ROME (SE): Children account for one half of all refugees in the world today, an appeal from Caritas calling for proper protection to be accorded to them says.

KAMPALA (SE): The African nation of Uganda has seen more refugees coming across its borders in the last four months than arrived in the European nation of Greece during the first 10 months of this year.

Its once sparsely populated northern grassland of Bidi Bidi has in a short space of time been transformed into what Caritas Uganda describes of the second largest refugee shelter in the world.

MALMÖ (AsiaNews): At the last event of Pope Francis’ ecumenical visit to Sweden on October 31 in the Malmö Arena, Caritas Internationalis and the Lutheran World Federation Service International signed a declaration of intention to work together in the area of bringing social services to the lost and most marginalised people in the world.

COLOMBO (UCAN): In a move to encourage reconciliation in post war Sri Lanka, Caritas has set up 40 Caritas Village Peace Committees in 13 dioceses that span Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim communities.

Dhaka (UCAN): “Floodwater has started to recede as rain has stopped but the suffering of affected people is not over,” Pintu William Gomes, senior manager of the disaster management department at Caritas Bangladesh said.

The floods, the worst in 10 years, were triggered by monsoon rains and a surge of water from upstream India, and have submerged 20 districts and left two million people stranded since late July, according to the state-run Disaster Management Department.