As part of our lessons we learnt about some of the different people who work at Caritas. One of these people is Martin who is a writer for Caritas. He gets important messages out to New Zealand about how we can help others and the environment just as Jesus did.
After reading about Martin we each wrote him a question about his work and emailed them.
He answered us within a couple of days - very fast since he is such a busy man!
Here is some of the interesting things he wrote in his message back to us :)
Dear room 6 - I love your pictures of nature. Your class asked me lots of questions recently about my job at Caritas and other things I do. I'd have to say my favorite job at the moment is a volunteer job as a ranger on Matiu-Somes Island that you would have read about. Matiu is a special place in Wellington Harbour which is recovering its natural vegetation and animal life – I hope it reflects what will happen elsewhere in Aotearoa New Zealand. I hope you look after nature where you live too.
Martin@caritas
We have been reading a book called Parvana about a girl who lives in Afghanistan and one of the children asked this question:
Can you help Afghanistan for freedom?
We have a project in Afghanistan which is helping make people safer from floods and erosion, helping them grow food better, and also teaching children like yourselves. You can read a bit more about it here:
http://www.caritas.org.nz/where-we-work/asia/afghanistan
Here are some other questions we asked and the answers he gave :)
When do they give the food to the poor country?
We and lots of other organisations try to help people to grow and supply food themselves. But if there is very bad drought – no rain – then food sometimes has to come from other countries. But even then, it is best to get food from nearby – buying food from other places not too far away helps those people too – they depend on people buying food that they produce so they can pay for other important things like education, or adequate shelter.
Who invented Caritas?
That’s a really interesting story, and I had to go away to do a bit more reading to find out myself. I knew that Caritas started in Germany in 1897 – that’s even long before I was born. But I also I found that it began with a young priest Lorenz Werthmann, who began a Caritas committee in his hometown of Freiburg in 1895, before he went on to establish a natonal Caritas organisation in November 1897. Then as now, the organisation’s purpose was to help all kinds of people in need.
How can you get started with caritas?
There are all sorts of ways people can start helping us, depending on what they are good at and enjoy doing. Some can write stories (like me), some are good at telling other people about us or how to make the world better, others visit the people we work with overseas, and some people need to count the money! You can help us by raising money, reading about the work we do, and telling other people what you’ve learnt.
What is your favourite job with Caritas?
talking to people, then writing their stories in a clear and interesting way.
Thank you Martin for taking the time to answer all our questions!
