Christian Aid News 54

CHRISTIAN AID NEWS Issue 54

Winter 2012

christianaid.org.uk

we need your help now!

Pledge your support for Christian Aid Week 2012

For every packet of sausages you buy, the GLC will donate 7p to Christian Aid. This could help poor communities grow the food they need to overcome hunger and poverty.

GLC sausages are available in more than 150 Waitrose stores across Britain, and selected Tesco stores in Northern Ireland.

For your nearest store location, check the map on goodlittlecompany.com And if you join the Good Little Company on Facebook it will donate an extra 7p to Christian Aid: facebook.com/goodlittlecompany UK registered charity no. 1105851 Company no. 5171525 Scot charity no. SC039150 NI charity no. XR94639 Company no. NI059154 ROI charity no CHY 6998 Company no 426928 Printed on 100 per cent recycled paper . The Christian Aid name and logo are trademarks of Christian Aid; Poverty Over is a trademark of Christian Aid. © Christian Aid, December 2011 12-372-R

Say ‘on your bike’ to poverty by riding to the Tour de France finale or cycling to three historic cathedrals in just two days!

Christian aid introduCes

Photo: iStockphoto.com/Robyn Mackenzie

Buy healthy ethical sausages from the Good Little Company (GLC) and help raise money for Christian aid’s work around the world.

the Good LittLe Company

it’s a sizzLer!

LONDON TO PARIS BIKE RIDE 18‑22 July 2012

CAThEDRALS TO COAST BIKE RIDE

22‑23 September 2012 Join Team Poverty today!

Call 020 7523 2127 or visit christianaid.org.uk/cycling

UK registered charity no. 1105851 Company no. 5171525 Scot charity no. SC039150 NI charity no. XR94639 Company no. NI059154 ROI charity no. CHY 6998 Company no. 426928 The Christian Aid name and logo are trademarks of Christian Aid Poverty Over is a trademark of Christian Aid. © Christian Aid, December 2011 Photo: Christian Aid/M Gonzalez‑Noda

020 7620 4444

CONTENTS

EDITOR’S LETTER

F1986

Christian Aid News is printed on 100 per cent recycled paper

Christian Aid/Antoinette Powell

EVERY YEAR one date is always first into the Christian Aid calendar: Christian Aid Week. And while it may only be January, preparations are well under way for the 2012 Week from 13-19 May. And this year, more than ever before, we need your help to make this fantastic feat of fundraising a huge success. Could you lend a hand to your local church organising committee, carry our message into schools and community groups, or take part in an event? Or could you volunteer to pound the pavements in your village, town or city as one of our army of house-to-house collectors? However you could help, we would love to see as many of you as possible getting involved.

Whether this is your 10th year of collecting for Christian Aid, or the first time you’ve considered it, I hope that our special feature calls you to get involved as never before.

We need you!

Finally, after an autumn during which many supporters took part in walks to support an Indian land-rights movement, read our report on page 12 on preparations in India for a 2012 march. Inspiring.

Roger Fulton, Editor

24 Collector Peter Murray on a fact-finding trip to Sierra Leone, ahead of Christian Aid Week 2012

REGULARS

with a festive twist. And dates for your 2012 diary.

■ 4 THE BIG PICTURE One telling image.

■ 28 YOUR CHRISTIAN AID

■ 6 NEWS

Events and stories from your part of Britain.

Beverley Knight in Malawi, east Africa update and our take on the Durban climate change talks.

6

■ 14 CAMPAIGNS Taking the climate change message to the UN talks in Durban. Plus, Bearing Witness and a timely tax reminder.

■ 24 LIFE AND SOUL How a Good Little Company turns sausages into funds for Christian Aid.

26

■ 12 FRONTLINE On the move with the protestors marching for land rights in India.

■ 18 CHRISTIAN AID WEEK 2012

Your feedback.

Santa Dashes to the Big Christmas Sing: fundraising

Meet Jean, a woman living alongside a community under occupation.

SPECIAL FEATURES

■ 25 INPUT ■ 26 EVENTS

■ 30 LAST WORD

30

It’s never too early to get involved in Christian Aid Week! Our Life and Soul special looks at how you can help make our 2012 event a wonderful success.

UK registered charity number 1105851 Company number 5171525 Scotland charity number SC039150 Northern Ireland charity number XR94639 Company number NI059154 Republic of Ireland charity number CHY 6998 Company number 426928. The Christian Aid name and logo are trademarks of Christian Aid; Poverty Over is a trademark of Christian Aid. © Christian Aid January 2012. The acceptance of external advertising does not indicate endorsement. If you wish to receive this magazine digitally, go to digitalcan.christianaid.org.uk

Christian Aid is a Christian organisation that insists the world can and must be swiftly changed to one where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty. We work globally for profound change that eradicates the causes of poverty, striving to achieve equality, dignity and freedom for all, regardless of faith or nationality.

We are part of a wider movement for social justice.

We provide urgent, practical and effective assistance where need is great, tackling the effects of poverty as well as its root causes.

n Front cover Long-term supporter Peter Murray collecting for Christian Aid Week in Darlington station. Photo: Christian Aid/Chris Booth n Pictures Joseph Cabon, Matthew Gonzalez-Noda n Sub-editors Caroline Atkinson, Catriona Lorie, Louise Parfitt n Circulation Ben Hayward n Design and production Becca Higgins/Syon Publishing, 020 8332 8407 n Christian Aid head office 35 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7RL n Tel 020 7620 4444 n Fax 020 7620 0719 n Email info@christian-aid.org n Online at christianaid.org.uk

THE BIG PICTURE

Christian Aid/Olivia Arthur/Magnum Photos

THE BARRIER OF IGNORANCE FOURTEEN YEARS AGO, Kenyan church leader Reverend Rahab was shocked to discover that she was HIV-positive. She thought of herself as a good Christian and believed that HIV was an illness of prostitutes: ‘When you have a sexually related disease, sometimes it is like a shame. At that time I was feeling I would want to die. When I entered vehicles I wished they would have an accident and then people would say, “she died in an accident”.’

When the Church found out about Reverend Rahab’s status, she says it convinced her fiancé not to marry her. Soon after, she was relocated from a successful urban parish to a failing drought-stricken area in the countryside. Hurt and confused, she decided to remain quiet about her HIV status in her new parish: ‘If I could be sure that if I said I am positive to the members, I would not be chased from the Church, I would be comfortable. At this present time I will keep it mum.’

Reverend Rahab’s story is one of several told in Stigma Under the Lens, a compelling new audio-visual exhibition organised by Christian Aid in partnership with international photo agency Magnum Photos. It examines how stigma manifests itself in everyday life for someone who is HIV-positive, and goes some way to explaining why thousands would rather not know their status than face discrimination at home, in their community, at work, and within their faith.

Four Magnum photographers (Alessandra Sanguinetti, Peter van Agtmael, Olivia Arthur – whose photograph is featured here – and Patrick Zachmann) travelled to Bolivia, Britain, Kenya, India and Tajikistan to record powerful testimonies.

Reverend Rahab now helps to educate the local population about HIV. She is part of KENERELA, a network of faith leaders living with and affected

by HIV, working to fight HIV-related stigma within the churches.

Stigma Under the Lens launched for World AIDS Day on 1 December 2011. It received widespread press coverage, including on the BBC and Sky News and in the Mirror, Independent and Guardian newspapers.

• To view the audio gallery, please go to christianaid.org.uk/hiv

4 Christian Aid News

To view the audio galle ry, please go to christianaid . org.uk/hiv

Christian Aid News 5

To view the audio galle ry, please go to christianaid . org.uk/hiv

Christian Aid News 5

NEWS

MALAWI

KNIGHT LIGHTS UP THE DAYS Beverley Knight hardly left her day job when she travelled to Malawi as a Christian Aid ambassador ON VISITING ‘IN TUNE FOR LIFE’, a recording project part-funded by Christian Aid, where musicians create songs and video content with HIV-related educational messages, the MOBO award-winning singer gave local school children an impromptu concert.

While seeing our HIV work in Malawi, Beverley took the opportunity to play the continent’s biggest annual pop festival, the Lake of Stars. ‘I passionately believe that music can be used as a tool to effect change. The performance of music and drama here is so strong and powerful, and when they talk of Malawi as the

6 Christian Aid News

warm heart of Africa, they really aren’t kidding. I had a wonderful reception.’

In her second trip with Christian Aid (the first was to Brazil in 2002), the singer met partners including Theatre for a Change and MANERELA+ (a group of religious leaders living with the virus), who are using education and healthcare to deal with the continent’s HIV crisis.

‘The scale of the HIV pandemic here in Malawi is huge. Some 11 per cent of the country’s 15 million adults are living with HIV. Christian Aid and its partners are trying to slow it down.

‘The stigma is the real killer. The biggest surprise for me is the Church’s attitude towards HIV, in terms of educating about transmission and caring for people living with HIV. It is getting in and among the people, and setting up

schools, clinics and first-aid centres on chapel land.’

Beverley also met Grace Mathanga, a former sex worker whose first two children died from HIV-related illnesses.

Once she was diagnosed, Grace sought help from Theatre for a Change, which taught her about preventing transmission from mother-to-child.

Grace's daughter Chisomo (which translates as Grace) is, as a result, HIVnegative.

‘Because of Theatre for a Change, Grace and little Grace both have a future,’ Beverley said. On her return, she spoke to the Daily Mirror, Hello magazine, ITV’s This Morning programme and 15 BBC radio stations about the projects to help promote the 2011 Christian Aid Christmas appeal.

Christian Aid/Lee Thompson

Beverley Knight with local school children

MALAWI

Grant funds £10.1m climate programme IN OCTOBER 2011, Christian Aid launched a new programme in Malawi with our largest Department for International Development (DFID) grant to date. The Enhancing Community Resilience Programme (ECRP), worth £10.1m, will take an ambitious approach to addressing climate challenges such as droughts and floods.

This builds on experience gained through previous projects in Malawi, including work with our partner the Evangelical Association of Malawi to set up warning systems in anticipation of disasters such as floods.

Christian Aid will act as lead agency of a consortium of international agencies, including CARE and Action Aid, and 11 Malawian partner organisations. The project will work to improve local communities’ resilience to challenges brought by Malawi’s changing climate, including the increasing frequency of droughts and floods. Communities will be able to improve their livelihoods while making the most of new opportunities to take part in decisions affecting them. In doing so, they will bring sustainable benefits for a more secure future.

CENTRAL AMERICA TROPICAL DEPRESSION BRINGS WORST RAIN FOR 50 YEARS FROM MID-October countries in Central America experienced some of the highest levels of rain in 50 years, caused by Tropical Depression E12.

The countries most affected were El Salvador and Guatemala, with reports that the devastation was worse than that created by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

In El Salvador the average annual rainfall is around 1,770mm, but 1,470mm of rain fell in just a few

UK must do more to fight corruption MUCH MORE MUST be done by the government to tackle the role that British banks and companies play in fuelling and facilitating corruption overseas, according to a new report launched on International AntiCorruption Day (9 December) by an umbrella group of development agencies, including Christian Aid. ‘The laws are there to tackle corruption but so far the will is lacking, particularly when it comes to the Bribery Act,’ said Eric Gutierrez, senior governance adviser at Christian Aid and one of the authors of the report by The Bond Anti-Corruption Group.

‘Corruption has devastating effects on developing countries, undermining good governance and exacerbating poverty,’ said Melissa Lawson, Tearfund policy adviser and Bond group chair. ‘The failure to act here in the UK when it comes to enforcing bribery laws and tackling dirty money has huge implications for the world’s poorest communities. This report shows why the UK must not remain ambivalent when it comes to addressing the real issues in the fight against corruption.’

The report notes improvements in Britain’s compliance with some of its commitments under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, but

days. Around 50,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes, and 5,000 acres of crops were damaged.

Christian Aid is responding through seven partners across the region, with £50,000 released from our emergency funds to help cope with the disaster. £170,000 from the Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies also helped meet the needs of those worst affected. Our partners responded rapidly and effectively, often working in communities not reached by civil authorities. They helped with evacuations and provided food and basic health care to those in emergency shelters. Hygiene and kitchen kits were also distributed, and water purification

identifies a series of weaknesses: • The Ministry of Justice guidance on the new UK Bribery Act is unclear, creating potential loopholes and confusion for business.

• The Serious Fraud Office has too few resources to ensure the bribery legislation is a real deterrent to stop companies paying huge bribes to foreign governments in return for lucrative contracts.

• According to the Financial Services Authority, 75 per cent of British banks surveyed don’t know the source of the funds of their customers who are senior overseas political figures, leaving Britain wide open to corrupt funds.

The Bond Group welcomed the Bribery Act of 2010, but now calls on the government to: • ensure sufficient resources for enforcing the Bribery Act • enforce its own anti-moneylaundering laws to ensure British banks do not accept corrupt money and facilitate corruption • extend the UN Convention Against Corruption and UK Bribery Act to all Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories • produce a transparent crossgovernment anti-corruption strategy.

systems put in place. The next stage will be to ensure that communities recover their livelihoods, including agriculture, fishing and livestock.

In spite of the magnitude of this tragedy, it is notable that the death toll remained low, with around 120 people killed. This is due to the work of our partners, who have been helping vulnerable communities prepare for disasters over the past decade.

NEWS EAST AFRICA

NOW FLOODING ADDS TO MISERY AFGHANISTAN

TIME FOR DONORS TO GET IT RIGHT AT THE BONN conference on 5 December, the international community affirmed its commitment to peace and development in Afghanistan. But no specific pledges on aid were made.

Christian Aid believes the international community needs to commit to prioritise poverty reduction for a country that is still one of the world’s poorest, and pursue an inclusive, accountable peace process that includes all Afghans.

In the 10 years since the start of the international intervention in Afghanistan, progress on health,

8 Christian Aid News

education and other measures of people’s quality of life has been faltering. International governments have given roughly US$57bn in aid to the country, but much of this has been spent on short-term ‘stabilisation’ work that has not delivered a stable state for the Afghan people.

The international community of more than 100 countries that gathered at the conference pledged to support Afghanistan for another decade after international troops withdraw in 2014.

Now, after the conference, Christian Aid and other NGOs are asking the British government to ensure that the years

up to 2024 follow a new approach: addressing the needs of ordinary Afghans for jobs and basic services, as well as putting ordinary people first in the peace process.

If the international community allows a peace process between the government and the Taliban that does not include all social groups or allow the participation of the public, the process will be mistrusted by the population and will not solve the local tensions and conflicts generated by 30 years of war. That could mean that Afghanistan slides back into another war.

Flooding in Somalia

AFGHANISTAN UPDATE IN JUNE 2011, after two seasons of poor rains, rising EAST food prices and AFRICA displacement left CRISIS Special report on the impact of the millions in desperate current drought – and how our partners are need of humanitarian helping assistance, Christian Aid launched an appeal for east Africa.

Funds raised have enabled us to respond to the needs of around 270,000 of those left most vulnerable by the crisis across east Africa. Despite the challenges posed by insecurity around Kenya’s border with Somalia (including around Mandera and the Dadaab refugee camp), which is making work in the area extremely difficult, our partners continue to work in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.

Liaising with other organisations responding to the emergency to ensure resources are used effectively, Christian Aid has supported local partners to provide water, sanitation and nutritional support for those most in need within Kenya’s Dadaab and Ethiopia’s Dollo Ado refugee camps, and within communities facing hunger and disease.

This work has included providing emergency water supplies and repairing existing boreholes, paying a fair rate for remaining livestock to reduce the burden on families struggling to meet their needs, and providing food for women and babies.

The arrival in October of the rainy season brought a degree of hope. Yet with some areas now experiencing flooding, including Dadaab camp and the area of Kenya around Isolo, Mandera, Marsabit and Moyale, these rains have resulted in further misery for many.

Crops that farmers have managed to grow – including maize, beans and sorghum – have been wiped out while the floods have contaminated some communities’ dams and shallow wells with silt and other debris.

Christian Aid will continue to respond to the changing situation, helping to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases in areas affected by flooding while supporting other communities to rebuild their lives.

CHRISTIAN AID NEWS Issue 53

Autumn 2011

christianaid.org.uk

‘Moral’ prisoner wins freedom

• Afghanistan: the women who fear for their future

• Tax and climate: the campaign pressure builds

07/09/2011 13:49

Reuters/Thomas MuKoya/courtesy alertnet.org

Christian Aid/Sarah Malian

Cover2.indd 1

A FEMALE AFGHAN prisoner featured in the last edition of Christian Aid News is among several whose release has been secured by a Christian Aid partner.

Nozeni was accused of running away with her boyfriend when she was just 15 years old. She was given five years in jail, while her boyfriend was released after seven months.

Since the last edition of Christian Aid News, she has been freed. With the help of a lawyer paid for by Christian Aid partner the Afghan Women’s Education Centre (AWEC), she applied for a presidential pardon, and has now left after spending two-and-a-half years in prison.

A recent UN report estimates that more than half of Afghanistan’s female prisoners have been jailed for ‘moral crimes’, such as running away from home. These crimes are seen as stains on the family’s honour, despite often having no basis in law, and repeatedly show bias towards men. The justice system in Afghanistan is very poor; women have no voice in court and often they are not even present at hearings.

Numbers of female inmates are on the increase, according to UN figures.

Nozeni was originally jailed for five years

Christian Aid and AWEC work in Faryab women’s jail in the north of Afghanistan, providing legal assistance, family counselling, literacy classes and income-generation activities for the women there. AWEC promotes economic, social and human rights, and dignity, justice and equality for marginalised women.

AWEC has had other successes; Bibi Gul was given the death sentence for the murder of a soldier. There was no evidence and she asserts that she was framed by her husband’s family. An AWEC lawyer took on her case and had her sentence commuted to 18 years, and recently reduced further to eight.

She has a young baby girl who is still being breastfed so is with her now, but will soon be separated from her mother.

Her daughter will be 10 by the time Bibi Gul gets out. However, her files have now been sent to Kabul to see if the sentence can be reduced further.

AWEC continues to work to help women in prisons in a country where the justice system is very poor, and strives at other levels to lobby for laws to protect the rights of women, including the banning of child marriage.

Christian Aid News 9

NEWS cover the cost of training, equipping and supporting a volunteer and running complementary activities, such as radio programmes and sports events, which can be used to reach large numbers.

You can find out more about how your church can be involved in this special appeal by calling Eleanor Ledesma on 020 7523 2368 or by visiting christianaid. org.uk/tacklemalaria

Christian Aid/Sarah Filbey

NETS FOR LIFE HITS 500,000 TARGET

Kelezo Nganga with her surviving son, Eric

£500 MALARIA APPEAL TO CHURCHES CHRISTIAN AID IS asking churches in Britain to join the fight against malaria in Africa by raising at least £500 each to support the work of a volunteer malaria control agent for a year. This initiative aims to raise funds to start a new antimalaria programme in Sierra Leone.

Volunteers play a vital role in combating malaria in Africa. Kelezo Nganga from the Western Province of Zambia lost her six-year-old son to malaria in 2002. Determined that other parents would not suffer in the same way, she trained to become one of Christian Aid partner the Zambia Anglican Council’s volunteer malaria control agents.

Now Kelezo teaches other parents how to reduce the vulnerability of their

DRC CHRISTIAN AID JOINS ELECTION OBSERVERS AS CITIZENS IN THE Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) went to vote in elections for the second time in 40 years, Christian Aid was part of a team of 100 international election observers

10 Christian Aid News

children to the disease, how to recognise its signs and symptoms, and where they can go for immediate treatment. Kelezo says that she now feels confident about keeping her second son, Eric, safe.

This latest church appeal is designed to raise money to start a similar volunteer programme in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Malaria is one of Sierra Leone’s most deadly diseases, accounting for the death of thousands of children every year. The project is centred on the provincial capital of Kenema and plans are in place to recruit around 40 volunteers to provide communities with life-saving education about malaria prevention and treatment.

At least 30,000 people will benefit.

The £500 raised by each church will

in the country. Working alongside national civil society organisations, the observers from EurAC – a European network of 50 non-governmental organisations focused on central Africa – collated reports to assess how effective and fair the elections were.

Delivering democratic elections here is rife with challenges – financial, logistical and political. Christian Aid has been working on accountable

FOUR YEARS AFTER Christian Aid began work with Nets for Life in Nigeria, the 500,000th net has been delivered.

The Nets for Life programme works across Africa with partner organisations that distribute insecticide-treated mosquito nets and information on prevention. It also advocates for diagnostic testing and more effective drug therapy. Malaria accounts for more than a quarter of deaths in children aged under five in Nigeria, and has a huge impact on the country’s economy due to work days lost and the cost of treatment.

So combating the disease is critical.

Providing nets and educating people about protecting themselves is a costeffective way of preventing malaria.

‘These nets have such an impact on reducing frequent malaria cases,’ explained Daniel Shitindi from local partner ADDS Makurdi. ‘These villages where we work have a very high incidence of malaria and it really helps to reduce their visits to clinics, save them money on drugs, and increase their strength for income generation.’

In the coming year, Christian Aid will continue to work with partners to educate communities about malaria and to ensure that the nets they have provided continue to be used effectively to ensure a healthier population.

governance with our partners in the DRC for many years.

Donatella Rostagno from EurAC said: ‘Civil society groups such as Christian Aid’s partners face big challenges but do a lot with the little they have.’

The results were still being collated as Christian Aid News went to press but to hear a podcast about work in the DRC visit christianaid.org.uk/ whatwedo/africa/

CLIMATE CHANGE:

TALK IS JUST NOT ENOUGH

IT’S ALWAYS IMPOSSIBLE to know exactly what will emerge from the United Nations climate change summit held every December. But one safe bet is that governments will put off big decisions altogether, if they can. In the short term, it’s easier than agreeing to something potentially unpopular at home.

