Caritas Australia welcomes the additional $30 million in emergency humanitarian funding for Ukraine announced today by the Australian Government, to focus on protecting women, children, the elderly and those living with disability.  This includes provision of $2 million for the Emergency Action Alliance, a collective of Australian-based aid organisations of which Caritas Australia is a member. It also includes $10 million under the Australian Humanitarian Partnership and brings the total humanitarian assistance package to $65 million for Ukraine. 

Caritas Australia, as a part of the End COVID For All Campaign, is urging the Federal Government to commit to supporting developing countries in the fight against COVID-19 before the virus mutates and renders current vaccines ineffective. The new report, A SHOT OF HOPE - Australia’s role in vaccinating the world against COVID-19, found that two-thirds of epidemiologists surveyed believe that the virus may mutate in less than a year if action is not taken now to prevent the spread of the virus in developing countries. “According to the epidemiologists consulted for the report, the best method to prevent COVID-19 further mutating is vaccination, but many low-income countries won’t reach 70 per cent vaccination until after 2030, so it is essential we intervene now,” says Kirsty Robertson, Caritas Australia’s CEO.  

Lebanon's financial crisis continues to worsen with 90 per cent wiped off the value of the local currency since 2019, food prices inflated by up to 1000 per cent in some cases, and three-quarters of the population plunged into poverty in less than 18 months.  The economic crisis is so severe that the World Bank says it may be one of the top three worst economic crises in the past 150 years. Rapid hyperinflation has left swathes of the population unable to afford housing, education, healthcare, clean water and transportation. 

Lebanon has reached boiling point from enduring a series of crises that have been escalating over the past 18 months. Today, the population faces a dire humanitarian crisis with the country rapidly running out of power, water, fuel, medicine and food.  The Lebanese economy has been in freefall since October 2019 which has seen hyperinflation drastically devalue the Lebanese Lira in what the World Bank says is potentially one of the three worst economic crises the world has seen in the past 150 years.