Saint Vincent de Paul Society
Nature of the Society
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The Society is a welfare organisation of the Catholic Church that is affiliated to, and operates in co-operation with, the world-wide Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, the permanent headquarters of which is in Paris, France.
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Extent of the Society
There are more than 45 000 Conferences of the Society represented by some 850 000 members in 122 countries.
Objects and powers of the Society
- To provide wholly or in part any of the financial, material, spiritual or social requirements of persons and families in need of assistance
- To establish and maintain centres of care for people in need
- To establish and maintain charity stores
- To collect and raise funds, and to collect goods for any of the objects of the Society
- To invest funds with registered financial institutions
- To acquire by purchase, donation, or bequest, movable and immovable property for the purposes of carrying out the objects of the Society
- To allow beneficiaries to occupy buildings owned or rented by the Society free of charge
- To assist and co-operate with other institutions and associations for the specific purposes enumerated in these objects.
Sample activities of the Central Council (Johannesburg)
- Person-to-person assistance of people in need: this forms the bulk of the activities
- Assistance to the unemployed and single-parent families
- Assistance to poor people who are suffering from HIV/AIDS
- Generation of opportunities for unemployed men and women by setting them up in small business and thereby empowering them to earn an income
- Maintenance of Frederic Place as a place of safety and care for old, frail and disabled persons who depend solely on the government old-age pension
- Support for 48 vulnerable children in the Society's children's home in Everton
- Provision of school shoes (for needy children attending John Berchman's School and for children in the squatter camps around Kliptown)
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