Caritas partners with Christchurch company to launch new website

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, the Catholic agency for justice, peace and development, has launched a new website through Christchurch company Metasolutions.

The new site went live this month, and will shortly be providing online delivery of schools’ and parish resources for Caritas’ Social Justice Week in September. Some previous years’ resources are already available.

Caritas Director Mike Smith says the new site showcases the invaluable work of Caritas and its partners around the world. Photos and video, as well as feature stories and case studies, are used to show what is being done to address poverty in the Pacific, Africa, Asia, Latin America, as well as Caritas’ work for justice in Aotearoa New Zealand.

‘But the backdrop to this development have been the Christchurch earthquakes,’ said Mr Smith. ‘Metasolutions had just moved into new premises on February 21, after being in temporary locations following the September 2010 quake. Then of course 22 February happened, and they were out on the street again. It’s a tremendous credit to them that they’ve kept their business going – based at staff members’ homes sometimes – through all of this. And with minimal disruption to our project with them.’

Mr Smith said, ‘They’ve delivered an attractive site, that’s easy for us to use and we hope will be well received by web users.  It’s been great working with them.’

Metasolutions Director Norm Mckenzie said, ’We genuinely wish to thank Caritas for all of their support through this time. It's only because New Zealand businesses and organisations make the choice to support Christchurch companies that we are still running. Christchurch businesses and people still have a wealth of talent and we are all determined to push ahead and see the full recovery of our once lovely city.’

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is a member of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 168 Catholic aid, development and social justice agencies active in over 200 countries and territories.

For more information contact Martin de Jong +64-4-496 1782 or +64-21-909 688.

All Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand media releases are available on www.caritas.org.nz