Caritas - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2012 - 62 Euro Cent

Caritas Austria is a social aid organization of the Roman Catholic Church under the umbrella organization of "Caritas Internationalis", which was founded in 1903. The beginnings of the Caritas movement in Austria can be traced back to the first Caritas congresses shortly after the turn of the century, whereby the organizational structure was based on the German model. Already shortly after the First World War, nine state associations were set up, the first focus was on emergencies and outreach activities in rural areas, while caritas care for the dead took care of a Christian funeral for people from poorer sections of the population. Later, similar to Germany, fields of activity such as care services, care and family help were added, followed by homelessness, assistance for the disabled and refugees (for example, Hungary in 1956), social counseling, Caritas shops, mother-child-houses and Finally, the hospice movement and various employment projects. The several thousand full-time or voluntary employees of the Austrian Caritas are active in 33 social counseling centers and 27 institutions (including eight mother-and-child houses) for the homeless, in addition they provide their care services in 43 refugee homes, 32 counseling centers for migrants and more as 40 senior and nursing homes for about 4,300 old people. Around 3,700 social welfare workers provide support at home, and nearly 2,000 Caritas employees look after around 6,400 people in part-time and full-time housing, in work projects and the like. 332 helpers support families in emergencies and crises. Since the personal motivation and the values ​​of the employees characterize the work of Caritas to a large extent, in Austria similar procedures apply in the selection and the possible exclusion of employees as in Germany. There are separate procedures for occasional conflicts of loyalty, and the cooperation of Protestants, atheists or members of other religions is generally possible. The Austrian Caritas consists, as mentioned above, of nine independent organizations with their own financial responsibility in the individual dioceses. The central management includes Franz Küberl as President (since 1995) as well as the two General Secretaries Christoph Schweifer and Bernd Wachter. While Austria itself focuses on the financial and social support of people in need, disaster relief and international development cooperation dominate activities abroad