The Ethiopian Catholic Church– or Caritas Ethiopia – was founded in 1965 and was registered with the Ethiopian Government in 2000. Its mandate is to initiate, promote and coordinate the social and pastoral activities of the Universal Church in Ethiopia. Today, the Ethiopian Catholic Church (ECC) programmes have developed to respond to the ever increasing needs of the Ethiopian people.
Caritas Ethiopia operates at the community and national level to provide humanitarian assistance, emergency aid and security, social rehabilitation, water and sanitation, health and HIV/AIDS education, capacity building programmes and campaigns for women in development.
Supplementing its humanitarian aid are developmental programmes that provide people with long-term solutions to the recurrent and chronic incidences of drought.