Prague, Sept 24 (CTK) – The Catholic Church in the Czech Republic launched Thursday a new e-database for people, parishes and organisations wishing to offer aid to refugees, including accommodation, material and financial aid, voluntary aid and various services, Jan Oulik, spokesman for the Caritas organisation, told CTK.
The database is available for the broad public.
“People can offer vacant houses and flats, mainly their long-time renting to the families of migrants that were granted Czech asylum. They can also offer their voluntary help, for example, with teaching [refugees] the [Czech] language,” said Caritas director Lukas Curylo.
The e-database project was initiated by the leadership of the Czech Bishops’ Conference (CBK) on September 10.
The CBK asked parishes and religious orders to offer aid through the new website.
The bishops also called on all Czech citizens not to succumb to fear and extremist rhetoric.
Caritas Czech Republic has 320 branches all over the country. Within the Roman Catholic Church, it operates as a guarantor of aid to migrants. It cooperates with the state, regional and municipal administration bodies, as well as supra-national organisations such as Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Europa.
In the Czech Republic, it operates four consulting centres for migrants and an information phone line in the Mongolian and Vietnamese languages.
The Czech Republic is not among the countries that the refugees seek as their final European destination. Most incoming refugees plan to continue their way to Germany.
In spite of this, Prague is preparing for another possible wave of migrants.
The Czech government says it is ready to help, but it is opposed to mandatory quotas for refugees redistribution.