This year was no exception. Although many negotiators left the summit in Durban, South Africa, claiming success, the truth is that they simply agreed to keep talking. In a world in which global emissions of greenhouse gases are rising steadily, with scientists warning that urgent action is needed to avoid dangerous climate change, talk is not enough. The ‘breakthrough’ claimed was that the more than 190 countries present agreed to work towards a new international climate agreement, which for the first time will, in theory, cover every country, including the world’s two biggest polluters – China and the US. The UK and European Union, with allies from the least developed and most vulnerable countries, pushed hard to maintain the existing carbon-capping legislation, the Kyoto Protocol, and forge a new deal to come into operation by 2015 with all countries included, meaning binding commitments for all big emitters. But in the end they were overpowered by the self interests of big, wealthy emitters including the US, Russia, Canada and Japan, who refused to accept any binding commitments until 2020. Without such countries on board, India and China also refused to support a more ambitious deal.

Indeed it is likely that had not UK Secretary of State for Climate Change Chris Huhne stood beside the European

Christian Aid/Ally Carnwath

Christian Aid journalist Rachel Baird was in Durban to follow the twists and turns of the UN climate change talks. Here, she analyses an outcome that has left Christian Aid campaigners still concerned but determined to keep fighting

Commissioner Connie Hedegaard in pushing hard for a road map to a globally binding deal then the outcome would have been worse, with possibly no binding commitments and no room for further negotiations.

Nevertheless, while a global deal could – if done well, with proper protection for people living in poverty – be an excellent weapon to curb emissions, Christian Aid remains deeply concerned about the

Action in 2020 will come a decade too late for poor people on the front line – they need it now Durban outcome – commitment to act by 2020 is simply too late.

Experts such as the International Energy Agency and the World Meteorological Organisation were practically queuing up in Durban to warn of the urgent need to cut global emissions, which threaten to push the average global temperature rise above a generally recognised ‘safe’ limit of 2°C. Mohamed Adow, Christian Aid’s climate talks expert, judged the outcome ‘a political compromise which saves the climate talks but endangers people living in poverty.’ His warning was bleak: ‘Action in 2020 will come a decade too late for poor people on the front line –

Campaigners found a novel way to urge the EU to commit to a Kyoto-style deal

they need it now. Their lives are already ravaged by floods, droughts, failed rains, storms, hunger and disease. These will worsen as climate change bites.’

The Kyoto Protocol, which Christian Aid supporters have campaigned vigorously to defend, he says is now ‘Kyoto in name only’.

Even though some governments agreed that they will extend it into a second commitment period, in truth this now amounts to little as so many of its provisions – notably ambition to stay below 2°C and fair action by developed countries – have been removed.

One positive Durban development was that the Green Climate Fund, set up to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate change and develop in a carbon-clean way, will be given staff and an office, although as yet very little cash.

Christian Aid will continue working for urgent action on climate change.

Above all, governments must commit to deeper emissions cuts to come into force before 2020. Much is technologically and economically feasible, such as investing in renewable energies, energy efficiency and better-utilised public transport.

Christian Aid will continue to call on governments, as well as private companies and organisations like the World Bank, to use their power to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and help create sustainable, green economies.

Christian Aid News 11

MALAWI

Grant funds £10.1m climate programme IN OCTOBER 2011, Christian Aid launched a new programme in Malawi with our largest Department for International Development (DFID) grant to date. The Enhancing Community Resilience Programme (ECRP), worth £10.1m, will take an ambitious approach to addressing climate challenges such as droughts and floods.

This builds on experience gained through previous projects in Malawi, including work with our partner the Evangelical Association of Malawi to set up warning systems in anticipation of disasters such as floods.

Christian Aid will act as lead agency of a consortium of international agencies, including CARE and Action Aid, and 11 Malawian partner organisations. The project will work to improve local communities’ resilience to challenges brought by Malawi’s changing climate, including the increasing frequency of droughts and floods. Communities will be able to improve their livelihoods while making the most of new opportunities to take part in decisions affecting them. In doing so, they will bring sustainable benefits for a more secure future.

CENTRAL AMERICA TROPICAL DEPRESSION BRINGS WORST RAIN FOR 50 YEARS FROM MID-October countries in Central America experienced some of the highest levels of rain in 50 years, caused by Tropical Depression E12.

The countries most affected were El Salvador and Guatemala, with reports that the devastation was worse than that created by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

In El Salvador the average annual rainfall is around 1,770mm, but 1,470mm of rain fell in just a few

UK must do more to fight corruption MUCH MORE MUST be done by the government to tackle the role that British banks and companies play in fuelling and facilitating corruption overseas, according to a new report launched on International AntiCorruption Day (9 December) by an umbrella group of development agencies, including Christian Aid. ‘The laws are there to tackle corruption but so far the will is lacking, particularly when it comes to the Bribery Act,’ said Eric Gutierrez, senior governance adviser at Christian Aid and one of the authors of the report by The Bond Anti-Corruption Group.

‘Corruption has devastating effects on developing countries, undermining good governance and exacerbating poverty,’ said Melissa Lawson, Tearfund policy adviser and Bond group chair. ‘The failure to act here in the UK when it comes to enforcing bribery laws and tackling dirty money has huge implications for the world’s poorest communities. This report shows why the UK must not remain ambivalent when it comes to addressing the real issues in the fight against corruption.’

The report notes improvements in Britain’s compliance with some of its commitments under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, but

days. Around 50,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes, and 5,000 acres of crops were damaged.

Christian Aid is responding through seven partners across the region, with £50,000 released from our emergency funds to help cope with the disaster. £170,000 from the Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies also helped meet the needs of those worst affected. Our partners responded rapidly and effectively, often working in communities not reached by civil authorities. They helped with evacuations and provided food and basic health care to those in emergency shelters. Hygiene and kitchen kits were also distributed, and water purification

identifies a series of weaknesses: • The Ministry of Justice guidance on the new UK Bribery Act is unclear, creating potential loopholes and confusion for business.

• The Serious Fraud Office has too few resources to ensure the bribery legislation is a real deterrent to stop companies paying huge bribes to foreign governments in return for lucrative contracts.

• According to the Financial Services Authority, 75 per cent of British banks surveyed don’t know the source of the funds of their customers who are senior overseas political figures, leaving Britain wide open to corrupt funds.

The Bond Group welcomed the Bribery Act of 2010, but now calls on the government to: • ensure sufficient resources for enforcing the Bribery Act • enforce its own anti-moneylaundering laws to ensure British banks do not accept corrupt money and facilitate corruption • extend the UN Convention Against Corruption and UK Bribery Act to all Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories • produce a transparent crossgovernment anti-corruption strategy.

systems put in place. The next stage will be to ensure that communities recover their livelihoods, including agriculture, fishing and livestock.

In spite of the magnitude of this tragedy, it is notable that the death toll remained low, with around 120 people killed. This is due to the work of our partners, who have been helping vulnerable communities prepare for disasters over the past decade.

NEWS EAST AFRICA

NOW FLOODING ADDS TO MISERY AFGHANISTAN

TIME FOR DONORS TO GET IT RIGHT AT THE BONN conference on 5 December, the international community affirmed its commitment to peace and development in Afghanistan. But no specific pledges on aid were made.

Christian Aid believes the international community needs to commit to prioritise poverty reduction for a country that is still one of the world’s poorest, and pursue an inclusive, accountable peace process that includes all Afghans.

In the 10 years since the start of the international intervention in Afghanistan, progress on health,

8 Christian Aid News

education and other measures of people’s quality of life has been faltering. International governments have given roughly US$57bn in aid to the country, but much of this has been spent on short-term ‘stabilisation’ work that has not delivered a stable state for the Afghan people.

The international community of more than 100 countries that gathered at the conference pledged to support Afghanistan for another decade after international troops withdraw in 2014.

Now, after the conference, Christian Aid and other NGOs are asking the British government to ensure that the years

up to 2024 follow a new approach: addressing the needs of ordinary Afghans for jobs and basic services, as well as putting ordinary people first in the peace process.

If the international community allows a peace process between the government and the Taliban that does not include all social groups or allow the participation of the public, the process will be mistrusted by the population and will not solve the local tensions and conflicts generated by 30 years of war. That could mean that Afghanistan slides back into another war.

Flooding in Somalia

AFGHANISTAN UPDATE IN JUNE 2011, after two seasons of poor rains, rising EAST food prices and AFRICA displacement left CRISIS Special report on the impact of the millions in desperate current drought – and how our partners are need of humanitarian helping assistance, Christian Aid launched an appeal for east Africa.

Funds raised have enabled us to respond to the needs of around 270,000 of those left most vulnerable by the crisis across east Africa. Despite the challenges posed by insecurity around Kenya’s border with Somalia (including around Mandera and the Dadaab refugee camp), which is making work in the area extremely difficult, our partners continue to work in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.

Liaising with other organisations responding to the emergency to ensure resources are used effectively, Christian Aid has supported local partners to provide water, sanitation and nutritional support for those most in need within Kenya’s Dadaab and Ethiopia’s Dollo Ado refugee camps, and within communities facing hunger and disease.

This work has included providing emergency water supplies and repairing existing boreholes, paying a fair rate for remaining livestock to reduce the burden on families struggling to meet their needs, and providing food for women and babies.

The arrival in October of the rainy season brought a degree of hope. Yet with some areas now experiencing flooding, including Dadaab camp and the area of Kenya around Isolo, Mandera, Marsabit and Moyale, these rains have resulted in further misery for many.

Crops that farmers have managed to grow – including maize, beans and sorghum – have been wiped out while the floods have contaminated some communities’ dams and shallow wells with silt and other debris.

Christian Aid will continue to respond to the changing situation, helping to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases in areas affected by flooding while supporting other communities to rebuild their lives.

CHRISTIAN AID NEWS Issue 53

Autumn 2011

christianaid.org.uk

‘Moral’ prisoner wins freedom

• Afghanistan: the women who fear for their future

• Tax and climate: the campaign pressure builds

07/09/2011 13:49

Reuters/Thomas MuKoya/courtesy alertnet.org

Christian Aid/Sarah Malian

Cover2.indd 1

A FEMALE AFGHAN prisoner featured in the last edition of Christian Aid News is among several whose release has been secured by a Christian Aid partner.

Nozeni was accused of running away with her boyfriend when she was just 15 years old. She was given five years in jail, while her boyfriend was released after seven months.

Since the last edition of Christian Aid News, she has been freed. With the help of a lawyer paid for by Christian Aid partner the Afghan Women’s Education Centre (AWEC), she applied for a presidential pardon, and has now left after spending two-and-a-half years in prison.

A recent UN report estimates that more than half of Afghanistan’s female prisoners have been jailed for ‘moral crimes’, such as running away from home. These crimes are seen as stains on the family’s honour, despite often having no basis in law, and repeatedly show bias towards men. The justice system in Afghanistan is very poor; women have no voice in court and often they are not even present at hearings.

Numbers of female inmates are on the increase, according to UN figures.

Nozeni was originally jailed for five years

Christian Aid and AWEC work in Faryab women’s jail in the north of Afghanistan, providing legal assistance, family counselling, literacy classes and income-generation activities for the women there. AWEC promotes economic, social and human rights, and dignity, justice and equality for marginalised women.

AWEC has had other successes; Bibi Gul was given the death sentence for the murder of a soldier. There was no evidence and she asserts that she was framed by her husband’s family. An AWEC lawyer took on her case and had her sentence commuted to 18 years, and recently reduced further to eight.

She has a young baby girl who is still being breastfed so is with her now, but will soon be separated from her mother.

Her daughter will be 10 by the time Bibi Gul gets out. However, her files have now been sent to Kabul to see if the sentence can be reduced further.

AWEC continues to work to help women in prisons in a country where the justice system is very poor, and strives at other levels to lobby for laws to protect the rights of women, including the banning of child marriage.

Christian Aid News 9

NEWS cover the cost of training, equipping and supporting a volunteer and running complementary activities, such as radio programmes and sports events, which can be used to reach large numbers.

You can find out more about how your church can be involved in this special appeal by calling Eleanor Ledesma on 020 7523 2368 or by visiting christianaid. org.uk/tacklemalaria

Christian Aid/Sarah Filbey

NETS FOR LIFE HITS 500,000 TARGET

Kelezo Nganga with her surviving son, Eric

£500 MALARIA APPEAL TO CHURCHES CHRISTIAN AID IS asking churches in Britain to join the fight against malaria in Africa by raising at least £500 each to support the work of a volunteer malaria control agent for a year. This initiative aims to raise funds to start a new antimalaria programme in Sierra Leone.

Volunteers play a vital role in combating malaria in Africa. Kelezo Nganga from the Western Province of Zambia lost her six-year-old son to malaria in 2002. Determined that other parents would not suffer in the same way, she trained to become one of Christian Aid partner the Zambia Anglican Council’s volunteer malaria control agents.

Now Kelezo teaches other parents how to reduce the vulnerability of their

DRC CHRISTIAN AID JOINS ELECTION OBSERVERS AS CITIZENS IN THE Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) went to vote in elections for the second time in 40 years, Christian Aid was part of a team of 100 international election observers

10 Christian Aid News

children to the disease, how to recognise its signs and symptoms, and where they can go for immediate treatment. Kelezo says that she now feels confident about keeping her second son, Eric, safe.

This latest church appeal is designed to raise money to start a similar volunteer programme in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Malaria is one of Sierra Leone’s most deadly diseases, accounting for the death of thousands of children every year. The project is centred on the provincial capital of Kenema and plans are in place to recruit around 40 volunteers to provide communities with life-saving education about malaria prevention and treatment.

At least 30,000 people will benefit.

The £500 raised by each church will

in the country. Working alongside national civil society organisations, the observers from EurAC – a European network of 50 non-governmental organisations focused on central Africa – collated reports to assess how effective and fair the elections were.

Delivering democratic elections here is rife with challenges – financial, logistical and political. Christian Aid has been working on accountable

FOUR YEARS AFTER Christian Aid began work with Nets for Life in Nigeria, the 500,000th net has been delivered.

The Nets for Life programme works across Africa with partner organisations that distribute insecticide-treated mosquito nets and information on prevention. It also advocates for diagnostic testing and more effective drug therapy. Malaria accounts for more than a quarter of deaths in children aged under five in Nigeria, and has a huge impact on the country’s economy due to work days lost and the cost of treatment.

So combating the disease is critical.

Providing nets and educating people about protecting themselves is a costeffective way of preventing malaria.

‘These nets have such an impact on reducing frequent malaria cases,’ explained Daniel Shitindi from local partner ADDS Makurdi. ‘These villages where we work have a very high incidence of malaria and it really helps to reduce their visits to clinics, save them money on drugs, and increase their strength for income generation.’

In the coming year, Christian Aid will continue to work with partners to educate communities about malaria and to ensure that the nets they have provided continue to be used effectively to ensure a healthier population.

governance with our partners in the DRC for many years.

Donatella Rostagno from EurAC said: ‘Civil society groups such as Christian Aid’s partners face big challenges but do a lot with the little they have.’

The results were still being collated as Christian Aid News went to press but to hear a podcast about work in the DRC visit christianaid.org.uk/ whatwedo/africa/

CLIMATE CHANGE:

TALK IS JUST NOT ENOUGH

IT’S ALWAYS IMPOSSIBLE to know exactly what will emerge from the United Nations climate change summit held every December. But one safe bet is that governments will put off big decisions altogether, if they can. In the short term, it’s easier than agreeing to something potentially unpopular at home.

This year was no exception. Although many negotiators left the summit in Durban, South Africa, claiming success, the truth is that they simply agreed to keep talking. In a world in which global emissions of greenhouse gases are rising steadily, with scientists warning that urgent action is needed to avoid dangerous climate change, talk is not enough. The ‘breakthrough’ claimed was that the more than 190 countries present agreed to work towards a new international climate agreement, which for the first time will, in theory, cover every country, including the world’s two biggest polluters – China and the US. The UK and European Union, with allies from the least developed and most vulnerable countries, pushed hard to maintain the existing carbon-capping legislation, the Kyoto Protocol, and forge a new deal to come into operation by 2015 with all countries included, meaning binding commitments for all big emitters. But in the end they were overpowered by the self interests of big, wealthy emitters including the US, Russia, Canada and Japan, who refused to accept any binding commitments until 2020. Without such countries on board, India and China also refused to support a more ambitious deal.

Indeed it is likely that had not UK Secretary of State for Climate Change Chris Huhne stood beside the European

Christian Aid/Ally Carnwath

Christian Aid journalist Rachel Baird was in Durban to follow the twists and turns of the UN climate change talks. Here, she analyses an outcome that has left Christian Aid campaigners still concerned but determined to keep fighting

Commissioner Connie Hedegaard in pushing hard for a road map to a globally binding deal then the outcome would have been worse, with possibly no binding commitments and no room for further negotiations.

Nevertheless, while a global deal could – if done well, with proper protection for people living in poverty – be an excellent weapon to curb emissions, Christian Aid remains deeply concerned about the

Action in 2020 will come a decade too late for poor people on the front line – they need it now Durban outcome – commitment to act by 2020 is simply too late.

Experts such as the International Energy Agency and the World Meteorological Organisation were practically queuing up in Durban to warn of the urgent need to cut global emissions, which threaten to push the average global temperature rise above a generally recognised ‘safe’ limit of 2°C. Mohamed Adow, Christian Aid’s climate talks expert, judged the outcome ‘a political compromise which saves the climate talks but endangers people living in poverty.’ His warning was bleak: ‘Action in 2020 will come a decade too late for poor people on the front line –

Campaigners found a novel way to urge the EU to commit to a Kyoto-style deal

they need it now. Their lives are already ravaged by floods, droughts, failed rains, storms, hunger and disease. These will worsen as climate change bites.’

The Kyoto Protocol, which Christian Aid supporters have campaigned vigorously to defend, he says is now ‘Kyoto in name only’.

Even though some governments agreed that they will extend it into a second commitment period, in truth this now amounts to little as so many of its provisions – notably ambition to stay below 2°C and fair action by developed countries – have been removed.

One positive Durban development was that the Green Climate Fund, set up to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate change and develop in a carbon-clean way, will be given staff and an office, although as yet very little cash.

Christian Aid will continue working for urgent action on climate change.

Above all, governments must commit to deeper emissions cuts to come into force before 2020. Much is technologically and economically feasible, such as investing in renewable energies, energy efficiency and better-utilised public transport.

Christian Aid will continue to call on governments, as well as private companies and organisations like the World Bank, to use their power to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and help create sustainable, green economies.

Christian Aid News 11

FRONTLINE

Christian Aid/Sarah Filbey

Stories from around the world showing how Christian Aid and our partners are working to empower people to shape a better future for themselves and their communities

Last autumn many Christian Aid supporters took part in sponsored walks in solidarity with a land-rights protest march being planned in India. This year many more will march again. Sarah Filbey joined our partner Ekta Parishad as it prepares for its marathon month-long 100,000-strong trek in October, to discover what lies behind this extraordinary campaign

‘LAND IS WHAT WE NEED TO FEED OUR CHILDREN’ 12 Christian Aid News

Every day we hear more than 100 voices, all sad voices

Main picture: Kalawati-Bai shows the berries the community depends on when food is scarce. The white tower can be seen in the background.

Below: a tribal chief and an Ekta Parishad rep at a community preparation rally in Bajarangpura Christian Aid/Sarah Filbey

A TALL WHITE WATCHTOWER stands majestically at the entrance to Bhatapura village. Around it lies an expanse of red earth and scrubland where goats graze.

Some 28km from Gwalior, near to the home of the Taj Mahal, Bhatapura lies on the edge of a stretch of land recently designated a Golden Bird Sanctuary by the Indian government.

Why the government has invested in a bird-watching tower mystifies the locals, who have lived on this land for a century or more. For no one here can recall even one golden bird sighting in living memory, according to 70-year-old villager Munshi Sahariya.

Could this be an elaborate design to keep the tribal communities living on this valuable stretch of land from claiming rights to it? With several communities deeper into the zone already moved from their homes, the families of Bhatapura fear the worst.

This is just one of hundreds of stories being heard and collected by members of Christian Aid partner Ekta Parishad.

A group of 15 are travelling across India for a year in a van. On its side, a banner bears the faces of Ekta Parishad’s leader, Rajagopal, and Gandhi, whose philosophy of non-violent action the group follows.

Ramesh, Ekta Parishad’s campaign co-ordinator, joined us in our vehicle as we followed them for four days of their intensive journey. He explained how, with little rest or respite, the team travels for many hours daily to document local land struggles and prepare people to march for a month from Gwalior to Delhi in October/November 2012 to demand land rights and legal reform to help settle disputes due to land redistribution.

‘Every day we hear more than 100 voices, all sad voices,’ explains Ramesh.

‘Every day holding that pain, at night you can’t sleep properly. The physical challenge is much easier – the mental accumulation far more difficult.’

One such voice might have been that of Kalawati-Bai, a mother of four from Bhatapura, who is preparing to march in 2012 with two of her children, aged five and six. ‘I don’t want my children to go through the same troubles as I have,’ she says. ‘Land is what we need to feed our children – I will do or die in the foot march and I will not return without our land rights or any promises.’

Forbidden to grow crops on the protected sanctuary land, Kalawati-Bai

and her community live in terror of forest department officials, who villagers claim stop them entering the forest area to collect forest produce such as firewood and berries, in spite of the Forest Rights Act, which protects access rights. The villagers depend on the firewood to sell, and berries to eat when food is scarce.

This is just one example of how despite progressive legislation existing, communities continue to be denied access to their rights.

Bhatapura villagers take strength from the experience of neighbouring Bajarangpura. Its villagers were among the 25,000 who took part in the Janadesh march of 2007. Its 350km route will be repeated by the Jan Satyagraha march in 2012. Bajarangpura villagers secured the deeds to the land on which they live thanks to the Forest Rights Act, the greater implementation of which was one of the main outcomes of the 2007 march as part of long-term efforts by Ekta Parishad and other civil society partners. And they persevered, they said, thanks to courage drawn from being a part of such a large people’s movement as Janadesh.

They now grow mustard plants, wheat and potatoes on their modest yet valuable 23 hectares of land, cradled between two small hills. Many in Bajarangpura are preparing to march again in 2012 in solidarity with others less fortunate.

Of the 100,000 expected to march in 2012, most will be people from dalit and adivasi (tribal) communities, who are systematically discriminated against due to Indian society’s caste system hierarchy and ethnic prejudice. Bhatapura and Bajarangpura are adivasi communities.

