By Josef Ishu

The Catholic Archbishop of Kaduna Archdiocese, Most Rev. Matthew Man’Oso Ndagoso has described the Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria (CCFN), also known as Caritas Nigeria as the biggest home-made faith-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) in Nigeria today in terms of capacity to handle huge projects and deliver reliable and verifiable results.

Archbishop Ndagoso made the declaration on Friday, October 22, 2021 in his homily of the Thanksgiving Holy Mass to Commemorate the Tenth Year Anniversary of Caritas Nigeria held at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), Durumi, Abuja.

According to Archbishop Ndagoso, who is the Board Chairman of Caritas Nigeria, CCFN is currently present in almost all the emergency and conflict situations in Nigeria. “CCFN is able to do this because of the unflinching support and cooperation of our faithful and trusted partners both foreign and local. We are indebted to all of them and thank them very sincerely for all they did and continue to do to make us what we are today.”

The Prelate specifically appreciated Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which helped in building the capacity of CCFN staff and enabling the organization to access bigger funds, bigger projects and therefore able to provide bigger services. “At the initial and critical stage in the life of Caritas Nigeria, CRS was there to help. It deployed some of its experienced staff to CCFN to help build its capacity thus helping it to be what it is today –able to source and access funds from some of the sources,” Archbishop Ndagoso disclosed.

The Archbishop of Kaduna thanked the pioneer members of the Board of Caritas Nigeria for the role they played in guiding and directing the management of CCFN to work according to best practices of running NGOs. “I also thank members of the current Board for their uncommon commitment and dedication to the cause of CCFN.”

He reminded the Caritas family that interventions in emergencies and aid of victims of natural disasters, violent conflicts and other situations, which deserve immediate response is one of the stated aims and objectives for the establishment of CCFN.

He however noted that to achieve its aims and objectives, CCFN needs to have some funds readily available on the ground at all times. “Unfortunately, all the efforts of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in the past to raise emergency funds to be used when the need arises has not yielded much over the last ten years plus. This is an area that we as a Conference may need to work hard on, moving forward.”

“This is why one of the event slated to mark this wooden jubilee is a fundraising activities geared towards the establishment of the national skills acquisition centre to be situated somewhere in one of the outskirts of Abuja metropolis. Kindly give it your maximum support,” Archbishop Ndagoso pleaded.