“Even in our relatively affluent countries, many people may find themselves in difficult and sometimes critical situations”, declared Franz Küberl, head of Caritas in Graz, in Austria, on presenting the annual report of the organization for the region of Styria last Monday. To corroborate his remarks, Küberl described the results of the balance sheet for the previous year: in 2002, 710 permanent staff worked for Caritas in Styria, to whom can be added a further 500 volunteers, 30 more than in the period year, and 5,000 volunteers in the parishes. According to the Caritas report, the situation of state subsidies continues to be critical, especially as regards the purchasing power of the wages of domestic carers and staff in hospices for the elderly or the sick. Küberl criticised the cuts in state funding planned for 2004 in the sector of projects in support of employment on average 30 per cent and recalled that in the previous year 185 people had found work thanks to the employment projects run by Caritas itself. The president of Caritas Styria lastly thanked those who had made donations: these funds, he said, had been used in sectors for which no other means of funding exist, such as “social counselling services, subsidies for particular homes, and hostels for the homeless”.