We followed Ekta Parishad to press conferences and community meetings, where journalists expressed concern, and where young and old crowded together to share their stories and hear Ramesh and his colleagues speak.

And we caught a glimpse of the hope their journey brings; that Ekta Parishad will bring people’s voices and struggles to the national and international level. ’Everywhere you can feel that the whole campaign is gradually building, at every level – in understanding, in solidarity, in financial contributions – and most of all in terms of opening the space for dialogue with our own state,’ explains Ramesh. ‘We feel it building, day by day.’

Christian Aid News 13

Every day we hear more than 100 voices, all sad voices

Main picture: Kalawati-Bai shows the berries the community depends on when food is scarce. The white tower can be seen in the background.

Below: a tribal chief and an Ekta Parishad rep at a community preparation rally in Bajarangpura Christian Aid/Sarah Filbey

A TALL WHITE WATCHTOWER stands majestically at the entrance to Bhatapura village. Around it lies an expanse of red earth and scrubland where goats graze.

Some 28km from Gwalior, near to the home of the Taj Mahal, Bhatapura lies on the edge of a stretch of land recently designated a Golden Bird Sanctuary by the Indian government.

Why the government has invested in a bird-watching tower mystifies the locals, who have lived on this land for a century or more. For no one here can recall even one golden bird sighting in living memory, according to 70-year-old villager Munshi Sahariya.

Could this be an elaborate design to keep the tribal communities living on this valuable stretch of land from claiming rights to it? With several communities deeper into the zone already moved from their homes, the families of Bhatapura fear the worst.

This is just one of hundreds of stories being heard and collected by members of Christian Aid partner Ekta Parishad.

A group of 15 are travelling across India for a year in a van. On its side, a banner bears the faces of Ekta Parishad’s leader, Rajagopal, and Gandhi, whose philosophy of non-violent action the group follows.

Ramesh, Ekta Parishad’s campaign co-ordinator, joined us in our vehicle as we followed them for four days of their intensive journey. He explained how, with little rest or respite, the team travels for many hours daily to document local land struggles and prepare people to march for a month from Gwalior to Delhi in October/November 2012 to demand land rights and legal reform to help settle disputes due to land redistribution.

‘Every day we hear more than 100 voices, all sad voices,’ explains Ramesh.

‘Every day holding that pain, at night you can’t sleep properly. The physical challenge is much easier – the mental accumulation far more difficult.’

One such voice might have been that of Kalawati-Bai, a mother of four from Bhatapura, who is preparing to march in 2012 with two of her children, aged five and six. ‘I don’t want my children to go through the same troubles as I have,’ she says. ‘Land is what we need to feed our children – I will do or die in the foot march and I will not return without our land rights or any promises.’

Forbidden to grow crops on the protected sanctuary land, Kalawati-Bai

and her community live in terror of forest department officials, who villagers claim stop them entering the forest area to collect forest produce such as firewood and berries, in spite of the Forest Rights Act, which protects access rights. The villagers depend on the firewood to sell, and berries to eat when food is scarce.

This is just one example of how despite progressive legislation existing, communities continue to be denied access to their rights.

Bhatapura villagers take strength from the experience of neighbouring Bajarangpura. Its villagers were among the 25,000 who took part in the Janadesh march of 2007. Its 350km route will be repeated by the Jan Satyagraha march in 2012. Bajarangpura villagers secured the deeds to the land on which they live thanks to the Forest Rights Act, the greater implementation of which was one of the main outcomes of the 2007 march as part of long-term efforts by Ekta Parishad and other civil society partners. And they persevered, they said, thanks to courage drawn from being a part of such a large people’s movement as Janadesh.

They now grow mustard plants, wheat and potatoes on their modest yet valuable 23 hectares of land, cradled between two small hills. Many in Bajarangpura are preparing to march again in 2012 in solidarity with others less fortunate.

Of the 100,000 expected to march in 2012, most will be people from dalit and adivasi (tribal) communities, who are systematically discriminated against due to Indian society’s caste system hierarchy and ethnic prejudice. Bhatapura and Bajarangpura are adivasi communities.

We followed Ekta Parishad to press conferences and community meetings, where journalists expressed concern, and where young and old crowded together to share their stories and hear Ramesh and his colleagues speak.

And we caught a glimpse of the hope their journey brings; that Ekta Parishad will bring people’s voices and struggles to the national and international level. ’Everywhere you can feel that the whole campaign is gradually building, at every level – in understanding, in solidarity, in financial contributions – and most of all in terms of opening the space for dialogue with our own state,’ explains Ramesh. ‘We feel it building, day by day.’

Christian Aid News 13

CAMPAIGNS

‘IT’S NOT THE END OF THE STRUGGLE – IT’S THE BEGINNING’ 14 Christian Aid News

Photos: Christian Aid/Alexander Carnwath

A brass band leads the way on the morning rally in Kabare, Rwanda

Last November, Christian Aid’s Africa communications officer Alexander Carnwath joined a campaigning ‘caravan of hope’ as it travelled through 10 African countries, carrying an urgent climate change message to the United Nations summit in Durban, South Africa. The talks may have ended in compromise, but the caravan helped strengthen African voices calling for action FIRST CAME A POLICE CAR, clearing a path through the busy streets of Bujumbura, Burundi. Next, a crowd of 50 bicycle taxis, their riders hooting their horns and stretching out to hand leaflets to passers-by. Last of all came the bus itself, a giant banner advertising our journey covering one side.

For those who stopped on the pavements to watch our colourful, chaotic lap of the city centre on 9 November, this was Africa’s first glimpse of the Caravan of Hope: a 7,000km campaigning road trip, organised by Christian Aid partner Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).

And for those inside the bus – Burundian activists, a handful of east African journalists and myself – it was a chance to find our seats, buckle up and settle in for what would be a very long ride indeed.

The journey had been organised by PACJA with two main objectives. The first was to raise awareness of the impact of climate change in Africa. And the second was to transport activists from 10 African countries to Durban, South Africa, to campaign at the UN climate change negotiations, COP17.

‘In Africa, there is a need to demystify climate change so that people can see what the link is to their lives,’ explains Mithika Mwenda, head of PACJA. ‘We wanted to think of a massive activity that

would unite the people of Africa with the UN process.’

Suffering the effects

When we left Bujumbura, we were one bus of about 30 people. By the time we reached Durban, there were three buses packed with more than 150 caravanners.

These included young people, women’s rights campaigners and farmers, many of whom were already suffering the impact of changing weather patterns.

Janet Mussa, a Malawian farmer and mother of seven, explains how unpredictable rainfall had severely reduced her harvests and forced her family to leave their home.

‘The rains start late and finish early, so hunger comes now,’ she says. ‘And we have been displaced from our homeland by floods. I am worried because I don’t see any future for my children.’

Though data on climate change is lacking in Africa, her account of variable rains is consistent with what scientists expect to see in the region. And all along the route we heard stories like these, from those on the bus and from the thousands of people who attended caravan ceremonies in each of the 10 countries we passed through.

No two events were quite the same. In Burundi bicycle taxis took the lead, in Nairobi we were led through the streets by a marching band, and in Zimbabwe

we processed right to the edge of Victoria Falls, whose waters are thought by local people to be drying up due to temperature rises. But each one was a chance for people to share experiences, express solidarity and gather signatures of politicians (including the vicepresidents of Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi) on an African People’s Petition calling for climate justice.

Strengthening solidarity

When we arrived in Durban just before the start of the talks, there were high hopes among us that progress would be made on a fair climate deal. At one of the campaigning events in Durban, my fellow travellers were told by Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland: ‘It’s your voices that should be heard at this conference. I have heard more urgency from you than in the big hall.’

At this campaigning rally Desmond Tutu was presented with a global petition of messages calling for climate justice, before addressing the crowds.

But alongside the optimism, there was also an understanding that the caravan’s demands would not be met overnight. Its greatest success has been in laying the foundations for a unified position on climate change among Africans and strengthening the campaign movement for the long struggle ahead.

‘Climate change is not going to be defeated by one individual, one country or one region [and] COP17 won’t be the end of the struggle,’ says Mwenda. ‘It’s the beginning and I like to think that we will be able to continue this solidarity.’

• You can see and listen to video and audio interviews, at christianaid.org.uk/ ActNow/climate-justice/

Far left: Mithika Mwenda, head of PACJA, addresses farmers, politicians and campaigners in Kigali. Left: drumming up support. Above: families come out to support the caravan launch in Bujumbura, Burundi

Christian Aid News 15

CAMPAIGNS

Christian Aid/Matthew Gonzalez-Noda

SUPPORTERS DEMA ‘GREENER’ LEADER

A WARNING TO the Conservatives that they must not abandon their pledge to be the ‘greenest government ever’ was delivered by supporters of Christian Aid, CAFOD and Tearfund at a candlelit vigil on the eve of the party conference. More than 1,000 people came to Manchester in October for the Bearing Witness event, to put pressure on the government not to forget its promise.

Eighteen months on from David Cameron’s ‘green’ pledge, the charities came together to urge him to play a proactive role in delivering climate policy that helps vulnerable communities in poor countries that are bearing the brunt of climate change. Following an

16 Christian Aid News

afternoon of talks and workshops and an ecumenical service in Manchester Cathedral, the charities’ supporters marched to the conference centre to call on the Conservative Party to do all it could to make sure the Durban summit delivered for the poorest people in the world.

Developed nations pledged in 2009 that a fund would be up and running by 2013 to deliver US$100bn of climate finance per year by 2020 to help poorer countries cope with the impact of climate change. But the charities fear that the economic crisis may result in rich nations not fulfilling this pledge.

Poor people urgently need climate

finance to adapt to climate change and develop in a low-carbon way. Samson Malesi, a climate activist from Kenya, who addressed supporters during the afternoon, stressed: ‘Climate change is a reality, and a very grim reality in the African context… but this is the time that we can make the change that we believe in. The African people are raising their voice and crying out for climate justice.’

Christian Aid’s director, Loretta Minghella, said: ‘We need the government to galvanise international support for the extension of the Kyoto Protocol, without which there would be no enforceable rules on carbon emissions, and we risk climate anarchy.’

Twelve months ago Christian Aid was one of a small handful of organisations that came together to create a new global campaign to End Tax Haven Secrecy, but, reports campaigns officer Alasdair Roxburgh (pictured below), already it has started to win real successes, thanks to your campaigning efforts

Christian Aid/Matthew Gonzalez-Noda

AND RSHIP

TAX HAVENS: WE’RE GAINING MOMENTUM!

CAFOD’s director, Chris Bain, said: ‘In 2010 David Cameron promised that his government would be “the greenest government ever”.We’re calling on him to hold true to that promise for the world’s poorest people by leading international efforts to deliver the support they were promised.’

The charities acknowledge that Britain has, in the past, positioned itself as a world leader on climate finance issues, but that in the midst of the economic crisis, such leadership is notable by its absence. You can see more photos and watch a video of the day at christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/ climate-justice

TAX HAVENS PLAY a key role in allowing some multinational companies to dodge paying the taxes they owe in poor countries – it’s one of the great injustices of our times. Ending the secrecy that surrounds these jurisdictions would make it much harder for companies to dodge the taxes they owe, and unlock billions to lift poor people out of poverty.

Throughout 2011 the End Tax Haven Secrecy campaign grew as more and more organisations joined the movement for change. By the time the G20 met in November in France, 56 organisations from more than 20 countries were part of the campaign alongside Christian Aid. In the build-up to the meeting in France, thousands signed the petition for the G20 to act on tax-haven secrecy.

When it seemed as if the G20 might renege completely on its promise to look at tax havens, thousands of Christian Aid supporters responded to keep it on the G20 agenda.

Steps in the right direction By the time of the G20 meeting, more than 40,000 people worldwide had called for world leaders to take action

on tax havens and they did make some small steps.

Action taken by the G20 included: • Voluntary sharing of financial information between G20 members – this is a first step towards automatic information exchange between tax authorities, which would mean tax dodgers would have nowhere to hide.

However this does not include tax havens, which are key in tax dodging.

• A call for greater corporate transparency, which is welcome, but we need them to push for a new accountancy standard that requires firms to publish their accounts on a country-by-country basis.

• Blacklisting some of the world’s worst tax havens, including Switzerland.

The rhetoric coming out of Cannes was also positive; for example, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was hosting the G20, said the worst offenders ‘will be excluded from the international community’.

Keeping up the pressure These small steps leave us with a foundation for 2012 when the G20 meets again in Mexico. We want to see world leaders build on the progress made in Cannes and push for full automatic information exchange for all countries, including tax havens, and country-by-country reporting for multinational companies.

The global movement continues to gain momentum around the world and we need to maintain this pressure.

Please help keep up the pressure by signing and returning the ‘suitcase’ postcard in this issue of Christian Aid News to the new G20 chair, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico.

The movement to end the injustice of tax dodging is growing. Together we can keep up the momentum. Join our Trace the Tax campaign at christianaid. org.uk/ActNow/trace-the-tax/

Christian Aid News 17

Last November, Christian Aid’s Africa communications officer Alexander Carnwath joined a campaigning ‘caravan of hope’ as it travelled through 10 African countries, carrying an urgent climate change message to the United Nations summit in Durban, South Africa. The talks may have ended in compromise, but the caravan helped strengthen African voices calling for action FIRST CAME A POLICE CAR, clearing a path through the busy streets of Bujumbura, Burundi. Next, a crowd of 50 bicycle taxis, their riders hooting their horns and stretching out to hand leaflets to passers-by. Last of all came the bus itself, a giant banner advertising our journey covering one side.

For those who stopped on the pavements to watch our colourful, chaotic lap of the city centre on 9 November, this was Africa’s first glimpse of the Caravan of Hope: a 7,000km campaigning road trip, organised by Christian Aid partner Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).

And for those inside the bus – Burundian activists, a handful of east African journalists and myself – it was a chance to find our seats, buckle up and settle in for what would be a very long ride indeed.

The journey had been organised by PACJA with two main objectives. The first was to raise awareness of the impact of climate change in Africa. And the second was to transport activists from 10 African countries to Durban, South Africa, to campaign at the UN climate change negotiations, COP17.

‘In Africa, there is a need to demystify climate change so that people can see what the link is to their lives,’ explains Mithika Mwenda, head of PACJA. ‘We wanted to think of a massive activity that

would unite the people of Africa with the UN process.’

Suffering the effects

When we left Bujumbura, we were one bus of about 30 people. By the time we reached Durban, there were three buses packed with more than 150 caravanners.

These included young people, women’s rights campaigners and farmers, many of whom were already suffering the impact of changing weather patterns.

Janet Mussa, a Malawian farmer and mother of seven, explains how unpredictable rainfall had severely reduced her harvests and forced her family to leave their home.

‘The rains start late and finish early, so hunger comes now,’ she says. ‘And we have been displaced from our homeland by floods. I am worried because I don’t see any future for my children.’

Though data on climate change is lacking in Africa, her account of variable rains is consistent with what scientists expect to see in the region. And all along the route we heard stories like these, from those on the bus and from the thousands of people who attended caravan ceremonies in each of the 10 countries we passed through.

No two events were quite the same. In Burundi bicycle taxis took the lead, in Nairobi we were led through the streets by a marching band, and in Zimbabwe

we processed right to the edge of Victoria Falls, whose waters are thought by local people to be drying up due to temperature rises. But each one was a chance for people to share experiences, express solidarity and gather signatures of politicians (including the vicepresidents of Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi) on an African People’s Petition calling for climate justice.

Strengthening solidarity

When we arrived in Durban just before the start of the talks, there were high hopes among us that progress would be made on a fair climate deal. At one of the campaigning events in Durban, my fellow travellers were told by Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland: ‘It’s your voices that should be heard at this conference. I have heard more urgency from you than in the big hall.’

At this campaigning rally Desmond Tutu was presented with a global petition of messages calling for climate justice, before addressing the crowds.

But alongside the optimism, there was also an understanding that the caravan’s demands would not be met overnight. Its greatest success has been in laying the foundations for a unified position on climate change among Africans and strengthening the campaign movement for the long struggle ahead.

‘Climate change is not going to be defeated by one individual, one country or one region [and] COP17 won’t be the end of the struggle,’ says Mwenda. ‘It’s the beginning and I like to think that we will be able to continue this solidarity.’

• You can see and listen to video and audio interviews, at christianaid.org.uk/ ActNow/climate-justice/

Far left: Mithika Mwenda, head of PACJA, addresses farmers, politicians and campaigners in Kigali. Left: drumming up support. Above: families come out to support the caravan launch in Bujumbura, Burundi

Christian Aid News 15

CAMPAIGNS

Christian Aid/Matthew Gonzalez-Noda

SUPPORTERS DEMA ‘GREENER’ LEADER

A WARNING TO the Conservatives that they must not abandon their pledge to be the ‘greenest government ever’ was delivered by supporters of Christian Aid, CAFOD and Tearfund at a candlelit vigil on the eve of the party conference. More than 1,000 people came to Manchester in October for the Bearing Witness event, to put pressure on the government not to forget its promise.

Eighteen months on from David Cameron’s ‘green’ pledge, the charities came together to urge him to play a proactive role in delivering climate policy that helps vulnerable communities in poor countries that are bearing the brunt of climate change. Following an

16 Christian Aid News

afternoon of talks and workshops and an ecumenical service in Manchester Cathedral, the charities’ supporters marched to the conference centre to call on the Conservative Party to do all it could to make sure the Durban summit delivered for the poorest people in the world.

Developed nations pledged in 2009 that a fund would be up and running by 2013 to deliver US$100bn of climate finance per year by 2020 to help poorer countries cope with the impact of climate change. But the charities fear that the economic crisis may result in rich nations not fulfilling this pledge.

Poor people urgently need climate

finance to adapt to climate change and develop in a low-carbon way. Samson Malesi, a climate activist from Kenya, who addressed supporters during the afternoon, stressed: ‘Climate change is a reality, and a very grim reality in the African context… but this is the time that we can make the change that we believe in. The African people are raising their voice and crying out for climate justice.’

Christian Aid’s director, Loretta Minghella, said: ‘We need the government to galvanise international support for the extension of the Kyoto Protocol, without which there would be no enforceable rules on carbon emissions, and we risk climate anarchy.’

Twelve months ago Christian Aid was one of a small handful of organisations that came together to create a new global campaign to End Tax Haven Secrecy, but, reports campaigns officer Alasdair Roxburgh (pictured below), already it has started to win real successes, thanks to your campaigning efforts

Christian Aid/Matthew Gonzalez-Noda

AND RSHIP

TAX HAVENS: WE’RE GAINING MOMENTUM!

CAFOD’s director, Chris Bain, said: ‘In 2010 David Cameron promised that his government would be “the greenest government ever”.We’re calling on him to hold true to that promise for the world’s poorest people by leading international efforts to deliver the support they were promised.’

The charities acknowledge that Britain has, in the past, positioned itself as a world leader on climate finance issues, but that in the midst of the economic crisis, such leadership is notable by its absence. You can see more photos and watch a video of the day at christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/ climate-justice

TAX HAVENS PLAY a key role in allowing some multinational companies to dodge paying the taxes they owe in poor countries – it’s one of the great injustices of our times. Ending the secrecy that surrounds these jurisdictions would make it much harder for companies to dodge the taxes they owe, and unlock billions to lift poor people out of poverty.

Throughout 2011 the End Tax Haven Secrecy campaign grew as more and more organisations joined the movement for change. By the time the G20 met in November in France, 56 organisations from more than 20 countries were part of the campaign alongside Christian Aid. In the build-up to the meeting in France, thousands signed the petition for the G20 to act on tax-haven secrecy.

When it seemed as if the G20 might renege completely on its promise to look at tax havens, thousands of Christian Aid supporters responded to keep it on the G20 agenda.

Steps in the right direction By the time of the G20 meeting, more than 40,000 people worldwide had called for world leaders to take action

on tax havens and they did make some small steps.

Action taken by the G20 included: • Voluntary sharing of financial information between G20 members – this is a first step towards automatic information exchange between tax authorities, which would mean tax dodgers would have nowhere to hide.

However this does not include tax havens, which are key in tax dodging.

• A call for greater corporate transparency, which is welcome, but we need them to push for a new accountancy standard that requires firms to publish their accounts on a country-by-country basis.

• Blacklisting some of the world’s worst tax havens, including Switzerland.

The rhetoric coming out of Cannes was also positive; for example, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was hosting the G20, said the worst offenders ‘will be excluded from the international community’.

Keeping up the pressure These small steps leave us with a foundation for 2012 when the G20 meets again in Mexico. We want to see world leaders build on the progress made in Cannes and push for full automatic information exchange for all countries, including tax havens, and country-by-country reporting for multinational companies.

The global movement continues to gain momentum around the world and we need to maintain this pressure.

Please help keep up the pressure by signing and returning the ‘suitcase’ postcard in this issue of Christian Aid News to the new G20 chair, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico.

The movement to end the injustice of tax dodging is growing. Together we can keep up the momentum. Join our Trace the Tax campaign at christianaid. org.uk/ActNow/trace-the-tax/

Christian Aid News 17

LIFE AND SOUL SPECIAL

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The way we lead our own lives can have a tangible impact in the fight to end poverty. By ‘doing the right thing’ we show we have a commitment to a sustainable lifestyle that places a high value on helping others

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IN MY first 18 months as director of Christian Aid, I have been inspired and moved by the dedication shown by the thousands of volunteers who make Christian Aid Week happen every year – holding events, raising awareness and, most importantly of all, pacing the pavements and going house to house to raise the money that allows us to provide vital assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world.

We’re all too aware that times are tough for everyone at the moment, but we don’t want to cut back on any of the assistance we provide to our partners – which is why we’d love Christian Aid Week this year to be even bigger and better than ever! We’ll be doing all we can to make the week as successful as possible this May, bringing in even more money and involving even more people in the fight to end poverty.

To that end, we’d love as many of you as possible to get involved – perhaps through your church, work or community group – to ensure this year’s collection effort reaches into every corner of our communities, or by becoming a volunteer speaker and spreading our message across your neighbourhood.

