Trócaire is an Irish non governmental organization (NGO) development agency. The charity is registered in the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 under Irish Charity No. CHY 5883.

Origins

• The word 'trócaire' in Irish
  Irish language
  Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
  
   translates to the word 'compassion' in English
  English language
  English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
  
  .
• Trócaire was set up in 1973 by the Irish Catholic Bishop
  Bishop
  A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
  
  s.

Trócaire as a Catholic agency

Trócaire's roots can be found as far back as 1967 when Pope Paul VI wrote his groundbreaking and insightful encyclical Popularoum Progressio, which called for people to take notice and respond to the injustices and disparities that were occurring all round the world.

In 1973 floods ravaged Bangladesh causing the Irish people to donate money in a spontaneous act of community solidarity and generosity. Cardinal William Conway saw the need for an Irish Church agency to channel such generosity and Trócaire's life began.

In a pastoral letter written in 1973 by the Bishops of Ireland, Trócaire, the Irish word for "mercy
" was established. The agency was set up as an official channel through which people can express their commitment on an ongoing basis, to the needs of the Third World. They set out the aims of Trócaire as two-fold:

Abroad, it will give whatever help lies within its resources to the areas of greatest need among the developing counties. At home, it will try to make us all more aware of the needs of these countries and of our duties towards them. These duties are no longer a matter of charity but of simple justice.

Ethos

Trócaire is a non governmental organization(N.G.O). Trócaire works in 127 programmes across 39 countries in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Some of the programmes aims are to:

• Support gender equality
  Gender equality
  Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...
  
  
• Respond to Emergencies and Disasters
• Address the HIV
  HIV
  Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
  
   and AIDS
  AIDS
  Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
  
   crisis
• Help people cope with climate change
  Climate change
  Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
  
  
• Tackle injustice and defend human rights
  Human rights
  Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
  
  

Development

• Trócaire was given a dual mandate: to support long-term development projects overseas and to provide relief during emergencies; and at home to inform the Irish public about the root causes of poverty
  Poverty
  Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
  
   and injustice
  Injustice
  Injustice is the lack of or opposition to justice, either in reference to a particular event or act, or as a larger status quo. The term generally refers to misuse, abuse, neglect, or malfeasance that is uncorrected or else sanctioned by a legal system. Misuse and abuse with regard to a particular...
  
   and mobilise the public to bring about global change.

• Its work is also influenced by the experiences and the hopes of the poor and oppressed. Trócaire supports communities in their efforts to improve their lives, meet their basic needs and ensure their human dignity.

• Each year during the lent period in Ireland Trócaire sends out a money box where people usually choose to put a euro or more each day and it's collected after the forty days of lent.

• In response
  Humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
  The humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was prompted by one of the worst natural disasters of modern times. On 26 December 2004, the earthquake, which struck off the northwest coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, generated a tsunami that wreaked havoc along much of the...
  
   to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
  2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
  The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
  
  disaster, the organisation raised a record €27.5 million through church collections, street collections and private donations.