Central Africa's Rights & AIDS (CARA) Society
CARA is an international organisation committed and dedicated to empowering the poor by promoting justice, health, education and social development of all of its members and the public by improving the quality of life of the disadvantaged people of our community through helping them to know, understand and achieve their rights.
This includes providing free counselling, legal advice, advocacy, representation, information, referral, signposting and assistance in areas covering overseas aid, community care, community relations, disabilities, elderly people, poverty relief, water/sanitation, welfare benefits, debt, education, training, employment, housing, homelessness, immigration, translation, interpreting, cultural/leisure activities, mental health, health & social care, HIV/AIDS, STIs, Free Condoms Distribution, Health & Well-being, High Blood Pressure, Healthy Eating and Weight Loss programmes.
We rely on our members and the generosity of the public in securing donations and legacies so that we can continue the work we provide.
It now concentrates on its role as a specialist provider of advice, representation and advocacy. The increasing complexity of law and increasing inequality in our society since the 1970s has meant that access to legal remedies has remained as relevant today as it was at the start. Recent research shows a strong link between economic and social regeneration, health inequalities, and the pattern of experience of social, economic, cultural and legal problems. Giving individuals and communities the capacity and power to take action to defend their rights is the sign of an inclusive society. CARA Society seeks to empower local people by promoting social, economic, cultural and legal solutions to many of the problems they face.
CARA Society believes that it is important to challenge the way that law affects the most disadvantaged and vulnerable members of our community. We therefore seek to use our knowledge, experience and skills in a variety of ways to meet our core objective of combating social exclusion. We plan to start taking on test cases that may have an impact well beyond the actual case fought, we shall produce self help leaflets to ensure that individuals are able to make informed decisions and we shall lobby and campaign for changes to the law where we think that current or proposed changes are not just. We plan to increase our workload to around 1000 cases each year and to secure tens of millions of pounds for clients in arrears of benefits, additions to income, and compensation over the years. Our work also includes advice and representation which cannot be given a monetary value, such as preventing evictions, advising about immigration and asylum matters and combating discrimination.
CARA Society is an independent charity. We have a management committee of Trustees and we maintain a membership which links us with the community we serve and reflects the diversity within our communities. Our trustees have decided to register the society as a company limited by guarantee at the Company House in the current year. We work closely and are a part of the Office of Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), AdviceUK, Money Advice Trust, Hackney Council for Voluntary Sector (HCVS), Hackney Voluntary Action (HVA), Hackney Homes, City and Hackney NHS PCT, and the Hackney African Forum. This is a network of information, advice and specialist advisors in Hackney and across the UK who are committed to independent free advice. CARA Society has been independently inspected to ensure that both the running of CARA Society and its advice delivery is of a consistently high standard. We are seeking to get the Legal Services Commission 'Quality Mark' at the specialist level, as this shall be our client's guarantee of quality assured services.
We are grateful for the support received from our main funders Awards for All, Hackney Councils, Hackney PCT, Hackney Business Link and for the support made by our members through memberships and donations. We also wish to acknowledge funding we are waiting from the Big Lottery. A thank you is also owed to many other donors to CARA Society. If you are interested in sponsoring CARA please e-mail us at info@cara-online.org
Registered Charity No. 1135610