We hope that you’ll join us and help make this the biggest Christian Aid Week ever!

18 Christian Aid News

Christian Aid/Antoinette Powell

Christian Aid Week is a moment unique in its power to inspire people to give, act and pray in support of some of the world’s poorest communities, writes director Loretta Minghella

To find out more about Christian Aid Week 2012 visit caweek.org This dedicated area of our website contains all the resources for worship and small groups

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‘We hope that you’ll jo us and help in this the bigmake g Christian A est id Week ever !’

LONG-TIME Christian Aid Week organiser and collector Peter Murray – featured on the cover of this issue of Christian Aid News – sits in on a lesson in a school in Gbap, Sierra Leone. Peter travelled to Sierra Leone in June 2011, with two other supporters, to see the work of Christian Aid partner the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone ahead of Christian Aid Week 2012.

Peter says: ‘Seeing how the money raised during Christian Aid Week will be used in some of Sierra Leone’s poorest communities was a deeply moving experience. Every year we go out collecting door to door; and to experience for myself how that money is changing the lives of our brothers and sisters in Sierra Leone was unforgettable.’

He adds: ‘Arriving in the capital Freetown was the only time in my entire life I’ve ever had the passport man actually lean across his desk, shake my hand and welcome me to his country!’

Christian Aid News 19

LIFE AND SOUL SPECIAL

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CHRISTIAN AID WEEK is an opportunity to stand together and celebrate the possibility for change in our own communities and in parts of the world where mere survival may seem to be a struggle. The current economic climate means that many churches are having to be increasingly creative with their fundraising efforts and to ‘think outside the envelope’. Communities up and down Britain and Ireland are rising to the challenge and achieving remarkable things together.

A Christian Aid Week committee in Gateshead had seen a big drop in their income and members were feeling apprehensive about going out collecting.

So Malcolm Meek, the local organiser, got representatives from nearby churches together, and they thought about how to get people excited about the Christian Aid Week collection.

The committee, drawn from different churches, set themselves a target, sat down with a big map and worked out which streets were already covered.

They put up a list at the back of their churches, indicating a meeting point, and went out together, blitzing the streets that weren’t covered.

Working as a team turned the whole process around. Malcolm explains: ‘We found that people were more interested in going out in a group than on their own. They like the companionship and chatting.’ People came back night after night, and after they’d finished the collecting, they’d head to the pub.

Anne Lindsley, a long-term collector, says: ‘Having been a collector for years and years on my own, I was finding it depressing at times. But going out as a highly visible group is so much more rewarding and fun. I went out every night!’ The teamwork paid off, and they went on to exceed their target.

Auction appeal Charlotte Rothwell from London organises a different kind of event. Her

20 Christian Aid News

Christian Aid/Antoinette Powell

Planning for this year’s Christian Aid Week is already well under way and, says Kate Tuckett, it’s an opportunity for churches and communities to rise to the challenge of giving their 2012 fundraising efforts a big boost

IT’S TIME TO THINK OUTSIDE THE ENVELOPE church has traditionally hosted an annual art show during Christian Aid Week, with a preview evening that included a raffle. Charlotte wanted to broaden the appeal of the event, and get new people involved with an established event, so she replaced the raffle with an auction.

It’s been an inspired way of getting the community involved. Local businesses were generous and new people were drawn in to the event. ‘It was a two-way thing,’ explains Charlotte.

Local organisations received valuable promotion, and the auction raised nearly

£2,000, with no start-up costs for the church. ‘I wanted to re-engage people in a different way, and be creative,’ she says. Charlotte firmly believes in the power that local community can have for change, but says that this ‘needs people to get stuck in’.

Coming together for change Real change can take place when we’re willing to get stuck in and work with those around us. Christian Aid Week 2012 tells the story of the people of Gbap (pronounced Bap), a small farming town

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IN FOCUS CHRISTIAN AID WEEK 2012 will feature the amazing work of the people of Gbap, in Sierra Leone. Supported by Christian Aid partner the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone, communities are using new fishing and farming techniques to work their way to a brighter future. By becoming a Christian Aid volunteer speaker or teacher ahead of Christian Aid Week 2012, you will be helping to spread this story of hope far and wide. Find out more at christianaid.org.uk/volunteer Let’s give the tools… to help people in poverty out of poverty

Why volunteer?

Because you’re worth it!

‘Inspirational’ was the verdict of community worker Llinos Roberts (also pictured right) on her visit to Sierra Leone. Llinos went with fellow supporters Peter Murray and Mike Burn ahead of Christian Aid Week 2012 to find out how our partner the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone is bringing about radical changes in the way communities help to shape their own future. We’ll be featuring some of the inspiring stories in the next issue of Christian Aid News, in March

in Sierra Leone. The community there were helped by Christian Aid partner the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone to overcome their immediate problems of hunger and work together towards a better future. Tenneh Keimbay, a resident of Gbap, tells how much can be achieved when the community come together.

‘What inspires me in life is unity’, she says. ‘To me, unity means coming together to decide on one thing and take that forward.’

Christian Aid works in 47 countries around the world. From Sierra Leone to Tajikistan, from Kenya to Bolivia, we are helping communities to speak out and take their future into their own hands.

Be a part of Christian Aid Week this year. Come together, as people like Tenneh, Malcolm and Charlotte are coming together with their communities, and give the tools to help people in poverty out of poverty. To volunteer, go to christianaid.org.uk/volunteer

Christian Aid/Jane Widdowson

WEEK

Kate Parr explains what being a Christian Aid volunteer entails WE ARE ALWAYS looking for new and enthusiastic volunteers to join us. As we prepare for Christian Aid Week 2012 – seven amazing days of fundraising, prayer and action – this could be the perfect opportunity to take your volunteering to new heights! Right now we are recruiting new volunteers across Britain and Ireland to help encourage and inspire even more churches, schools and communities to take action in Christian Aid Week and throughout the year.

What does this involve?

Your local office will help get you started as you begin building relationships with churches and/or schools in your area.

You will be provided with everything needed to deliver talks, sermons, assemblies or classroom workshops.

There are loads of great resources available for you to use ahead of Christian Aid Week 2012, including films, sermon notes, prayer ideas, and young people’s and children’s

resources for both churches and schools. To supplement these materials you will be invited to a training session where you will meet other volunteers and receive detailed information about the fantastic work of our partner the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone, featured in the Christian Aid Week 2012 materials.

Great resources are available to enable the people you visit to put their passion into action, whether that’s by organising a fundraising event, praying or becoming Christian Aid campaigners.

Above all, through volunteering you’ll get the chance to pass on your enthusiasm, to celebrate the fantastic work of our partners around the world, and to be part of building an even greater movement of people striving to bring an end to poverty and injustice.

How to volunteer If you would like to volunteer to get involved this Christian Aid Week please apply online at christianaid.org.uk/ volunteer or call Marie Raffay on 0113 244 4764. Your local Christian Aid team will be in touch and may invite you to an informal interview to get to know you better. If we think the role suits you, you will be given all the support needed to get you started.

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MEET THE VOLUNTEERS Elisabeth Davie (volunteer teacher) and Steve Mitchell (volunteer speaker) are two ordinary people who are using their skills in extraordinary ways to inspire adults and young people to challenge poverty and injustice CHRISTIAN AID’S network of specialist volunteers across Britain and Ireland are using their time and talents to speak in churches, community groups and schools about the work of Christian Aid. All our specialist volunteers make a vital contribution, helping to raise awareness of issues that affect some of the world’s poorest communities. They share stories from our partner organisations around the world and inspire adults and young people to make a difference by giving, acting and praying with Christian Aid. Christian Aid News caught up with Elisabeth and Steve to find out what they put in – and what they get out!

Elisabeth Davie How long have you been volunteering for Christian Aid and what inspired you to get involved?

I live in Canterbury and have been a volunteer for 10 years. I’ve got two parts to me: one is my Christian faith, which is an integral reason for why I live the way I do, the second is my ability to teach. When a card fell out of the Church Times indicating that Christian Aid needed volunteer teachers, it was a wonderful moment for me; the first chance in my life to be able to put these two things together.

What have 10 years of volunteering been like? For me, volunteering entails being linked up with this huge, incredible

22 Christian Aid News

network that reaches from where I am to the people who need us the most, and, as far as I can see, it’s an unbroken chain. Volunteering with Christian Aid has enriched my life beyond belief.

When visiting a school, what message do you want the students to take away?

I want them to understand that those poorer than themselves – whether in this country or in other parts of the world – are people who are just as intelligent, just as funny, just as resourceful, just as deserving and just as smart as we are, and the only thing that we’ve got that they haven’t is a bit more money.

What do you think volunteers bring to Christian Aid? We bring who we are and our gifts, talents and skills, which are used to the full. I once heard a director say that Christian Aid is a triangle upside down: at the top of the triangle are the volunteers and at the bottom is the director – and I have found this to be true.

What are your hopes for Christian Aid in your local area? I want more volunteers, because I can’t do it alone. It would be terrific to have many more teachers who are gifted with different age groups so that we can work together.

Steve Mitchell Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m Steve, I live in Glossop, Derbyshire, and I’m married with two children and 10 grandchildren.

I am a retired police officer and reader in the Church of England. Since retiring I have been on the General Synod of the Church of England as well as other church bodies. I am an evangelical and am very keen for people to know Jesus and understand his priorities.

How long have you been volunteering with Christian Aid? In 1999 I took over organising the Christian Aid Week activities in my town. I rapidly became convinced of the work Christian Aid is doing and so became a volunteer teacher in 2002. I was later asked by my regional office to speak at a local church and I was happy to do this as it complemented the volunteering I was already involved in.

What does your role involve? Being willing to visit churches and assist them to raise the profile of Christian Aid, their church’s overseas development agency, in their congregation.

What do you enjoy most about your role? Helping the church respond to the needs of others who are beyond their reach, through supporting Christian Aid’s partner organisations around the world.

What motivates you to continue volunteering? I believe Christian Aid has Jesus’ heart and is a vital arm of his church in reaching a broken world.

What do you hope people will take away from your talks? I would like people to come away from my talks wanting a deeper engagement with gospel issues, particularly in relation to God’s heart for the poor. I have had good conversations with people over the years and trust I have helped them grow in their faith and the application of it in their lives.

Do you have a message you would like to give to other supporters who are interested in becoming a volunteer speaker? Do it because you can when others can’t; use the gifts God has given you and God will bless you and those you serve.

If you would like to volunteer, please go to christianaid.org.uk/volunteer

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Christian Aid Week 2011 How it all adds up...

Without the dedicated effort of suppor ters who organise fundra ising events and the country ’s biggest hous eto-house collect ion, this wonde rful achievement w ould not be po ssible.

If you want to help your region top its 2011 tota l in 2012, go to christianaid.o rg.uk/voluntee r or get in touch with your local Christian Aid branch

These are the figures to end of November 2011.

We expect to receive Christian Aid Week 2011 income up to the end of the 2011/12 financial year, so this figure will keep on growing!

SCOTLAND

£1,667,865

SCOTLAND

TOTAL

£10,938,460* NORTHERN IRELAND

NORTH EAST

£331,937

£505,721

NORTH EAST

NORTHERN IRELAND NORTH WEST

YORKSHIRE

£660,500

NORTH WEST

YORKSHIRE

£984,158

EAST MIDLANDS

£547,041

WEST MIDLANDS

£817,583

EAST MIDLANDS

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

EAST OF ENGLAND

£519,507

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

WALES

£501,139

£39,544

WALES

EAST OF ENGLAND

WEST MIDLANDS

OXFORD

OXFORD

WEST

WEST

£657,543 SOUTH WEST

£872,126

LONDON AND THE SOUTH EAST

LONDON AND THE SOUTH EAST

£1,879,446

SOUTH WEST

£794,920

*Total includes £159,430 for anonymous and other donations

Christian Aid News 23

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WEEK NEEDS YOU!

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‘We hope that you’ll jo us and help in this the bigmake g Christian A est id Week ever !’

LONG-TIME Christian Aid Week organiser and collector Peter Murray – featured on the cover of this issue of Christian Aid News – sits in on a lesson in a school in Gbap, Sierra Leone. Peter travelled to Sierra Leone in June 2011, with two other supporters, to see the work of Christian Aid partner the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone ahead of Christian Aid Week 2012.

Peter says: ‘Seeing how the money raised during Christian Aid Week will be used in some of Sierra Leone’s poorest communities was a deeply moving experience. Every year we go out collecting door to door; and to experience for myself how that money is changing the lives of our brothers and sisters in Sierra Leone was unforgettable.’

He adds: ‘Arriving in the capital Freetown was the only time in my entire life I’ve ever had the passport man actually lean across his desk, shake my hand and welcome me to his country!’

Christian Aid News 19

LIFE AND SOUL SPECIAL

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CHRISTIAN AID WEEK is an opportunity to stand together and celebrate the possibility for change in our own communities and in parts of the world where mere survival may seem to be a struggle. The current economic climate means that many churches are having to be increasingly creative with their fundraising efforts and to ‘think outside the envelope’. Communities up and down Britain and Ireland are rising to the challenge and achieving remarkable things together.

A Christian Aid Week committee in Gateshead had seen a big drop in their income and members were feeling apprehensive about going out collecting.

So Malcolm Meek, the local organiser, got representatives from nearby churches together, and they thought about how to get people excited about the Christian Aid Week collection.

The committee, drawn from different churches, set themselves a target, sat down with a big map and worked out which streets were already covered.

They put up a list at the back of their churches, indicating a meeting point, and went out together, blitzing the streets that weren’t covered.

Working as a team turned the whole process around. Malcolm explains: ‘We found that people were more interested in going out in a group than on their own. They like the companionship and chatting.’ People came back night after night, and after they’d finished the collecting, they’d head to the pub.

Anne Lindsley, a long-term collector, says: ‘Having been a collector for years and years on my own, I was finding it depressing at times. But going out as a highly visible group is so much more rewarding and fun. I went out every night!’ The teamwork paid off, and they went on to exceed their target.

Auction appeal Charlotte Rothwell from London organises a different kind of event. Her

20 Christian Aid News

Christian Aid/Antoinette Powell

Planning for this year’s Christian Aid Week is already well under way and, says Kate Tuckett, it’s an opportunity for churches and communities to rise to the challenge of giving their 2012 fundraising efforts a big boost

IT’S TIME TO THINK OUTSIDE THE ENVELOPE church has traditionally hosted an annual art show during Christian Aid Week, with a preview evening that included a raffle. Charlotte wanted to broaden the appeal of the event, and get new people involved with an established event, so she replaced the raffle with an auction.

It’s been an inspired way of getting the community involved. Local businesses were generous and new people were drawn in to the event. ‘It was a two-way thing,’ explains Charlotte.

Local organisations received valuable promotion, and the auction raised nearly

£2,000, with no start-up costs for the church. ‘I wanted to re-engage people in a different way, and be creative,’ she says. Charlotte firmly believes in the power that local community can have for change, but says that this ‘needs people to get stuck in’.

Coming together for change Real change can take place when we’re willing to get stuck in and work with those around us. Christian Aid Week 2012 tells the story of the people of Gbap (pronounced Bap), a small farming town

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IN FOCUS CHRISTIAN AID WEEK 2012 will feature the amazing work of the people of Gbap, in Sierra Leone. Supported by Christian Aid partner the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone, communities are using new fishing and farming techniques to work their way to a brighter future. By becoming a Christian Aid volunteer speaker or teacher ahead of Christian Aid Week 2012, you will be helping to spread this story of hope far and wide. Find out more at christianaid.org.uk/volunteer Let’s give the tools… to help people in poverty out of poverty

Why volunteer?

Because you’re worth it!

‘Inspirational’ was the verdict of community worker Llinos Roberts (also pictured right) on her visit to Sierra Leone. Llinos went with fellow supporters Peter Murray and Mike Burn ahead of Christian Aid Week 2012 to find out how our partner the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone is bringing about radical changes in the way communities help to shape their own future. We’ll be featuring some of the inspiring stories in the next issue of Christian Aid News, in March

in Sierra Leone. The community there were helped by Christian Aid partner the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone to overcome their immediate problems of hunger and work together towards a better future. Tenneh Keimbay, a resident of Gbap, tells how much can be achieved when the community come together.

‘What inspires me in life is unity’, she says. ‘To me, unity means coming together to decide on one thing and take that forward.’

Christian Aid works in 47 countries around the world. From Sierra Leone to Tajikistan, from Kenya to Bolivia, we are helping communities to speak out and take their future into their own hands.

Be a part of Christian Aid Week this year. Come together, as people like Tenneh, Malcolm and Charlotte are coming together with their communities, and give the tools to help people in poverty out of poverty. To volunteer, go to christianaid.org.uk/volunteer

Christian Aid/Jane Widdowson

WEEK

Kate Parr explains what being a Christian Aid volunteer entails WE ARE ALWAYS looking for new and enthusiastic volunteers to join us. As we prepare for Christian Aid Week 2012 – seven amazing days of fundraising, prayer and action – this could be the perfect opportunity to take your volunteering to new heights! Right now we are recruiting new volunteers across Britain and Ireland to help encourage and inspire even more churches, schools and communities to take action in Christian Aid Week and throughout the year.

What does this involve?

Your local office will help get you started as you begin building relationships with churches and/or schools in your area.

You will be provided with everything needed to deliver talks, sermons, assemblies or classroom workshops.

There are loads of great resources available for you to use ahead of Christian Aid Week 2012, including films, sermon notes, prayer ideas, and young people’s and children’s

resources for both churches and schools. To supplement these materials you will be invited to a training session where you will meet other volunteers and receive detailed information about the fantastic work of our partner the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone, featured in the Christian Aid Week 2012 materials.

Great resources are available to enable the people you visit to put their passion into action, whether that’s by organising a fundraising event, praying or becoming Christian Aid campaigners.

Above all, through volunteering you’ll get the chance to pass on your enthusiasm, to celebrate the fantastic work of our partners around the world, and to be part of building an even greater movement of people striving to bring an end to poverty and injustice.

How to volunteer If you would like to volunteer to get involved this Christian Aid Week please apply online at christianaid.org.uk/ volunteer or call Marie Raffay on 0113 244 4764. Your local Christian Aid team will be in touch and may invite you to an informal interview to get to know you better. If we think the role suits you, you will be given all the support needed to get you started.

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MEET THE VOLUNTEERS Elisabeth Davie (volunteer teacher) and Steve Mitchell (volunteer speaker) are two ordinary people who are using their skills in extraordinary ways to inspire adults and young people to challenge poverty and injustice CHRISTIAN AID’S network of specialist volunteers across Britain and Ireland are using their time and talents to speak in churches, community groups and schools about the work of Christian Aid. All our specialist volunteers make a vital contribution, helping to raise awareness of issues that affect some of the world’s poorest communities. They share stories from our partner organisations around the world and inspire adults and young people to make a difference by giving, acting and praying with Christian Aid. Christian Aid News caught up with Elisabeth and Steve to find out what they put in – and what they get out!

Elisabeth Davie How long have you been volunteering for Christian Aid and what inspired you to get involved?

I live in Canterbury and have been a volunteer for 10 years. I’ve got two parts to me: one is my Christian faith, which is an integral reason for why I live the way I do, the second is my ability to teach. When a card fell out of the Church Times indicating that Christian Aid needed volunteer teachers, it was a wonderful moment for me; the first chance in my life to be able to put these two things together.

What have 10 years of volunteering been like? For me, volunteering entails being linked up with this huge, incredible

22 Christian Aid News

network that reaches from where I am to the people who need us the most, and, as far as I can see, it’s an unbroken chain. Volunteering with Christian Aid has enriched my life beyond belief.

When visiting a school, what message do you want the students to take away?

I want them to understand that those poorer than themselves – whether in this country or in other parts of the world – are people who are just as intelligent, just as funny, just as resourceful, just as deserving and just as smart as we are, and the only thing that we’ve got that they haven’t is a bit more money.

What do you think volunteers bring to Christian Aid? We bring who we are and our gifts, talents and skills, which are used to the full. I once heard a director say that Christian Aid is a triangle upside down: at the top of the triangle are the volunteers and at the bottom is the director – and I have found this to be true.

What are your hopes for Christian Aid in your local area? I want more volunteers, because I can’t do it alone. It would be terrific to have many more teachers who are gifted with different age groups so that we can work together.

Steve Mitchell Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m Steve, I live in Glossop, Derbyshire, and I’m married with two children and 10 grandchildren.

I am a retired police officer and reader in the Church of England. Since retiring I have been on the General Synod of the Church of England as well as other church bodies. I am an evangelical and am very keen for people to know Jesus and understand his priorities.

How long have you been volunteering with Christian Aid? In 1999 I took over organising the Christian Aid Week activities in my town. I rapidly became convinced of the work Christian Aid is doing and so became a volunteer teacher in 2002. I was later asked by my regional office to speak at a local church and I was happy to do this as it complemented the volunteering I was already involved in.

What does your role involve? Being willing to visit churches and assist them to raise the profile of Christian Aid, their church’s overseas development agency, in their congregation.

What do you enjoy most about your role? Helping the church respond to the needs of others who are beyond their reach, through supporting Christian Aid’s partner organisations around the world.

What motivates you to continue volunteering? I believe Christian Aid has Jesus’ heart and is a vital arm of his church in reaching a broken world.

What do you hope people will take away from your talks? I would like people to come away from my talks wanting a deeper engagement with gospel issues, particularly in relation to God’s heart for the poor. I have had good conversations with people over the years and trust I have helped them grow in their faith and the application of it in their lives.

Do you have a message you would like to give to other supporters who are interested in becoming a volunteer speaker? Do it because you can when others can’t; use the gifts God has given you and God will bless you and those you serve.

If you would like to volunteer, please go to christianaid.org.uk/volunteer

WEEK

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CHRISTIAN

Christian Aid Week 2011 How it all adds up...

Without the dedicated effort of suppor ters who organise fundra ising events and the country ’s biggest hous eto-house collect ion, this wonde rful achievement w ould not be po ssible.

If you want to help your region top its 2011 tota l in 2012, go to christianaid.o rg.uk/voluntee r or get in touch with your local Christian Aid branch

These are the figures to end of November 2011.

