can: Fifty years of Christian Aid Week
years on 50 the doorstep AS ALLIED FORCES advanced across Europe, signalling the beginning of the end of World War Two, British churches began fundraising to help the millions of people made homeless by the conflict. In 1945, Christian Aid – then known as Christian Reconstruction in Europe – was founded, mainly to provide emergency supplies and help resettle refugees. Its
work soon spread further afield, as conflict displaced millions more in Palestine, Korea and China. Meanwhile, the war’s legacy of homelessness and poverty endured. In 1956, the organisation – by then called the Department of Inter-Church Aid and Refugee Service – built a replica refugee camp in London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields
Church, highlighting the plight of the 100,000 people still living in appalling temporary conditions. Then, 50 years ago in 1957, we held the first Christian Aid Week – to raise both money and public awareness. The 200 towns and villages that took part collected a grand total of £26,000. Christian Aid Week became an annual event and was launched in Ireland the following year. By 1964, Christian Aid Week had become so well known throughout the UK that we finally changed our name to Christian Aid. At the end of the 1960s, Christian Aid Week had broken through the £1 million barrier. As well as giving aid to help alleviate crises such as the Biafran war, Christian Aid began to speak out about the causes of poverty. In the 1970s we started to expand our long-term development work, funding more than 100 projects in more than 40 countries. Christian Aid Week celebrated its
Reflection
Fifty not out For the 50th consecutive year more than 300,000 people took to the streets to raise money for Christian Aid. Head of community division Paul Langley reflects on the importance of this annual tradition SOME PEOPLE THINK I’m crazy, but I love going from house to house in Christian Aid Week. You can’t beat standing at a neighbour’s door with the sound of footsteps approaching and not knowing if you’ll be greeted with a smile or a sigh. Fortunately, the evidence shows that people responded as positively in 2007 as they did in 1957 when the first door was knocked upon. Just because people are responding, doesn’t mean it’s ‘easy money’. Going door to door takes commitment and
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courage. Not all people are as polite as you’d hope. ‘Sorry, I didn’t get an envelope’, or, ‘No thanks’, are among the polite refusals; much stronger responses sometimes emerge from behind the occasional door that remains closed. Yet in all these situations something important has happened. In that brief moment we have offered someone the opportunity to make a difference. The doorstep encounter is priceless and is what makes Christian Aid Week unique – no other charity comes near to this
intimate challenge. It’s amazing, and we need to maintain it as a central part of any future fundraising. Strip away everything else and Christian Aid Week is fairly simple – poverty exists and we can make a difference by collecting money to help eradicate it. Nothing complicated. Over the past 50 years a generation of faithful people have reached out to their community and used this week to express their love for one another. People’s reactions on the door haven’t
Christian Aid News
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