From 3 to 5 March 2026, Caritas Internationalis held its Humanitarian Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, under the theme “Rooted in compassion, rising to the challenge: Caritas' humanitarian action in a changing world”. This global meeting took place in a context of profound transformation, marked by geopolitical tensions, climate disasters and prolonged conflicts that demand greater agility and solidarity on the part of religious organizations. The central objective was to promote the collective wisdom of the network and chart a transformative path that responds to current challenges.

The Latin American and Caribbean region was represented by Janeth Marquez and Susana Rafalli, from Cáritas Venezuela; Wilfredo Cervantes, from Cáritas Honduras; and Winter Lamarque, from Cáritas Haiti.

After their participation in Kigali, Janeth Márquez (Cáritas Venezuela) and Wilfredo Cervantes shared with the Expanded Core of Cáritas LAC their perceptions about the event, reaffirming the importance of our region's participation in these spaces.

For Janeth Márquez, "it is an important event because in the end it validates many things about what is happening in our network. It is like the backbone of many important issues." The director of Cáritas de Venezuela emphasized that Latin America must redouble its efforts to increase its participation. “We must set guidelines as a region on those issues where we have our own experience and not just follow the agendas that are a priority for other countries,” he stated.

For his part, Wilfredo Cervantes highlighted that within the strategic framework of the confederation is strategic objective number 2, which is the one that has to do with this whole issue of emergencies and risk management, and the importance of having this space every two years to update on the path taken. Cervantes highlighted that it was possible to graphically visualize the emergency calls (EA). “Our region is the one with the fewest emergency calls in terms of financial volume, and it is vital that this disproportionality is understood so as not to make our crises invisible,” Cervantes warned.

As a resonance of participation in this space, the director of Cáritas Honduras rescued a premise to understand the mission of Cáritas: it is not just about "what" or "how" we do things, but about "why".