We expect to receive Christian Aid Week 2011 income up to the end of the 2011/12 financial year, so this figure will keep on growing!

SCOTLAND

£1,667,865

SCOTLAND

TOTAL

£10,938,460* NORTHERN IRELAND

NORTH EAST

£331,937

£505,721

NORTH EAST

NORTHERN IRELAND NORTH WEST

YORKSHIRE

£660,500

NORTH WEST

YORKSHIRE

£984,158

EAST MIDLANDS

£547,041

WEST MIDLANDS

£817,583

EAST MIDLANDS

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

EAST OF ENGLAND

£519,507

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

WALES

£501,139

£39,544

WALES

EAST OF ENGLAND

WEST MIDLANDS

OXFORD

OXFORD

WEST

WEST

£657,543 SOUTH WEST

£872,126

LONDON AND THE SOUTH EAST

LONDON AND THE SOUTH EAST

£1,879,446

SOUTH WEST

£794,920

*Total includes £159,430 for anonymous and other donations

Christian Aid News 23

LIFE AND SOUL Kesten Mukango outside the house he is building for his family

WHAT DO SAUSAGES have to do with Christian Aid? The answer is that a bitesized chunk of every pack sold by the Good Little Company (GLC) goes towards Christian Aid projects around the world.

Launched in 2009, the GLC specialises in making delicious, healthy, ethically produced sausages and is committed to improving the long-term ability of people in the developing world to provide food for their families. For this reason, the firm partnered with Christian Aid from the outset. Business development manager Dominic Darby (pictured above) explains: ‘We are a little company on a big mission – to produce good, healthy, well-made food and at the same time help families in the developing world to feed themselves.’

To demonstrate its commitment to this mission, the GLC makes a donation to Christian Aid every time it sells a packet of sausages or meatballs. In fact, each donation it makes is enough to provide one person in the developing world with the seeds to grow a staple meal, every day, for one week.

In this way, it has so far raised more than £30,000, enabling Christian Aid to help families such as the Mukangos in Malawi break free from hunger.

A decade ago the Mukangos faced a daily battle with hunger. Determined to free his family from poverty, Kesten Mukango, with the help of Christian Aid partner ELDS, learned proper farming techniques that helped him grow enough food to banish the fear of hunger.

Now the Mukangos not only have enough to eat, but enough left over to

24 Christian Aid News

Christian Aid/Natalie Dale

The second in a series of articles exploring Christian Aid’s engagement with private sector companies that share our ethics and values

A LITTLE COMPANY ON A BIG MISSION sell to pay for their children’s school fees and improve their home. Kesten is building a new house with a tin roof that won’t leak, his family are now well dressed and hopes for the children’s futures look bright.

Darby says that consumers wholeheartedly embrace what the firm is doing. ‘We use the best ingredients, the most sustainable materials and generally make sure that we have a positive impact on the world. We get emails every month from our customers telling us that they buy the product because it's helping other people.’

In response to this, and in recognition of the rise in global food prices, the company has decided to increase the amount that it donates to Christian Aid from 5p per packet of sausages sold to 7p. This could raise around £10,000 more for Christian Aid in the coming year.

Good Little Sausages are available in Waitrose stores across Britain as well as selected Tesco stores in Northern Ireland. Following the success of the

first two years, Darby anticipates continued growth and expansion of the product range.

For updates on the work that Christian Aid and the GLC are doing together, visit goodlittlecompany.com • If you would like to find out more about how your company could help us work towards ending poverty, contact Brendan Brosnan on 020 7523 2474 or email bbrosnan@christian-aid.org

First-class idea Despite the growth of email and texting, the dear old postage stamp hasn’t completely faded away. And if you don’t have a use for your used stamps, we do. We collect and sell them to a dealer and they are made into stamp collectors’ packs and sent abroad, raising funds for Christian Aid. It doesn’t matter if they’re still stuck to the envelope, but do please separate foreign and British stamps.

Please send your used postage stamps to: Christian Aid Stamps, PO Box 6198, Leighton Buzzard, Beds LU7 9XT.

INPUT

Inspired? Enraged?

Send your views to: The Editor, Christian Aid News, 35 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7RL or email canews@christian-aid.org POPULATION PRIORITIES

TACKLING CORRUPTION

The first article in the last Christian Aid News (Issue 53) brought me to tears.

Here we can read about two families with life-threatening problems. In one family there are six children and in the other, eight. How can we hope to improve the lives of such unfortunate people when their lives are so heavily handicapped? Surely the international charities bear a heavy responsibility for not spending a larger fraction of their resources in the campaign to reduce the size of families, which is of particular relevance to Africa.

Dr Sverre Aarseth, via email

The best way to reduce population growth is to educate the women, and to increase people’s wealth. It’s worked everywhere else, so why not in poor countries? The loss of aid to corruption ought to be treated separately; we in the west could actively close down tax havens, and insist on removal of secrecy on bank accounts. The corrupt leaders bank their money somewhere, and use banking secrecy to keep it hidden. We’re not making a serious attempt at sorting this out at all yet.

Making the poor better off requires keeping money in the poor countries. It would require us to stop big companies shifting the money around, and avoiding paying taxes in the poor countries, as recognised by Christian Aid. How many of the problems could be solved if corporations and criminals didn’t benefit from the current arrangements?

Mike Dommett, Alton, Hampshire

Over the past 30 years food shortages and famines have frequently occurred in east Africa. The latest famine is truly dreadful and is made worse by the breakdown of law and order in Somalia.

There have been severe droughts in the past two years and this is indeed the major precipitating factor. But the population of the region, which was already experiencing food shortage in 1984, has been growing very rapidly since then.

In Ethiopia the population was around 44 million; it is now 87 million. The total fertility rate (TFR = average number of babies per mother) is 5.3. For Kenya the figures are: 1984 population, 21 million; 2011, 41 million. The present TFR is 4.7.

With only a limited land area available one can understand that rapid population growth is an underlying cause of the famines that afflict the region. The World Health Organisation informs us that there are currently 200 million couples worldwide who have no access to modern contraceptive methods. I suspect that many of these people live in the east African region.

All charities should prioritise the feeding of the undernourished babies.

Second to this, it is vital that they make family planning a core part of their primary health care clinics. In the long term, girls and boys must have equal educational opportunities.

Dr John Moor, via email

DOING GOD’S WORK Although I strongly subscribe to the need to avoid being ‘so heavenly-minded that one is no earthly use’, I sometimes wonder why Christian Aid News seems to fight shy of referring to God and to our continuing need to pray for success in His work. The autumn issue is a case in point. Loads of interesting articles about Christian Aid’s successful work in the field, its campaigning, readers’ views, and imaginative ways of raising more funds. But, apart from one reference in a reader’s letter, God – let alone Christ himself – did not get a mention at all.

At a recent Poverty Over event, I was encouraged to hear the speaker from HQ assert that all Christian Aid’s work is carefully underpinned by theological principles. Could Christian Aid News cover these from time to time, perhaps? And a regular notice about the content and availability of the excellent Prayer Diary would be helpful, too?

John Shaw, Rickmansworth Editor’s reply: we’ll see what we can do about more coverage of the theological principles in future issues. For now, you can find plenty of theological content

as well as the new Prayer Diary at christianaid.org.uk/resources/churches/

WHOSE INTERESTS? While I am more than happy to agree with the modest political campaigning in the areas of tax dodging and climate change, I feel that elsewhere in your magazine you overstepped the mark in favour of political propaganda.

Roger Fulton’s last sentence of his editorial reads: ‘Afghan women fear that the improvements in their rights may be rolled back in a rush to peace. If you want to know what our forces are fighting for, listen to their voices.’

The woman interviewed was, of course, carefully chosen. No doubt everything she said was true from her personal point of experience, but there are other very different histories in that war-torn region coming from people who are used to UK armed drones dropping hellfire missiles and bombs on their villages with a frightening regularity and a death toll in which 28 per cent (figure given by NATO) are civilians.

What good is anyone’s education if he or she hasn’t even got life?

Politicians have become less bashful about admitting that the wars they fight are ‘in our interests’. These interests have to do with economic and military global power; and that is what our soldiers are sent to fight for.

Annette Bygott, Oxford The humanitarian concerns for the people of Afghanistan (Issue 53) equal the economic, security and political concerns, which I fear are the main preoccupations of those discussing Afghanistan’s future.

Nicholas Stainforth, Kendal, Cumbria

Christian Aid News 25

INPUT

Inspired? Enraged?

Send your views to: The Editor, Christian Aid News, 35 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7RL or email canews@christian-aid.org POPULATION PRIORITIES

TACKLING CORRUPTION

The first article in the last Christian Aid News (Issue 53) brought me to tears.

Here we can read about two families with life-threatening problems. In one family there are six children and in the other, eight. How can we hope to improve the lives of such unfortunate people when their lives are so heavily handicapped? Surely the international charities bear a heavy responsibility for not spending a larger fraction of their resources in the campaign to reduce the size of families, which is of particular relevance to Africa.

Dr Sverre Aarseth, via email

The best way to reduce population growth is to educate the women, and to increase people’s wealth. It’s worked everywhere else, so why not in poor countries? The loss of aid to corruption ought to be treated separately; we in the west could actively close down tax havens, and insist on removal of secrecy on bank accounts. The corrupt leaders bank their money somewhere, and use banking secrecy to keep it hidden. We’re not making a serious attempt at sorting this out at all yet.

Making the poor better off requires keeping money in the poor countries. It would require us to stop big companies shifting the money around, and avoiding paying taxes in the poor countries, as recognised by Christian Aid. How many of the problems could be solved if corporations and criminals didn’t benefit from the current arrangements?

Mike Dommett, Alton, Hampshire

Over the past 30 years food shortages and famines have frequently occurred in east Africa. The latest famine is truly dreadful and is made worse by the breakdown of law and order in Somalia.

There have been severe droughts in the past two years and this is indeed the major precipitating factor. But the population of the region, which was already experiencing food shortage in 1984, has been growing very rapidly since then.

In Ethiopia the population was around 44 million; it is now 87 million. The total fertility rate (TFR = average number of babies per mother) is 5.3. For Kenya the figures are: 1984 population, 21 million; 2011, 41 million. The present TFR is 4.7.

With only a limited land area available one can understand that rapid population growth is an underlying cause of the famines that afflict the region. The World Health Organisation informs us that there are currently 200 million couples worldwide who have no access to modern contraceptive methods. I suspect that many of these people live in the east African region.

All charities should prioritise the feeding of the undernourished babies.

Second to this, it is vital that they make family planning a core part of their primary health care clinics. In the long term, girls and boys must have equal educational opportunities.

Dr John Moor, via email

DOING GOD’S WORK Although I strongly subscribe to the need to avoid being ‘so heavenly-minded that one is no earthly use’, I sometimes wonder why Christian Aid News seems to fight shy of referring to God and to our continuing need to pray for success in His work. The autumn issue is a case in point. Loads of interesting articles about Christian Aid’s successful work in the field, its campaigning, readers’ views, and imaginative ways of raising more funds. But, apart from one reference in a reader’s letter, God – let alone Christ himself – did not get a mention at all.

At a recent Poverty Over event, I was encouraged to hear the speaker from HQ assert that all Christian Aid’s work is carefully underpinned by theological principles. Could Christian Aid News cover these from time to time, perhaps? And a regular notice about the content and availability of the excellent Prayer Diary would be helpful, too?

John Shaw, Rickmansworth Editor’s reply: we’ll see what we can do about more coverage of the theological principles in future issues. For now, you can find plenty of theological content

as well as the new Prayer Diary at christianaid.org.uk/resources/churches/

WHOSE INTERESTS? While I am more than happy to agree with the modest political campaigning in the areas of tax dodging and climate change, I feel that elsewhere in your magazine you overstepped the mark in favour of political propaganda.

Roger Fulton’s last sentence of his editorial reads: ‘Afghan women fear that the improvements in their rights may be rolled back in a rush to peace. If you want to know what our forces are fighting for, listen to their voices.’

The woman interviewed was, of course, carefully chosen. No doubt everything she said was true from her personal point of experience, but there are other very different histories in that war-torn region coming from people who are used to UK armed drones dropping hellfire missiles and bombs on their villages with a frightening regularity and a death toll in which 28 per cent (figure given by NATO) are civilians.

What good is anyone’s education if he or she hasn’t even got life?

Politicians have become less bashful about admitting that the wars they fight are ‘in our interests’. These interests have to do with economic and military global power; and that is what our soldiers are sent to fight for.

Annette Bygott, Oxford The humanitarian concerns for the people of Afghanistan (Issue 53) equal the economic, security and political concerns, which I fear are the main preoccupations of those discussing Afghanistan’s future.

Nicholas Stainforth, Kendal, Cumbria

Christian Aid News 25

EVENTS We work with some of the world’s poorest communities.

They face huge challenges every day, so why don’t you challenge yourself? Have fun while fighting poverty: join one of our events or do your own fundraising

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2012

CYCLING ENTHUSIASTS – don’t forget to book your place on the fifth London to Paris Bike Ride, taking place on 18-22 July 2012. For those inclined towards trekking, another event celebrating its fifth anniversary is the Hadrian’s Wall Trek, from 29 June – 1 July, which will take us through the scenic and historic countryside on the border.

BURNS SUPPER

PEOPLE FROM RUSSIA to London, and, of course, in Scotland, are hosting Burns Supper nights this January to say no to poverty and yes to poetry. To register for a free fundraising pack, visit christianaid. org.uk/burnssupper or call 0141 241 6138.

Don’t want to hold your own? Why not join the Christian Aid Scotland Team at their Poverty Over Burns Supper on Friday 27 January 2012 at Firhill Stadium, Glasgow. Tickets are £25 per person. To buy yours, call 0141 241 6138 or email burns@christian-aid.org

OUR FUNDRAISING EFFORTS WILL RUN AND RUN SOME OF OUR MOST POPULAR running events took place in the final few months of 2011 to raise fantastic amounts of money for Christian Aid’s work towards eradicating poverty.

The Great North Run on 18 September saw Christian Aid’s 90 runners cross the finish line to raise about £50,000 – we even had a vicar take part in his church robes!

The Royal Parks Marathon in London on 9 October enticed 45 lovely Christian Aid supporters to don their running shoes, covering 13 miles on this beautiful city run, which raised another £17,500. However, not everyone who took part actually did so in running shoes – Bill Holden, from south London, covered the whole course barefoot!

Barefoot or in trainers, it was a

gorgeous day for running, so congratulations to all who took part.

And congratulations too to all Christian Aid Christmas fun-runners who braved the cold in December to give poverty the run-around. Dressed as Santa Claus, festive Christian Aid supporters ran, jogged and strolled in five locations around Britain, aiming to raise £11,500 to help sleigh poverty this winter! The 50 Christian Aid Liverpool Santas were part of the world record attempt by 7,500 runners for the largest gathering of Santa Clauses!

• To find out about these and other running events in 2012 – including the BUPA Great Manchester run on Sunday 20 May, at the end of Christian Aid Week – please go to christianaid.org. uk/events

SUPER SOUP LUNCH

Alex Hughes

LET’S BOWL OVER POVERTY! On Friday 30 March 2012, put the sandwiches down and be one of thousands of people across Britain getting together to share soup and help fight poverty. Register now to hold your own Super Soup Lunch; you’ll receive your free fundraising pack. You can register online at christianaid.org.uk/super-soup-lunch or telephone 020 7523 2328.

26 Christian Aid News

The Bradley family: dad Harvey, mum Barbara and daughter Joanna, at the London Santa Dash

✁

MADNESS FRONTMAN Suggs kicked off our 2011 Big Christmas Sing in December with a free concert at Old Spitalfields Market, London. There were covers of Christmas songs old and new, courtesy of Laura White of The X Factor, local choirs, quartets and more than 100 school children.

The evening was rounded off perfectly with a sing along to the Madness classic ‘It Must be Love’.

Throughout December the sweet melodies of Christmas cheer poured out of doors up and down the country, from the Isle of Skye to the tip of Cornwall. Friends, family, work colleagues and neighbours staged carol concerts, karaoke nights and rapping contests. Money is still rolling in, which means we are well on the way to topping our £100,000 target!

WANT TO HELP? WALK THIS WAY THE BEDE’S WAY WALK, which took place on Saturday 8 October, was a huge success, with 122 walkers marching between St Peter’s Church in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, to St Paul’s Church, Jarrow, to raise more than £8,000 for Christian Aid. The walk was organised in solidarity with, and to raise awareness for, India’s poverty-stricken landless population.

Local celebrity John Grundy joined in and signed copies of his new book, the profits of which will go to Christian Aid. If you would like to buy John’s book Grundy’s Guide to Bede’s Way, please contact the Newcastle Christian Aid office at newcastle@christian-aid.org • For information on other Christian Aid walks and how to register, go to christianaid.org.uk/walks

Trysten hughes

SPONSORED SWIMMERS GO IN AT THE DEEP END CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL 20 of our fantastic swimmers involved in the Cambridgeshire Sponsored Swim in October and the 50 or so who took part in the Birmingham Sponsored Swim in January. These brand-new events for Christian Aid are helping us to swell our fundraising efforts. Well done to everyone taking part and a great big

BIRMINGHAM SPONSORED SWIM 8 January 2012 BURNS SUPPER 21-28 January 2012 SPONSORED ABSEILS March 2012 THE SUPER SOUP LUNCH 30 March 2012

Suggs launches the Big Christmas Sing

Christian Aid/Matthew Gonzalez-Noda

GOT YOUR OWN BRILLIANT ideas for raising funds to help tackle poverty?

Order a Do It Your Way DVD packed with useful information and resources to help your event along, whatever it may be!

For instance, 21-year-old Simon Dalton supported Christian Aid by organising No Shoes November.

Going shoeless for the whole month of November, Simon (pictured below) said, ‘Christian Aid supports incredible work worldwide and I wanted to support them in the craziest way I could!’

• If you want to follow in Simon’s (bare) footsteps, you can order a DVD from christianaid.org.uk/ yourway or by emailing events@ christian-aid.org

IT MUST BE… THE BIG CHRISTMAS SING

thank you to all of the volunteers helping out at the events.

WANT TO TRY SOMETHING NEW? OUR LONDON to Brighton 100K walk and the two-day Cathedrals to Coast bike ride are taking place for the first ever year – come and set the trend!

• You can sign up for these and a wide variety of other events at christianaid. org.uk/events

GO OVER THE EDGE TO END POVERTY PUSH YOURSELF this spring with one of our daring sponsored abseils. In February and March, in six locations – Manchester, Newcastle, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Exeter and Dorset – you can join sponsored abseils to help eradicate poverty. Why not rope in a friend to join you! You can register for just £15 each, and must agree to raise at least £60.

For details on all of our sponsored abseils, visit christianaid.org.uk/events

BRIGHTON MARATHON 15 April 2012 VIRGIN LONDON MARATHON 22 April 2012 LONDON TO BRIGHTON TREK 20 May 2012 BUPA GREAT MANCHESTER RUN 12-13 May 2012 EDINBURGH MARATHON 27 May 2012 HOLY ISLAND NIGHT HIKE 22-23 June 2012 HADRIAN’S WALL WEEKEND TREK 29 June – 1 July 2012 LONDON TO PARIS BIKE RIDE 18-22 July 2012 QUIZAID 10-14 September 2012 BUPA GREAT NORTH RUN 16 September 2012 CATHEDRALS TO COAST 22-23 September 2012 ROYAL PARKS HALF MARATHON 7 October 2012 SANTA DASH 5K FUN RUNS December 2012 THE BIG CHRISTMAS SING 7-9 December 2012 Visit christianaid. org.uk/events to find out more.

Lucy Connell

DO IT YOUR WAY

EVENTS FUNDRAISING CALENDAR 2012

✁

MADNESS FRONTMAN Suggs kicked off our 2011 Big Christmas Sing in December with a free concert at Old Spitalfields Market, London. There were covers of Christmas songs old and new, courtesy of Laura White of The X Factor, local choirs, quartets and more than 100 school children.

The evening was rounded off perfectly with a sing along to the Madness classic ‘It Must be Love’.

Throughout December the sweet melodies of Christmas cheer poured out of doors up and down the country, from the Isle of Skye to the tip of Cornwall. Friends, family, work colleagues and neighbours staged carol concerts, karaoke nights and rapping contests. Money is still rolling in, which means we are well on the way to topping our £100,000 target!

WANT TO HELP? WALK THIS WAY THE BEDE’S WAY WALK, which took place on Saturday 8 October, was a huge success, with 122 walkers marching between St Peter’s Church in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, to St Paul’s Church, Jarrow, to raise more than £8,000 for Christian Aid. The walk was organised in solidarity with, and to raise awareness for, India’s poverty-stricken landless population.

Local celebrity John Grundy joined in and signed copies of his new book, the profits of which will go to Christian Aid. If you would like to buy John’s book Grundy’s Guide to Bede’s Way, please contact the Newcastle Christian Aid office at newcastle@christian-aid.org • For information on other Christian Aid walks and how to register, go to christianaid.org.uk/walks

Trysten hughes

SPONSORED SWIMMERS GO IN AT THE DEEP END CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL 20 of our fantastic swimmers involved in the Cambridgeshire Sponsored Swim in October and the 50 or so who took part in the Birmingham Sponsored Swim in January. These brand-new events for Christian Aid are helping us to swell our fundraising efforts. Well done to everyone taking part and a great big

BIRMINGHAM SPONSORED SWIM 8 January 2012 BURNS SUPPER 21-28 January 2012 SPONSORED ABSEILS March 2012 THE SUPER SOUP LUNCH 30 March 2012

Suggs launches the Big Christmas Sing

Christian Aid/Matthew Gonzalez-Noda

GOT YOUR OWN BRILLIANT ideas for raising funds to help tackle poverty?

Order a Do It Your Way DVD packed with useful information and resources to help your event along, whatever it may be!

For instance, 21-year-old Simon Dalton supported Christian Aid by organising No Shoes November.

Going shoeless for the whole month of November, Simon (pictured below) said, ‘Christian Aid supports incredible work worldwide and I wanted to support them in the craziest way I could!’

