Caritas - Kigali, Rwanda

Caritas Rwanda was established in 1960 by the bishops from two Catholic dioceses in Rwanda at that time. Caritas Rwanda was officially authorised as a non-profit organisation in 1962. Over the years, as the Catholic Church of Rwanda expanded with the foundation of new dioceses and parishes, the organisation of Caritas also extended to different levels of the ecclesial structure.

Since 8 September 1965 Caritas Rwanda has been affiliated with Caritas Internationalis. In accordance with Law 06/2012 of 17 February 2012 regarding faith-based organisations, it became a non-governmental organisation. Today, Caritas Rwanda operates at national level, while each of the country’s nine Catholic dioceses has its own autonomous diocesan Caritas and the 180 parishes their own parochial Caritas.  

Show more

The structure branches out into 980 centres and 30,000 basic ecclesial communities, which each have their own Caritas structure.

Caritas Rwanda wants to give people back the human dignity denied to them by social marginalisation, poverty and injustice. It would like to see the poorest social categories manage to take charge of themselves, individually or through social solidarity, in order to fulfil their dignity as children of God created in his image.