitable arm of the Roman Catholic Church. It is to spearhead the church’s social mission, to respond to humanitarian crisis, promote integral human development and advocate on the causes of poverty and violence.
Caritas Penang comes under the jurisdiction of The Titular Roman Catholic Bishop of Penang.
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