• If you want to follow in Simon’s (bare) footsteps, you can order a DVD from christianaid.org.uk/ yourway or by emailing events@ christian-aid.org

IT MUST BE… THE BIG CHRISTMAS SING

thank you to all of the volunteers helping out at the events.

WANT TO TRY SOMETHING NEW? OUR LONDON to Brighton 100K walk and the two-day Cathedrals to Coast bike ride are taking place for the first ever year – come and set the trend!

• You can sign up for these and a wide variety of other events at christianaid. org.uk/events

GO OVER THE EDGE TO END POVERTY PUSH YOURSELF this spring with one of our daring sponsored abseils. In February and March, in six locations – Manchester, Newcastle, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Exeter and Dorset – you can join sponsored abseils to help eradicate poverty. Why not rope in a friend to join you! You can register for just £15 each, and must agree to raise at least £60.

For details on all of our sponsored abseils, visit christianaid.org.uk/events

BRIGHTON MARATHON 15 April 2012 VIRGIN LONDON MARATHON 22 April 2012 LONDON TO BRIGHTON TREK 20 May 2012 BUPA GREAT MANCHESTER RUN 12-13 May 2012 EDINBURGH MARATHON 27 May 2012 HOLY ISLAND NIGHT HIKE 22-23 June 2012 HADRIAN’S WALL WEEKEND TREK 29 June – 1 July 2012 LONDON TO PARIS BIKE RIDE 18-22 July 2012 QUIZAID 10-14 September 2012 BUPA GREAT NORTH RUN 16 September 2012 CATHEDRALS TO COAST 22-23 September 2012 ROYAL PARKS HALF MARATHON 7 October 2012 SANTA DASH 5K FUN RUNS December 2012 THE BIG CHRISTMAS SING 7-9 December 2012 Visit christianaid. org.uk/events to find out more.

Lucy Connell

DO IT YOUR WAY

EVENTS FUNDRAISING CALENDAR 2012

AROUND CENTRAL ENGLAND

‘If anyone can rebuild a country so comprehensively from scratch, Sierra Leoneans can’

Travellers’ tales CHRISTIAN AID staff and interns see, first hand, the real change that your donations bring to people around the globe. They return full of stories to share – could they share them with your church or group?

Early in 2012, Lucy Connell, regional manager for East Midlands, visits Tajikistan and Martin Gage and Alison Linwood, regional coordinators and legacy officers in the East and West Midlands, go to India. Chris Wild, regional coordinator in the East of England, has been to Brazil, while Sally Bossingham, West Midlands regional coordinator, visited Sierra Leone and Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. To book staff, contact your regional office: Birmingham@christian-aid.org / 0121 200 2283; eastmidlands@christian-aid. org / 01509 265013; eastengland@ christian-aid.org / 01733 345 755.

Paul’s marathon effort

East Midlands intern Catherine Garsed in Sierra Leone

IN OCTOBER 2011, our new youth and student volunteer interns spent two weeks in Sierra Leone, west Africa, visiting some of Christian Aid’s projects there. They had the opportunity to see Christian Aid’s projects in real life, to understand exactly where supporters’ money goes, and to bring back stories from the people who benefit from the projects. During their stay, they met two of our eight partner organisations in Sierra Leone: the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone (MCSL) and the Social Enterprise Development Foundation (SEND). Our partners prepared a packed schedule for the group, which included Catherine Garsed from East Midlands and Sarah Croft from East of England, to visit a range of projects combating issues such as a lack of long-term availability of food, HIV and lack of access to healthcare, and poor governance.

28 Christian Aid News

Catherine said: ‘Sierra Leone was beyond words. It still bore the terrible scars of the civil war, yet there was an atmosphere of brave defiance of a people who were not going to let it ruin them, of a people who were determined to rebuild their country; a country where extraordinarily honest forgiveness between old enemies defies belief and where phenomenal Muslim-Christian tolerance puts the wealthy West truly to shame. You feel without doubt that if anyone can rebuild a country so comprehensively from scratch, Sierra Leoneans can.’

Sierra Leone provides the focus for this year’s Christian Aid Week. If you would like one of our volunteer interns to speak to your Christian Aid group, church or youth group about the work being done there, please contact your local Christian Aid office.

CHRISTIAN AID supporter Paul Anderson is one of the lucky few to be awarded one of our Golden Bonds for the 2012 London Marathon in April!

There are just 10 available, and marathon debutant Paul, from Loughborough, is the only person in the whole of the East Midlands to have been selected. Aiming to raise £2,000, he hopes to complete the run in five-and-a-half hours. You can support him either by visiting his Just Giving page at justgiving.com/ PaulLon-Mar2012 or by contacting the Loughborough office on 01509 265013 or eastmidlands@christian-aid.org

Skill sharing FROM PRAYER TO postcards, we advocate for a world free from poverty. But how do we know we are really making an impact? Our springtime Passion into Action events are your chance to increase your campaigning impact, covering everything from worship to how to effectively engage your MP effectively.

The events take place in February and March. To find out more, suggest a location or express an interest, contact John Cooper, West Midlands regional organiser, at jcooper@ christian-aid.org or on 0121 200 2283.

IN BRIEF

Happy new quiz OUR NEW PAPER QUIZ is winging its way to Christian Aid supporters in this new year. For just £1 you can put your knowledge to the test on the different areas and counties in your region. All you have to do is fill in the quiz, send it back to your local Christian Aid office along with your £1, then keep your fingers crossed!

One lucky person from each Christian Aid region will be named the winner and will receive a prize! If you would like to try your luck and take part in the all-new paper quiz, then please contact your local Christian Aid office to request a copy.

• Thank you to all who came on the Marches for Justice in October to support our partner Ekta Parishad in India, which is campaigning for land rights. Sponsorship received so far is £300 from Norwich, £2,000 from Bury St Edmunds and £2,000 from Malvern.

• In the run-up to Christian Aid Week, the West Midlands team will be picking up the phones then hitting the road! We are hoping to meet up with all our organisers for an informal chat and catch up, getting to know you better, and offering you the best support possible. From plant sales to street collections, however you organise support for Christian Aid Week, we’ll be in contact.

EVENTS IN CENTRAL ENGLAND

SUNDAY 29 JANUARY Loughborough Simple Sunday Lunch 1pm, Emmanuel Church, Forest Road, Loughborough LE11 3NW.

house collections, and creative ideas for new Christian Aid Week fundraising events.

Saturday 4 February 9.30-11.30am, Bakewell Methodist Church, Matlock Street, Bakewell DE45 1EL. Tuesday 7 February 5.30-7.30pm, St Andrew’s Church Hall, Countesthorpe.

Wednesday 8 February 6.30-8.30pm, Chilwell Road Methodist Church, Chilwell Road, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 1EH. Thursday 9 February 5.30-7.30pm, All Saints Coffee Bar, Gainsborough.

Saturday 11 February 9.30-11.30am, Mansfield Road Baptist Church, corner of Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 6JN. Thursday 16 February 6-8pm, The Old School Rooms, Rothley Parish Church, School Street, Rothley.

Thursday 16 February 5.30-7.30pm, Derby Broadway Baptist Church, 166 Broadway, Derby DE22 1BP. Saturday 18 February 9.30-11.30am, Grantham Baptist Church, Wharf Road, Grantham NG31 6BA. Saturday 18 February 9.30-11.30am, St Peter and St Paul Church, Healing.

SATURDAY 4 FEBRUARY – SATURDAY 18 FEBRUARY Thinking Outside the Envelope A series of events to inspire and help you prepare for Christian Aid Week 2012, including how to get the most out of house-to-

SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY Auction of Promises 7-9pm, Loughborough Baptist Church, Baxter Gate, Loughborough LE11 1TG. More than 50 lots are up for auction, in aid of Christian Aid,

FRIDAY 20 JANUARY – SUNDAY 22 JANUARY Midlands Volunteers’ Conference: Going Deeper – Deeper Knowledge, Deeper Understanding, Deeper Faith 6pm Friday – 4pm Sunday, Hothorpe Hall, Theddingworth, Leicestershire LE17 6QX. Join volunteers from around the region to share ideas and be re-energised and inspired by partner stories. The main speaker is David Pain, Christian Aid’s director of supporter and community partnerships. Cost: £165 for a single room or £130 if sharing. Discounted rates of £75 for the weekend are available for people aged between 18 and 25.

For more information, please contact Martin Gage on 01509 265013 or email mgage@ christian-aid.org EAST MIDLANDS SATURDAY 21 JANUARY Coffee morning 10am-12pm, Loughborough Baptist Church, Baxter Gate, Loughborough LE11 1TG.

including a run in a vintage car, tour of parliament with a local MP, a day in a narrow boat and an Indian head massage. Tickets: £5, including a Ploughman’s Supper. Available from the Loughborough Baptist Church or call the Loughborough Christian Aid office on 01509 265013.

SUNDAY 26 FEBRUARY Loughborough Simple Sunday Lunch 12.30pm, United Reformed Church, 39 Frederick Street, Loughborough LE11 3BH. TUESDAY 20 MARCH Tales and Experiences from Sierra Leone in its Fight Against Poverty 6.30-8pm, Derby Multifaith Centre, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, DE22 1GB. Hear from Christian Aid’s Mark Vyner, whose responsibilities include overseeing projects in Sierra Leone, and Catherine Garsed, youth and student intern for Christian Aid, who spent two weeks in Sierra Leone in October (see story opposite). Free event.

SUNDAY 25 MARCH Loughborough Simple Sunday Lunch 12.30pm, Friends @ Trinity Methodist Church, Royland Road, Loughborough LE11 2EH. SATURDAY 5 MAY – SUNDAY 6 MAY Annual Loughborough Canal and Boat Festival Every May Day weekend

since 1997, the Loughborough Canal and Boat Festival has taken place down the beautiful Loughborough canal. Hundreds of boats throng Loughborough’s waterway. This year Christian Aid will have a stall at this festival to tell our Christian Aid Week 2012 story, as well as interactive and visual displays.

Admission to the festival is free.

For more information, please visit the festival website, at loughboroughcanalfestival.co.uk/ WEST MIDLANDS SATURDAY 10 MARCH Photography exhibition Peace and Reconciliation Gallery, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry. Join us for a midday launch of a photography exhibition featuring the work of Christian Aid partner the Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA), which runs community activities and centres for children, young people and women in Gaza. For details, contact the Birmingham Christian Aid office on 0121 200 2283 or email birmingham@christian-aid.org EAST OF ENGLAND JANUARY/FEBRUARY Poverty Over Touring Exhibition Two new venues for this compelling exhibition and wonderful sculpture. For full details, contact eastengland@ christian-aid.org 13-26 January Peterborough Cathedral 3-16 February Norwich Cathedral

Christian Aid News 29

AROUND NORTH ENGLAND

From Genesis to Revelation in four days

The readathon goes strong

IT WAS A DULL Thursday night in March 2011 when a local ecumenical partnership in the north west met to discuss future plans. The group was struggling and needed an event to help revitalise it.

As one member comments, ‘We made the PCC meetings on the Vicar of Dibley look dynamic!’

Someone suggested a Bible readathon to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.

Someone else mentioned the Christian Aid partnership scheme, and pretty soon they had a plan. Linda Tiongco from Christian Aid gave a presentation about the partnership scheme, which further fired the group’s enthusiasm. Group member Michael Dearnley recalls: ‘One suggestion was to support the development of maternity care in rural Sierra Leone, which the Lytham Methodist Church had a connection with. We took on the Kailahun hospital project and made it our own.’

Over the next few months a Bible reading

marathon was organised. In the beginning was the Bishop of Lancaster reading Genesis on a Wednesday morning in October, while the final verses of Revelation were to be revealed the following Sunday morning.

All local churches and schools were approached, and the response was overwhelming. Pupils from two secondary schools and three primaries were allocated the more accessible parts of the Bible – no Chronicles, Leviticus or Numbers for them! Lytham St Annes High School hosted the Bishop of Blackburn; and students became engaged in reading circles. Lytham Church of England Primary had a four-hour ‘open house’ for the extended school family to join in with the children reading the Bible.

Veteran English footballer Jimmy Armfield was among parents, grandparents, local clergy and dignitaries taking part. The Lytham churches covered the evening-and-night sessions, and on Saturday night young people from all the churches came together to read, fuelled by pizza and fizzy drinks.

The readings took a total of 72 hours spread over four days and involved more than 500 adults and children from five churches, five schools and four denominations. Their efforts raised more than £5,000, triggering matched funding from the European Union and an eventual donation to the project in Sierra Leone of £20,000.

The ecumenical partnership has been thrilled with the response. The feeling of working together as an inter-denominational group, supported by the local staff of Christian Aid, has been amazing.

ONCE AND FOR ALL THIS EXCITING multimedia event, led by your local regional staff, shows what the world looks like through the eyes of some of the poorest people, and what we can each do to help those in poverty out of poverty.

Using powerful personal stories, stunning images, and beautiful, original songs, Once and For All reveals how our prayers, actions and donations are bringing hope and healing to those crippled by poverty all over the world. The show has lots of audience participation and equips us all to put our faith into action and work to eradicate extreme poverty once and for all.

Created by members of Christian Aid’s regional staff in response to calls from local supporters, clergy and churches, Once and For All can be used

28 Christian Aid News

to refresh and recruit Christian Aid Week collectors and to inform and inspire volunteers.

You can see Once and For All at the following places: Saturday 25 February 7-9.30pm, Millom Baptist Church, Millom LA18 4AG. Friday 20 April 7-9.30pm, St Cuthberts Church, Fulwood, Preston PR2 3AR. Thursday 26 April Methodist Church, Poynton SK12 1RB. Saturday 28 April, Chester To book Once and For All, contact your regional office with some dates, find a good venue, invite everyone you know, provide some refreshments and leave the rest to us. For details, contact warrington@christian-aid.org or 01925 573769.

PAPER QUIZZES After the success of the regional paper quizzes last year, we are producing them again for Christian Aid Week 2012. If you would like us to send you some for your churches please contact your local office.

You can also download quizzes from our Christian Aid Week website, caweek.org

GET SET FOR CHRISTIAN AID WEEK Are you looking to get more collectors? Would you like a speaker to visit your congregation or group to encourage potential collectors? We can help! Please contact your local office: newcastle@ christian-aid.org or warrington@ christian-aid.org or leeds@christianaid.org

TESCO COLLECTIONS AUTUMN 2012 Tesco have a national booking system for charity collection. If you want to book one for autumn 2012 and spring 2013, please contact your local office.

We can also help with contacting other supermarkets if you’d like us to.

AROUND SCOTLAND Christian Aid/Jennifer Clark

Arthur meets Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore

Shepherd gets on his bike for tax-justice challenge THERE ARE MANY ways to draw attention to Christian Aid’s work, but when Scots shepherd Arthur Cross offered to set aside his crook and get on his bike, he had a specific challenge in mind – 160 miles around Scotland in just 24 hours!

Through this epic journey, Arthur hoped to raise awareness of the staggering US$160bn a year lost to the poorest countries in the world because of the tax-dodging of some unscrupulous multinational companies.

Inspired to take action after hearing about Christian Aid’s tax campaign at a local roadshow event, Arthur volunteered to cycle one mile across the country for every billion dollars lost to developing countries each year.

Christian Aid estimates this figure is more than the entire global aid budget, and could pay for basic health, sanitation and education services in some of the world’s poorest countries – several times over.

Before setting off from Greenock, Arthur said: ‘I think this will be more challenging than previous events, but if it’s successful in drawing attention to the tax-dodging of some of the wealthiest multinationals in the world at the expense of the very poorest people, then it will be well worth the effort.’

Our cycling shepherd pedalled in wind and rain, by daylight and in darkness, through Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Lanarkshire and the Scottish Borders.

And as if this challenge was not tricky enough, Arthur was

28 Christian Aid News

determined to ensure his voice was heard loud and clear by politicians en route. So he arranged to take the issue up with MPs at various stops, including his local MP, Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore. Other MPs included Douglas Alexander and Jim Sheridan in Paisley, Anas Sarwar in Glasgow and Michael McCann in East Kilbride.

Arthur’s cycle came as Christian Aid was putting pressure on world leaders to end tax-haven secrecy in advance of the G20 meeting in Cannes in December, providing an excellent platform for gaining media coverage and urging MPs to champion the cause at the heart of government.

Diane Green, campaigns officer for Christian Aid Scotland, congratulated Arthur on successfully completing his ambitious feat. ‘Well done to Arthur for taking on this cycle ride to raise awareness of this very important issue. Hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people struggle with little or no access to basic services. ’We want to see greater tax transparency so that developing countries can provide healthcare, sanitation and other services to their poorest citizens. That is why we are calling for companies to declare their profits made and taxes paid in every country where they operate.’

• To find more information on the tax campaign, go to: christianaid.org.uk/tax

EVENTS IN SCOTLAND FRIDAY 27 JANUARY Poverty Over Burns Supper 7pm–1am, Partick Thistle FC, Firhill Stadium, Firhill Road, Glasgow.

Celebrate the life and work of Robert Burns with the Christian Aid Scotland Team at their Poverty Over Burns Supper.

Includes a delicious threecourse meal, followed by a ceilidh into the small hours.

Tickets £25 per person. And if you can’t join this Burns Supper why not hold your own? Visit christianaid.org.uk/burnssupper or call Amy on 0141 221 7475.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY Eco-congregations and Christian Aid climate roadshows Tuesday 17 January 6.45pm for 7pm start, Falkirk Old and St Modan’s Parish Church, Manse Place, Falkirk FK1 1JN. Further information from dgreen@christian-aid.org or 0141 221 7475.

Tuesday 21 February 7pm (tbc), St George’s Church of Scotland Church Hall, 50 George Street, Dumfries DG1 1EJ. Contextual Bible Studies Tuesday 24 January 7-9pm, Cathcart Baptist Church Thursday 16 February 7-9pm, New Kilpatrick Call Wendy Young for more information on 0141 221 7475.

For full info on any of the above, call Val Brown on 0141 221 7475.

With World Mission Council: Israel and occupied Palestinian territory (IOPT) evenings Wednesday 1 February 7-9pm, Gorbals Parish Church, Glasgow.

Thursday 9 February 7-9pm, Dornoch Cathedral.

Christian Aid roadshows Wednesday 7 March 7-9pm, Abbotsford Church, Clydebank, G81 1PA.

NEW GLASGOW OFFICE

IN DECEMBER, the Glasgow office relocated to 290 Bath

Wednesday 21 March 7-9pm, Stobswell Church, 172 Albert Street, DD4 6QW. Thursday 22 March 7-9pm, Portobello Old Parish, Bellfield Street, EH15 2BP. TUESDAY 28 FEBRUARY Guardian film screening – Trade: The Flower Industry In Kenya 7pm, The Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.

Guardian film in partnership with Christian Aid, followed by panel discussion and Q&A. SATURDAY 21 APRIL Tay Bridge Cross Walk 2pm, Dundee and Newport-onTay. Christian Aid’s annual Tay Bridge sponsored walk. For more details, visit christianaid. org.uk/walks or call Amy on 0141 221 7475.

SATURDAY 28 APRIL Forth Bridge Cross Walk 1pm, North and South Queensferry.

Come along to the 40th birthday celebration for the Forth Bridge Cross. Entertainment will commence at 1pm, with the walk starting at 2pm. For more details, visit christianaid.org.uk/ walks or call Amy, as above.

SATURDAY 5 MAY Erskine Bridge Cross Walk 2pm, Erskine and Old Kilpatrick Join the 25th anniversary of the Erskine Bridge Cross.

For more details, visit christianaid.org.uk/walks or call Amy, as above.

SATURDAY 16 JUNE Cumbrae Challenge 10am, Cumbrae.

Walk, run or cycle 10 miles around the beautiful Isle of Cumbrae to support Christian Aid. For more details, visit christianaid.org.uk/walks or call Amy, as above.

Street, Glasgow G2 4JR. This move provides the Glasgow team with a bit more space and is saving Christian Aid a considerable amount of money each year. Our phone number (0141 221 7475) will stay the same and there will be a redirection on our post for the foreseeable future. We will be holding an ‘open office’ event on 18 January 2012, between 5pm and 7pm. All are welcome to come along to meet staff and see our new premises.

Scottish Churches funding HIV work in Malawi LONGNIDDRY CHURCH recently hosted ‘The Gentlemen’s Saturday Baking Society’, raising money for Christian Aid partner FOCUS in Malawi. This is just one of many activities Longniddry and Gladmuir churches have arranged in order to reach the £5,000 partnership target over two years, which is match-funded 1:9 by the Scottish government’s international development fund.

Glasgow West End Churches Together, and Trinity and Stobswell churches in Dundee are also working creatively towards the same target. In total, with match-funding, £200,000 will be raised for the work of FOCUS. FOCUS seeks to reduce the transmission of HIV and supports those living with the virus in the Karonga area of Malawi.

If you think your church and community might be interested in getting involved with a match-funded partnership, please get in touch with Wendy Young on 0141 221 7475 or wyoung@ christian-aid.org Longniddry’s gentlemen bakers

OVERSEAS VISITS AT CHRISTIAN AID, we are all about partnerships and shared learning. So we were delighted to have Dr Singha, from DSK, one of our partners in Bangladesh, with us over the Harvest period to talk about the impact of climate change, with supporters around the country. Thank you to everyone who made him feel welcome during his stay in Scotland. Emma Dalrymple, our new intern, has recently come back from a visit to Sierra Leone, where she was able to find out more about our work and partnerships there.

BIG THANKS to the winner of the Falkirk Herald’s ‘Voice’ competition, teenager Colet Selwyn, who is in the process of making a solo album and donating all the proceeds to Christian Aid. Colet and his family, who make up the Sunbeam Singers, also recently performed a gospel music concert in Larbert, alongside quartet Con Brio, to raise funds for Christian Aid and The Leprosy Mission.

Christian Aid News 29

AROUND THE SOUTH EAST Regional news and events in Beds, Berks, Bucks, Herts and Oxon

Christian Aid/Max Khanna

Introducing... your regional team

Members of the regional team, from left: Sarah, Hannah, Abi, Jess and Steve.

