Caritas Europa will actively participate in a new EU programme to deploy 26 young European volunteers to non-EU countries this year. Their help will support crucial humanitarian projects run by two Caritas member organisations.

2023 is the first year of a new initiative within the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) providing young citizens and residents of the European Union the possibility to work on humanitarian projects. Caritas takes part in this new adventure with the new project called EVOCA (which stands for European Volunteers for Caritas) and brings together Caritas Flanders (Belgium), Caritas Austria, Caritas Czech Republic and Caritas Ukraine, with Caritas Europa as an associate partner.

The goal of the project is to deploy 26 European citizens who are 36 years old or younger to countries outside of the EU. They will volunteer for around 10 months in humanitarian and development projects. The activities take place in the country offices of Caritas Czech Republic in Georgia, Iraq, Mongolia and Zambia, and once the war in Ukraine is over it will also be possible to send volunteers there to support the work of Caritas Ukraine across the country.

The project continues until the end of 2025. Caritas has a long experience in volunteer management, and as a network was very active in the EU Aid Volunteer (EUAV) initiative, the predecessor of the current European Solidarity Corps programme. In eight different EUAV projects bringing together numerous Caritas agencies in Africa, Asia and Europe, the Caritas network built its capacities to manage, deploy and host international volunteers.

In the coming years, Caritas Europa will actively support its member organisations in participating in the humanitarian strand of the European Solidarity Corps. For regular updates on EVOCA and other Caritas volunteering projects, follow Caritas Humanitarian Volunteering on Facebook.

If you are interested in volunteering, visit the European Youth Portal!