Caritas Europa: CAPSO project – promoting solidarity together
How is welfare structured in Europe? What kind of social systems are in place in the different countries of the continent? What does Caritas play for a role in relation to these systems and how does it work in these countries?
These are the questions that the CAPSO project has been answering since it started in June 2013. Initiated with the support of the European Commission’s Leonardo da Vinci programme, the project allowed 20 Caritas workers from Germany to spend two weeks in another European country. There, they could learn first-hand about the visited country’s social system and how Caritas works in that particular social context.
“The main objective for us was to create something that would allow Caritas people to meet across borders and stay in touch afterwards to continue working together,” explained Ulrike Achmann, coordinator of the project at regional Caritas of Bavaria (Germany).
Thanks to the CAPSO project, Caritas in Europe has a network of approximately 100 people that are knowledgeable with European social affairs and the situation on the ground in the different countries. All in all, 20 countries were part of this project: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and the U.K.
The project ended in May last year and the final report was made available recently in English and German.