HERE IN THE OXFORD OFFICE we are passionate about the work of Christian Aid and love the opportunity to speak to church congregations, Christian Aid groups or anyone else! We thought you might like to know who’s who.

Jenny Ayres has worked for Christian Aid for more than 10 years and has just returned as regional manager after maternity leave. She oversees the work and direction of the team.

Sarah Clay is a regional coordinator leading our work with young people and specialist volunteers. She has visited partner organisations in the Philippines.

Amy Merone is a regional coordinator leading on media and campaigns work.

She has visited partners in Tajikistan, Kenya and Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, and is currently studying for an MA in development and emergency practice.

Jessica Hall is a regional coordinator working with Christian Aid groups and churches, and has travelled to Brazil with Christian Aid. A talented singer/ songwriter, Jess has just released her first recording.

Abi Knowles is a regional coordinator, who came to Oxford last year after an internship with Christian Aid. She leads on our events fundraising and supports churches and groups in the region. As an intern, Abi visited projects in Kenya.

Steve Johnson has recently joined the team as a regional coordinator, leading on our work with churches. He joins us from the Church Mission Society.

Jennie Williams is our volunteer intern for 2011/2012, who started after graduating from Oxford University. She works with young people and students, and has recently returned from Sierra Leone, where she visited partners for Christian Aid Week 2012.

Hannah Roberts, our regional administrator, is the friendly voice on the phone when you call us. In her spare time, Hannah is an assistant leader for her local Girl Guide group.

If you would like to arrange for one of us to come and speak at your church, committee or event, please get in touch on 01865 246818 or email oxford@ christian-aid.org

EVENTS SATURDAY 10 MARCH Hatfield sponsored abseil Enjoy spectacular views over the beautiful Hatfield House and the Hertfordshire countryside as you become one of the first ever to abseil down the 15th century tower of St Etheldreda’s Church.

For details, contact Cat Goldson on 020 7523 2077 or email cgoldson@christian-aid.org THURSDAY 15 MARCH – THURSDAY 22 MARCH Hope in the Rubble: Stories from Haiti Join us for a series of events featuring Aldrin Calixte, the director of Haiti Survie, a Christian Aid partner that is playing a vital role working with communities to help them

28 Christian Aid News

rebuild their lives. Come along and get inspired as you start to prepare for Christian Aid Week.

Includes a light supper. Please let us know if you wish to attend.

For details, contact 01865 246818 or oxford@christian-aid.org Thursday 15 March 7.30-9.30pm, Marlborough Road Methodist Church, Banbury OX16 5BZ. Saturday 17 March 6.30-8.30pm, Dedworth Green Baptist Church, Windsor SL4 5PE. Monday 19 March 7-9pm, St Francis Church, Welwyn Garden City AL8 6HH. Tuesday 20 March 7-9pm, Aylesbury Methodist Church, HP20 2NQ. Wednesday 21 March 7-9pm, Priory Methodist Church,

Bedford MK41 9QJ Thursday 22 March 7-9pm, Stopsley Baptist Church, Luton LU2 7XP.

GIVE POVERTY THE BOOT AND JOIN A SPONSORED WALK!

SATURDAY 17 MARCH March for Justice curry evening 7.30-9.30pm, Trinity Church, Conduit Road, Abingdon OX14 1DB. Join us for curry and hear about the year-long March for Justice in India, being organised by Ekta Parishad, a Christian Aid partner organisation that supports poor communities in their pursuit for land rights and justice. We will be joined by our international director, Paul Valentin, who has met marchers in India.

To book, contact Amy Merone, as before.

SATURDAY 12 MAY The Christian Aid Walk Starting from The Chauncy School, Ware, Herts.

SATURDAY 19 MAY Walk the Country Starting from Bix village hall, Bix, Oxon.

To register for these events, or find out more about Christian Aid’s sponsored walks, go to christianaid.org.uk/walks or contact Jess Hall on 01865 246818 or jhall@ christian-aid.org

AROUND THE SOUTH AND WEST

Partnerships, pancakes and a hairy vicar

A GROWING NUMBER of churches across the south and west have been making good use of our partnership scheme (which is match-funded by the European Union), to raise money for projects, and they have used some very imaginative methods to raise it.

Last year supporters, churches and schools from Brixham, Churston, Galmpton and Kingswear in south Devon signed up to a partnership with a project in Burkina Faso. They pledged to raise £5,000, knowing that through EU funding this would be multiplied five times. They held a variety of fundraising

events, and raised more than £7,000, meaning the project received more than £35,500! They organised carol singing and choir singing, held a cream tea for the royal wedding, had ‘nibbles and noggins’ by the Dart, staged a beetle drive, set up an antiques roadshow, took part in sponsored silences and arranged cake sales and coffee mornings. Star billing went to Kingswear’s ‘hairy biker’ vicar, Rev Ian Blyde (pictured above), who had his beard shaved for the cause.

The Christian Aid group in Cheltenham is on course to reach its target in a partnership with the Zim Pro

project in Zimbabwe. The group began by selling pancakes at its AGM and has organised two fairs – each raising more than £1,200 – and a supermarket collection.

Horfield Parish Church in Bristol first looked into taking part in the partnership scheme a year ago and has already passed its £5,000 target. Bobby Brown, who coordinated the church’s involvement along with Judith Claypole, says: ‘It’s wonderful. It has a momentum of its own. The whole congregation really took it to their hearts.’

Fundraising initiatives included collecting iron to sell to a local scrap yard and a bluebell walk, which was so popular that the church has now set up a new walking club. The biggest event was a promises auction, which raised £2,700. Horfield supported two projects in Sierra Leone through the scheme, helping to bring good food and clean water to thousands of people. The matching funds from the EU made their £5,000 gift worth well over £20,000.

If you would like to find out more about taking up the challenge with your church, school or other group, contact Max Khanna on 020 8123 7523 or email partnershipscheme@christian-aid.org

JOIN THE MARCH FOR JUSTICE FORTY CHRISTIAN AID supporters braved the hottest October day ever recorded to walk 13 miles between Tewkesbury Abbey and Gloucester Cathedral, along the Severn Way, in support of thousands of dalit and tribal people who are marching in India for their land rights.

Access to land is vital in helping the poorest communities support their own livelihoods. Christian Aid partner Ekta Parishad is organising a year-long march of dalit and tribal people (see

28 Christian Aid News

page 10). Starting with 1,000 marchers leaving from Orissa, this will grow to 100,000 in 2012, by the time the marchers reach Delhi. Their goal is to claim rights to lands that their families have worked and lived on for generations. Households have already been putting aside two handfuls of rice a week in preparation for the long walk.

Christian Aid supporters will be walking again this year to show their solidarity with the Indian marchers, this time from Arlingham, along the Severn

Way, to Gloucester Cathedral. Please contact the Bristol office for details of how you can get involved.

AROUND WALES

¡Viva Guatemala!

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF WALES has regularly punched above its weight in support of the work of Christian Aid through its five-yearly denominational appeal, with the Sierra Leone Appeal in 2007 achieving a magnificent total of £250,000.

For 2012 they have gone for Guatemala, with a ‘¡Viva Guatemala!’ appeal, looking at the work of six Christian Aid partners in the country.

Catrin Roberts, Christian Aid coordinator for the PCW, said: ‘Most of the churches know very little about the country and why Christian Aid is there.’

Guatemala is classed as a middleincome country, but with great inequality and some shocking statistics. Almost half the children under five are chronically malnourished (meaning they don’t have enough of the right food over a long period to develop healthily); around 25 per cent of the population don’t have enough to eat; three out of five people live on less than US$1 a day; and Guatemala’s murder rate is 10 times the world average.

Mari Fflur, head of communications for the PCW, went to Guatemala during the summer of 2011. She said: ‘We saw some fantastic work being done by organisations such as Bethania on dealing with malnutrition. But it was frustrating to witness the inequality.

Although Guatemala has wealth and potential, money and education opportunities aren’t reaching the people who most need them.’

Catrin added: ‘As well as raising funds, there is a strong emphasis on the importance of praying for the people and for the hope of a brighter future.’

An added bonus in the run-up to launching the appeal was the visit of Caja Lúdica, one of the partner organisations featured, to the Greenbelt festival last summer. ‘We took advantage of the visit and organised a number of pre-appeal meetings for the PCW churches in Wales,’ explained Mari.

Caja Lúdica is doing innovative work with youngsters on the harsh streets of Guatemala City, where life is rife with drugs and gangs. Using activities such as

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Caja Lúdica strut their stuff

drama, dance and circus skills, it helps to give youngsters a range of social and educational opportunities. ‘Having Caja Lúdicia here demonstrating what it does and talking about the way that lives have been changed was really helpful and made a great impression on those in the meetings,’ said Mari.

STAFF UPDATE THE WALES TEAM is pleased to welcome Moses Tutesigensi, our volunteer intern for 2011-12. Moses is a postgraduate student from Cardiff University and will be concentrating on working with church youth and student groups in Cardiff and southeast Wales. Moses recently returned from a visit to Sierra Leone. If you know of a group who would like to hear more about the work of Christian Aid, you can contact Moses on 029 2084 4646 or email Mtutesigensi@christian-aid.org

‘¡Viva Guatemala!’ runs throughout 2012 and the target set is £1 per member per month.

The Wales pages on the Christian Aid website will promote the appeal, and some of the appeal materials will also be available to download, from christianaid. org.uk/cymru Aled Pickard, who joined the Wales team as a volunteer development officer, has recently been appointed to the new post of youth coordinator for Wales. Aled will be working with youth organisations across Wales to raise awareness of Christian Aid’s work and to encourage young people to campaign and fundraise. Please get in touch with Aled if you would like more information about his work, or if you would like him to visit. He can be contacted on 029 2084 4646 or by email at apickard@ christian-aid.org

IN BRIEF

Happy new quiz OUR NEW PAPER QUIZ is winging its way to Christian Aid supporters in this new year. For just £1 you can put your knowledge to the test on the different areas and counties in your region. All you have to do is fill in the quiz, send it back to your local Christian Aid office along with your £1, then keep your fingers crossed!

One lucky person from each Christian Aid region will be named the winner and will receive a prize! If you would like to try your luck and take part in the all-new paper quiz, then please contact your local Christian Aid office to request a copy.

• Thank you to all who came on the Marches for Justice in October to support our partner Ekta Parishad in India, which is campaigning for land rights. Sponsorship received so far is £300 from Norwich, £2,000 from Bury St Edmunds and £2,000 from Malvern.

• In the run-up to Christian Aid Week, the West Midlands team will be picking up the phones then hitting the road! We are hoping to meet up with all our organisers for an informal chat and catch up, getting to know you better, and offering you the best support possible. From plant sales to street collections, however you organise support for Christian Aid Week, we’ll be in contact.

EVENTS IN CENTRAL ENGLAND

SUNDAY 29 JANUARY Loughborough Simple Sunday Lunch 1pm, Emmanuel Church, Forest Road, Loughborough LE11 3NW.

house collections, and creative ideas for new Christian Aid Week fundraising events.

Saturday 4 February 9.30-11.30am, Bakewell Methodist Church, Matlock Street, Bakewell DE45 1EL. Tuesday 7 February 5.30-7.30pm, St Andrew’s Church Hall, Countesthorpe.

Wednesday 8 February 6.30-8.30pm, Chilwell Road Methodist Church, Chilwell Road, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 1EH. Thursday 9 February 5.30-7.30pm, All Saints Coffee Bar, Gainsborough.

Saturday 11 February 9.30-11.30am, Mansfield Road Baptist Church, corner of Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 6JN. Thursday 16 February 6-8pm, The Old School Rooms, Rothley Parish Church, School Street, Rothley.

Thursday 16 February 5.30-7.30pm, Derby Broadway Baptist Church, 166 Broadway, Derby DE22 1BP. Saturday 18 February 9.30-11.30am, Grantham Baptist Church, Wharf Road, Grantham NG31 6BA. Saturday 18 February 9.30-11.30am, St Peter and St Paul Church, Healing.

SATURDAY 4 FEBRUARY – SATURDAY 18 FEBRUARY Thinking Outside the Envelope A series of events to inspire and help you prepare for Christian Aid Week 2012, including how to get the most out of house-to-

SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY Auction of Promises 7-9pm, Loughborough Baptist Church, Baxter Gate, Loughborough LE11 1TG. More than 50 lots are up for auction, in aid of Christian Aid,

FRIDAY 20 JANUARY – SUNDAY 22 JANUARY Midlands Volunteers’ Conference: Going Deeper – Deeper Knowledge, Deeper Understanding, Deeper Faith 6pm Friday – 4pm Sunday, Hothorpe Hall, Theddingworth, Leicestershire LE17 6QX. Join volunteers from around the region to share ideas and be re-energised and inspired by partner stories. The main speaker is David Pain, Christian Aid’s director of supporter and community partnerships. Cost: £165 for a single room or £130 if sharing. Discounted rates of £75 for the weekend are available for people aged between 18 and 25.

For more information, please contact Martin Gage on 01509 265013 or email mgage@ christian-aid.org EAST MIDLANDS SATURDAY 21 JANUARY Coffee morning 10am-12pm, Loughborough Baptist Church, Baxter Gate, Loughborough LE11 1TG.

including a run in a vintage car, tour of parliament with a local MP, a day in a narrow boat and an Indian head massage. Tickets: £5, including a Ploughman’s Supper. Available from the Loughborough Baptist Church or call the Loughborough Christian Aid office on 01509 265013.

SUNDAY 26 FEBRUARY Loughborough Simple Sunday Lunch 12.30pm, United Reformed Church, 39 Frederick Street, Loughborough LE11 3BH. TUESDAY 20 MARCH Tales and Experiences from Sierra Leone in its Fight Against Poverty 6.30-8pm, Derby Multifaith Centre, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, DE22 1GB. Hear from Christian Aid’s Mark Vyner, whose responsibilities include overseeing projects in Sierra Leone, and Catherine Garsed, youth and student intern for Christian Aid, who spent two weeks in Sierra Leone in October (see story opposite). Free event.

SUNDAY 25 MARCH Loughborough Simple Sunday Lunch 12.30pm, Friends @ Trinity Methodist Church, Royland Road, Loughborough LE11 2EH. SATURDAY 5 MAY – SUNDAY 6 MAY Annual Loughborough Canal and Boat Festival Every May Day weekend

since 1997, the Loughborough Canal and Boat Festival has taken place down the beautiful Loughborough canal. Hundreds of boats throng Loughborough’s waterway. This year Christian Aid will have a stall at this festival to tell our Christian Aid Week 2012 story, as well as interactive and visual displays.

Admission to the festival is free.

For more information, please visit the festival website, at loughboroughcanalfestival.co.uk/ WEST MIDLANDS SATURDAY 10 MARCH Photography exhibition Peace and Reconciliation Gallery, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry. Join us for a midday launch of a photography exhibition featuring the work of Christian Aid partner the Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA), which runs community activities and centres for children, young people and women in Gaza. For details, contact the Birmingham Christian Aid office on 0121 200 2283 or email birmingham@christian-aid.org EAST OF ENGLAND JANUARY/FEBRUARY Poverty Over Touring Exhibition Two new venues for this compelling exhibition and wonderful sculpture. For full details, contact eastengland@ christian-aid.org 13-26 January Peterborough Cathedral 3-16 February Norwich Cathedral

Christian Aid News 29

AROUND NORTH ENGLAND

From Genesis to Revelation in four days

The readathon goes strong

IT WAS A DULL Thursday night in March 2011 when a local ecumenical partnership in the north west met to discuss future plans. The group was struggling and needed an event to help revitalise it.

As one member comments, ‘We made the PCC meetings on the Vicar of Dibley look dynamic!’

Someone suggested a Bible readathon to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.

Someone else mentioned the Christian Aid partnership scheme, and pretty soon they had a plan. Linda Tiongco from Christian Aid gave a presentation about the partnership scheme, which further fired the group’s enthusiasm. Group member Michael Dearnley recalls: ‘One suggestion was to support the development of maternity care in rural Sierra Leone, which the Lytham Methodist Church had a connection with. We took on the Kailahun hospital project and made it our own.’

Over the next few months a Bible reading

marathon was organised. In the beginning was the Bishop of Lancaster reading Genesis on a Wednesday morning in October, while the final verses of Revelation were to be revealed the following Sunday morning.

All local churches and schools were approached, and the response was overwhelming. Pupils from two secondary schools and three primaries were allocated the more accessible parts of the Bible – no Chronicles, Leviticus or Numbers for them! Lytham St Annes High School hosted the Bishop of Blackburn; and students became engaged in reading circles. Lytham Church of England Primary had a four-hour ‘open house’ for the extended school family to join in with the children reading the Bible.

Veteran English footballer Jimmy Armfield was among parents, grandparents, local clergy and dignitaries taking part. The Lytham churches covered the evening-and-night sessions, and on Saturday night young people from all the churches came together to read, fuelled by pizza and fizzy drinks.

The readings took a total of 72 hours spread over four days and involved more than 500 adults and children from five churches, five schools and four denominations. Their efforts raised more than £5,000, triggering matched funding from the European Union and an eventual donation to the project in Sierra Leone of £20,000.

The ecumenical partnership has been thrilled with the response. The feeling of working together as an inter-denominational group, supported by the local staff of Christian Aid, has been amazing.

ONCE AND FOR ALL THIS EXCITING multimedia event, led by your local regional staff, shows what the world looks like through the eyes of some of the poorest people, and what we can each do to help those in poverty out of poverty.

Using powerful personal stories, stunning images, and beautiful, original songs, Once and For All reveals how our prayers, actions and donations are bringing hope and healing to those crippled by poverty all over the world. The show has lots of audience participation and equips us all to put our faith into action and work to eradicate extreme poverty once and for all.

Created by members of Christian Aid’s regional staff in response to calls from local supporters, clergy and churches, Once and For All can be used

28 Christian Aid News

to refresh and recruit Christian Aid Week collectors and to inform and inspire volunteers.

You can see Once and For All at the following places: Saturday 25 February 7-9.30pm, Millom Baptist Church, Millom LA18 4AG. Friday 20 April 7-9.30pm, St Cuthberts Church, Fulwood, Preston PR2 3AR. Thursday 26 April Methodist Church, Poynton SK12 1RB. Saturday 28 April, Chester To book Once and For All, contact your regional office with some dates, find a good venue, invite everyone you know, provide some refreshments and leave the rest to us. For details, contact warrington@christian-aid.org or 01925 573769.

PAPER QUIZZES After the success of the regional paper quizzes last year, we are producing them again for Christian Aid Week 2012. If you would like us to send you some for your churches please contact your local office.

You can also download quizzes from our Christian Aid Week website, caweek.org

GET SET FOR CHRISTIAN AID WEEK Are you looking to get more collectors? Would you like a speaker to visit your congregation or group to encourage potential collectors? We can help! Please contact your local office: newcastle@ christian-aid.org or warrington@ christian-aid.org or leeds@christianaid.org

TESCO COLLECTIONS AUTUMN 2012 Tesco have a national booking system for charity collection. If you want to book one for autumn 2012 and spring 2013, please contact your local office.

We can also help with contacting other supermarkets if you’d like us to.

EVENTS IN NORTH ENGLAND MONDAY 16 JANUARY Hebden Royd AGM 6.30pm at Crown Fisheries for fish and chips. Contact: stuartnbrenda68@talktalk.net or 01422 883838.

FRIDAY 27 JANUARY – SATURDAY 28 JANUARY Sponsored snooker marathon Westborough Methodist Church, Scarborough.

There will be a coffee morning on the Saturday from 10am-12 noon. For more details, contact David Bridge on 01723 362091 or email davidgarnerbridge@googlemail. com SATURDAY 4 FEBRUARY – SATURDAY 10 MARCH What a Difference a Week Makes roadshows Feeling like you need a boost to get going for Christian Aid Week 2012? Come and meet others who feel the same and be inspired, encouraged and excited about our work in Sierra Leone as we prepare for Christian Aid Week 2012. There will be soup and sandwiches to start the evening events and end the morning ones.

Cheshire/Wirral Saturday 4 February 10am-2pm, Bold St Methodist Church, Warrington WA1 1JQ. Tuesday 7 February 6-9pm, St Mary’s Church, Alsager ST7 2EW. Wednesday 8 February 6-9pm, St David’s URC, Eastham CH62 9DG. Thursday 9 February 6-9pm, Knutsford Methodist Church, WA16 6BY. Cumbria Thursday 23 February 6-9pm, St John the Evangelist, Carlisle CA1 2JZ. Friday 24 February 6-9pm, St John’s Church, Workington CA14 3AX. Saturday 25 February 6-9pm, Sandylands Methodist Church, LA9 6EU. Lancashire Tuesday 28 February 6.30-9.30pm, St Martin’s/St Hilda’s Church Hall, Poulton-leFylde FY6 7NL. Wednesday 29 February 6-9pm, Euxton Methodist Church, Chorley PR7 6LP.

Thursday 1 March 6-9pm, St Bartholomew Church, Colne BB8 9BN. Liverpool Tuesday 6 March 6-9pm, Garston Park United Church, L19 1QL. Thursday 8 March 6-9pm, Waterloo United Free Church, Crosby L22 0LQ. Manchester Wednesday 7 March 6-9pm, St Margaret’s Church, Prestwich M25 2QB. Saturday 10 March 10am-2pm, Mossley Methodist Church, OL5 0EX.

members of Churches Together in Frodsham as they show off their musical and acting skills.

Contact Chris Wilding on 01928 733680.

SATURDAY 11 FEBRUARY Manchester Sponsored Abseil Experience Enjoy the thrill of abseiling 160ft from Manchester’s Renaissance Hotel and enjoy awesome views over the city. To take part, simply register for £15 and agree to raise a minimum of £60 sponsorship per person.

For further information, email events@christian-aid.org or tel 01925 582825.

WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH South Cliff Churches’ coffee morning 10.30am–12 noon, Ambassador Hotel, The Esplanade, Scarborough. Lots of stalls, raffle and tombola. Contact Jean Glover on 01723 863116.

MONDAY 13 FEBRUARY Rochdale education evening 7.30pm, St Andrews Church, Rochdale OL16 1HE. Be inspired by the Christian Aid Week stories, from Jessica Durham, who visited the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone, and other partners featured in Christian Aid Week 2012.

SUNDAY 26 FEBRUARY Newcastle sponsored abseil Don’t miss your chance to marvel at the views over the Toon and join us for a 200ft abseil from Newcastle’s Vermont Hotel – reputed to be the north east’s highest charity abseil challenge. To take part, simply register for £15 and agree to raise a minimum of £60 sponsorship per person. For further information email events@christian-aid.org or tel 01925 582825.

SATURDAY 3 MARCH Sing for your Supper 7pm, Parish Hall, Church Street, Frodsham, Cheshire.

Enjoy an evening of entertainment, food and fun with

POVERTY OVER TOUR Continuing its journey around Britain, the touring exhibition is aimed at provoking debate about how Christians can best meet the demands of their faith by challenging poverty around the world. The exhibition features a stunning sculpture of enamel and steel by artist Mel Howse. Visitors to the cathedral will be invited to reflect upon the nature of poverty.

SATURDAY 10 MARCH Cheshire swimathon 6-8pm, Crewe Swimming Baths, Flag Lane, Crewe.

Bring yourself or bring a team – how many lengths can you swim in one hour? Last year they raised more than £2,000. For details, contact Malcolm Crook on 01270 662077 or email m.h.crook@his.keele.ac.uk

MONDAY 19 MARCH North West volunteer training day Ever been asked to talk about Christian Aid in your church or to a local group and want to know what to say? We can help! Join us for the day when we will focus on Christian Aid Week resources for volunteers who go into schools, speak in their churches or visit local groups and organisations. Contact Becky Hurst at bhurst@christian-aid. org or tel 01925 573769.

SATURDAY 31 MARCH An evening of music by the Highside Singers 7.30pm, Kirkby Malzeard Mechanics Institute, Kirkby Malzeard, Yorkshire. For more information, contact susan_ ant1917@hotmail.co.uk SUNDAY 8 APRIL – MONDAY 9 APRIL 47th Halifax Long March 10pm–9am, Calderdale.

A marathon-length sponsored night hike. For more information and to register, visit longmarch. org.uk or contact the Leeds office on leeds@christian-aid.org TUESDAY 17 APRIL Penistone open evening.

Looking at Christian Aid Week and Sierra Leone. Contact Rev

Newcastle office reloca tion We will be completing office reloca our tio so please be n during January, ar with us du ring this busy time.

We look fo rward to inviting yo u to visit ou r new offic once we ar es e settled. Fo postal addr r now our ess will rem ai n the same: 42-44 Mosle y Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1DF. For further informat contact new ion, please castle@ christian-ai d.org Antony Tomlinson at revantony@ aol.com or tel 01226 764868.

SATURDAY 21 APRIL Christian Aid Evensong service 5.15pm, York Minster.

Guest speaker Inderjit Bhogal (from Corrymeela). For more details, contact christianaid york@googlemail.com MONDAY 7 MAY Sheffield May Day trek 9.30am, Bolsterstone Village Hall.

A 5-, 10- or 15-mile sponsored walk on the edge of the Peak District. For more information and to register, visit sheffieldmaydaytrek.org.uk or contact the Leeds office.

SATURDAY 12 MAY Humber Bridge Cross sponsored walk 2pm.

For more information contact gilldalby@gilldalby.karoo.co.uk SATURDAY 7 JULY Sheffield night hike 8pm, St Luke’s Lodge Moor.

A 17-mile night hike out into the Peak District. For more information and to register, visit sheffieldnighthike.org.uk or contact the Leeds office.

Christian Aid North East can provide articles for church newsletters or pew sheets. We aim to produce regular articles on themes relating to our work, such as information about a forthcoming regional event or an analysis of current issues affecting people living in poverty.

There is no obligation to use any article in your church publication. To sign up for this free service please contact the Newcastle office at newcastle@ christian-aid.org If you would like us to include your event in the next edition of Christian Aid News, please contact your local office.

Thursday 16 February – Wednesday 29 February Durham Cathedral, DE1 3EH. Friday 2 March – Thursday 15 March Carlisle Cathedral, CA3 8TZ. Friday 16 March – Thursday 29 March Blackburn Cathedral, BB1 5AA. There will be associated events throughout the exhibition. Please contact the Newcastle and Warrington offices for further details.

Christian Aid News 29

EVENTS IN SCOTLAND FRIDAY 27 JANUARY Poverty Over Burns Supper 7pm–1am, Partick Thistle FC, Firhill Stadium, Firhill Road, Glasgow.

Celebrate the life and work of Robert Burns with the Christian Aid Scotland Team at their Poverty Over Burns Supper.

Includes a delicious threecourse meal, followed by a ceilidh into the small hours.

Tickets £25 per person. And if you can’t join this Burns Supper why not hold your own? Visit christianaid.org.uk/burnssupper or call Amy on 0141 221 7475.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY Eco-congregations and Christian Aid climate roadshows Tuesday 17 January 6.45pm for 7pm start, Falkirk Old and St Modan’s Parish Church, Manse Place, Falkirk FK1 1JN. Further information from dgreen@christian-aid.org or 0141 221 7475.

Tuesday 21 February 7pm (tbc), St George’s Church of Scotland Church Hall, 50 George Street, Dumfries DG1 1EJ. Contextual Bible Studies Tuesday 24 January 7-9pm, Cathcart Baptist Church Thursday 16 February 7-9pm, New Kilpatrick Call Wendy Young for more information on 0141 221 7475.

For full info on any of the above, call Val Brown on 0141 221 7475.

With World Mission Council: Israel and occupied Palestinian territory (IOPT) evenings Wednesday 1 February 7-9pm, Gorbals Parish Church, Glasgow.

Thursday 9 February 7-9pm, Dornoch Cathedral.

Christian Aid roadshows Wednesday 7 March 7-9pm, Abbotsford Church, Clydebank, G81 1PA.

NEW GLASGOW OFFICE

IN DECEMBER, the Glasgow office relocated to 290 Bath

Wednesday 21 March 7-9pm, Stobswell Church, 172 Albert Street, DD4 6QW. Thursday 22 March 7-9pm, Portobello Old Parish, Bellfield Street, EH15 2BP. TUESDAY 28 FEBRUARY Guardian film screening – Trade: The Flower Industry In Kenya 7pm, The Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.

Guardian film in partnership with Christian Aid, followed by panel discussion and Q&A. SATURDAY 21 APRIL Tay Bridge Cross Walk 2pm, Dundee and Newport-onTay. Christian Aid’s annual Tay Bridge sponsored walk. For more details, visit christianaid. org.uk/walks or call Amy on 0141 221 7475.

SATURDAY 28 APRIL Forth Bridge Cross Walk 1pm, North and South Queensferry.

Come along to the 40th birthday celebration for the Forth Bridge Cross. Entertainment will commence at 1pm, with the walk starting at 2pm. For more details, visit christianaid.org.uk/ walks or call Amy, as above.

SATURDAY 5 MAY Erskine Bridge Cross Walk 2pm, Erskine and Old Kilpatrick Join the 25th anniversary of the Erskine Bridge Cross.

For more details, visit christianaid.org.uk/walks or call Amy, as above.

SATURDAY 16 JUNE Cumbrae Challenge 10am, Cumbrae.

Walk, run or cycle 10 miles around the beautiful Isle of Cumbrae to support Christian Aid. For more details, visit christianaid.org.uk/walks or call Amy, as above.

Street, Glasgow G2 4JR. This move provides the Glasgow team with a bit more space and is saving Christian Aid a considerable amount of money each year. Our phone number (0141 221 7475) will stay the same and there will be a redirection on our post for the foreseeable future. We will be holding an ‘open office’ event on 18 January 2012, between 5pm and 7pm. All are welcome to come along to meet staff and see our new premises.

Scottish Churches funding HIV work in Malawi LONGNIDDRY CHURCH recently hosted ‘The Gentlemen’s Saturday Baking Society’, raising money for Christian Aid partner FOCUS in Malawi. This is just one of many activities Longniddry and Gladmuir churches have arranged in order to reach the £5,000 partnership target over two years, which is match-funded 1:9 by the Scottish government’s international development fund.

Glasgow West End Churches Together, and Trinity and Stobswell churches in Dundee are also working creatively towards the same target. In total, with match-funding, £200,000 will be raised for the work of FOCUS. FOCUS seeks to reduce the transmission of HIV and supports those living with the virus in the Karonga area of Malawi.

If you think your church and community might be interested in getting involved with a match-funded partnership, please get in touch with Wendy Young on 0141 221 7475 or wyoung@ christian-aid.org Longniddry’s gentlemen bakers

OVERSEAS VISITS AT CHRISTIAN AID, we are all about partnerships and shared learning. So we were delighted to have Dr Singha, from DSK, one of our partners in Bangladesh, with us over the Harvest period to talk about the impact of climate change, with supporters around the country. Thank you to everyone who made him feel welcome during his stay in Scotland. Emma Dalrymple, our new intern, has recently come back from a visit to Sierra Leone, where she was able to find out more about our work and partnerships there.

BIG THANKS to the winner of the Falkirk Herald’s ‘Voice’ competition, teenager Colet Selwyn, who is in the process of making a solo album and donating all the proceeds to Christian Aid. Colet and his family, who make up the Sunbeam Singers, also recently performed a gospel music concert in Larbert, alongside quartet Con Brio, to raise funds for Christian Aid and The Leprosy Mission.

Christian Aid News 29

AROUND THE SOUTH EAST Regional news and events in Beds, Berks, Bucks, Herts and Oxon

Christian Aid/Max Khanna

Introducing... your regional team

Members of the regional team, from left: Sarah, Hannah, Abi, Jess and Steve.

HERE IN THE OXFORD OFFICE we are passionate about the work of Christian Aid and love the opportunity to speak to church congregations, Christian Aid groups or anyone else! We thought you might like to know who’s who.

Jenny Ayres has worked for Christian Aid for more than 10 years and has just returned as regional manager after maternity leave. She oversees the work and direction of the team.

Sarah Clay is a regional coordinator leading our work with young people and specialist volunteers. She has visited partner organisations in the Philippines.

Amy Merone is a regional coordinator leading on media and campaigns work.

She has visited partners in Tajikistan, Kenya and Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, and is currently studying for an MA in development and emergency practice.

Jessica Hall is a regional coordinator working with Christian Aid groups and churches, and has travelled to Brazil with Christian Aid. A talented singer/ songwriter, Jess has just released her first recording.

Abi Knowles is a regional coordinator, who came to Oxford last year after an internship with Christian Aid. She leads on our events fundraising and supports churches and groups in the region. As an intern, Abi visited projects in Kenya.

Steve Johnson has recently joined the team as a regional coordinator, leading on our work with churches. He joins us from the Church Mission Society.

Jennie Williams is our volunteer intern for 2011/2012, who started after graduating from Oxford University. She works with young people and students, and has recently returned from Sierra Leone, where she visited partners for Christian Aid Week 2012.

Hannah Roberts, our regional administrator, is the friendly voice on the phone when you call us. In her spare time, Hannah is an assistant leader for her local Girl Guide group.

If you would like to arrange for one of us to come and speak at your church, committee or event, please get in touch on 01865 246818 or email oxford@ christian-aid.org

EVENTS SATURDAY 10 MARCH Hatfield sponsored abseil Enjoy spectacular views over the beautiful Hatfield House and the Hertfordshire countryside as you become one of the first ever to abseil down the 15th century tower of St Etheldreda’s Church.

For details, contact Cat Goldson on 020 7523 2077 or email cgoldson@christian-aid.org THURSDAY 15 MARCH – THURSDAY 22 MARCH Hope in the Rubble: Stories from Haiti Join us for a series of events featuring Aldrin Calixte, the director of Haiti Survie, a Christian Aid partner that is playing a vital role working with communities to help them

28 Christian Aid News

rebuild their lives. Come along and get inspired as you start to prepare for Christian Aid Week.

Includes a light supper. Please let us know if you wish to attend.

For details, contact 01865 246818 or oxford@christian-aid.org Thursday 15 March 7.30-9.30pm, Marlborough Road Methodist Church, Banbury OX16 5BZ. Saturday 17 March 6.30-8.30pm, Dedworth Green Baptist Church, Windsor SL4 5PE. Monday 19 March 7-9pm, St Francis Church, Welwyn Garden City AL8 6HH. Tuesday 20 March 7-9pm, Aylesbury Methodist Church, HP20 2NQ. Wednesday 21 March 7-9pm, Priory Methodist Church,

Bedford MK41 9QJ Thursday 22 March 7-9pm, Stopsley Baptist Church, Luton LU2 7XP.

GIVE POVERTY THE BOOT AND JOIN A SPONSORED WALK!

SATURDAY 17 MARCH March for Justice curry evening 7.30-9.30pm, Trinity Church, Conduit Road, Abingdon OX14 1DB. Join us for curry and hear about the year-long March for Justice in India, being organised by Ekta Parishad, a Christian Aid partner organisation that supports poor communities in their pursuit for land rights and justice. We will be joined by our international director, Paul Valentin, who has met marchers in India.

To book, contact Amy Merone, as before.

SATURDAY 12 MAY The Christian Aid Walk Starting from The Chauncy School, Ware, Herts.

SATURDAY 19 MAY Walk the Country Starting from Bix village hall, Bix, Oxon.

To register for these events, or find out more about Christian Aid’s sponsored walks, go to christianaid.org.uk/walks or contact Jess Hall on 01865 246818 or jhall@ christian-aid.org

Regional news and events in London, Essex, Surrey, Kent and Sussex

Cryptic Christian Aid Week Quiz LOOKING FOR A SIMPLE, fun way to raise more money in or around Christian Aid Week? Ask us for the Cryptic Places Paper Quiz – 25 cryptic clues to places in London and the southeast. We can send it or email it to you, then you photocopy it and sell it to people for a minimum donation of £1. Completed quizzes are sent to us and we choose one lucky winner, who will receive a goody bag of delicious Fairtrade food. If you’d like quizzes to sell, phone us on 020 7523 2321 or email LSE@christian-aid.org To whet your appetite, try working out which place in London this is – ‘scratch produced by fleece’.

THE LONDON AND SOUTH EAST TEAM If you live in London, Essex, Kent, Surrey or Sussex, then our team is here to help you and your church give, act and pray on behalf of Christian Aid. If you’d like a speaker, some resources or just a chat about how to get more involved with Christian Aid, then give us a ring on 020 7523 2321 (for London and Surrey) or 020 7523 2105 (for Essex, Kent and Sussex) or email us at LSE@christianaid.org

EVENTS THURSDAY 26 JANUARY Annual supporters’ evening 2-4.30pm or 6-8.30pm, InterChurch House, 35-41 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7RL. A great opportunity to find out more about Christian Aid Week 2012 materials, meet other volunteers and hear about our emergency work. We are running the session twice, in the afternoon and again in the evening. Please bring as many others involved in Christian Aid Week in your area as you can.

FRIDAY 9 MARCH Justice and Joy: a Day of Reflection on Isaiah 58 10am-4.15pm, Bore Place, Chiddingstone, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 7AR. Join Christian Aid staff and supporters on a ‘retreat’, taking time to consider what Isaiah 58 means for us personally, locally and internationally. We’ll also be joined by Aldrin Calixte, the director of Christian Aid partner Haiti Survie. Bore Place is the home of Commonwork, an organisation that works for sustainable global citizenship through education and practical activities. Cost: £15, including lunch. Places are limited, so book early.

SATURDAY 10 MARCH One Vision, One Voice: a Christian Aid Supporters’ Day 11am-7pm, Haywards Heath Methodist Church, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DN. Join Christian Aid supporters, staff and a partner from Haiti for a day of inspiration, with worship and workshops, including: the theology of development, updates on Haiti and east Africa, campaigning on tax and climate change, how to hold fundraising events, getting young people involved in justice, and stories from Sierra Leone. Tickets: £10 including buffet lunch and fish-and-chips supper.

THURSDAY 15 MARCH Hastings fish-and-chips supper 7pm, St Leonard’s Church, 66-68 Marina, St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings TN38 0BE. A chance to meet other Christian Aid supporters, share new ideas and be inspired as we prepare for Christian Aid Week 2012. All are welcome; please invite your

church, friends and family to join us. Price: £5.

THURSDAY 22 MARCH Changing the World through Campaigning and Lobbying 5.30-9pm, Inter-Church House, 35-41 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7RL. Are you passionate about seeing an end to poverty? Do you want to find out more about our climate change and tax campaigns, and learn to lobby your MP more effectively? Then this workshop is for you! Light refreshments will be available.

THURSDAY 22 MARCH Pinner general knowledge quiz 7.30pm, Cannon Lane Methodist Church, Cannon Lane, Pinner HA5 1JD. Test your brain power, chat with friends and hear stories of Christian Aid’s work. Tickets: £3, all proceeds to Christian Aid. SATURDAY 24 MARCH Sponsored abseil Leatherhead, Surrey.

The 15th century tower of St Mary and St Nicholas Church in Leatherhead has been used as a school, a fire station and now… an abseiling venue! Don’t miss the chance to be one of the first ever to abseil down this historic building. You’ll have stunning views over Leatherhead, across to Box Hill and Dorking.

Simply register online now at christianaid.org.uk/abseil – just pay £15 to sign up and commit to raising a minimum of £60 in sponsorship for Christian Aid. SATURDAY 24 MARCH Halstead Cream Tea 2-4pm, Halstead United Reformed Church, Kings Road, Halstead, Essex CO9 1HJ. Join us for a traditional cream tea with a global twist! Hear stories of hope from around the world, see the Christian Aid Week 2012 resources and share ideas for inspiring others to give, act and pray.

SUNDAY 25 MARCH The Wilberforce Oak Walk 2pm, Keston Parish Church, Church Road, Keston, Kent BR2 6HT. Join us for a delightful ramble to the Wilberforce Oak where, as William Wilberforce wrote in his diary, ‘…just above the steep

descent into the vale of Keston, I resolved to give notice on a fit occasion in the House of Commons of my intention to bring forward the abolition of the slave-trade’. Afterwards there will be refreshments and a short talk from staff who have visited Sierra Leone, as well as an opportunity to see Christian Aid Week 2012 resources.

TUESDAY 27 MARCH Stories from the South 7-9pm, Folkestone Methodist Church, 153-155 Sandgate Road, Folkestone, Kent CT20 2DA. Join us for tea and cake and an evening of conversation as we share inspiring stories from Christian Aid’s partners and think creatively about how we can engage others in Christian Aid Week 2012.

FRIDAY 30 MARCH Denmans Garden Tour and Cream Tea 2pm, Denmans Garden, Denmans Lane, Fontwell, West Sussex BN18 0SU. An afternoon with Christian Aid at the beautiful Denmans Garden. While enjoying scones and cream, you will be inspired by stories about Christian Aid partners and hear how your community can get involved.

Tickets £5 (including cream tea).

Pre-booking essential.

SUNDAY 20 MAY Circle the City sponsored walk – 15th anniversary Last year almost 400 walkers visited 15 beautiful historic churches around the City of London, enjoying face painting and circus performers as well as interactive exhibitions about some of Christian Aid’s partners.

So far, the total raised from Circle the City 2011 stands at a whopping £33,000 and we want 2012 to be even better. We’re partnering with Pentecost Festival to make this a day to remember. Sign up online at christianaid.org.uk/walks to receive your free sponsorship guide and information pack.

For more information about any of these events, or to book places, please contact LSE@christian-aid.org or phone 020 7523 2321/2105.

Other events are being planned across the region so do get in touch to find your nearest one.

Christian Aid News 29

AROUND THE SOUTH AND WEST

Partnerships, pancakes and a hairy vicar

A GROWING NUMBER of churches across the south and west have been making good use of our partnership scheme (which is match-funded by the European Union), to raise money for projects, and they have used some very imaginative methods to raise it.

Last year supporters, churches and schools from Brixham, Churston, Galmpton and Kingswear in south Devon signed up to a partnership with a project in Burkina Faso. They pledged to raise £5,000, knowing that through EU funding this would be multiplied five times. They held a variety of fundraising

events, and raised more than £7,000, meaning the project received more than £35,500! They organised carol singing and choir singing, held a cream tea for the royal wedding, had ‘nibbles and noggins’ by the Dart, staged a beetle drive, set up an antiques roadshow, took part in sponsored silences and arranged cake sales and coffee mornings. Star billing went to Kingswear’s ‘hairy biker’ vicar, Rev Ian Blyde (pictured above), who had his beard shaved for the cause.

The Christian Aid group in Cheltenham is on course to reach its target in a partnership with the Zim Pro

project in Zimbabwe. The group began by selling pancakes at its AGM and has organised two fairs – each raising more than £1,200 – and a supermarket collection.

Horfield Parish Church in Bristol first looked into taking part in the partnership scheme a year ago and has already passed its £5,000 target. Bobby Brown, who coordinated the church’s involvement along with Judith Claypole, says: ‘It’s wonderful. It has a momentum of its own. The whole congregation really took it to their hearts.’

Fundraising initiatives included collecting iron to sell to a local scrap yard and a bluebell walk, which was so popular that the church has now set up a new walking club. The biggest event was a promises auction, which raised £2,700. Horfield supported two projects in Sierra Leone through the scheme, helping to bring good food and clean water to thousands of people. The matching funds from the EU made their £5,000 gift worth well over £20,000.

If you would like to find out more about taking up the challenge with your church, school or other group, contact Max Khanna on 020 8123 7523 or email partnershipscheme@christian-aid.org

JOIN THE MARCH FOR JUSTICE FORTY CHRISTIAN AID supporters braved the hottest October day ever recorded to walk 13 miles between Tewkesbury Abbey and Gloucester Cathedral, along the Severn Way, in support of thousands of dalit and tribal people who are marching in India for their land rights.

Access to land is vital in helping the poorest communities support their own livelihoods. Christian Aid partner Ekta Parishad is organising a year-long march of dalit and tribal people (see

28 Christian Aid News

page 10). Starting with 1,000 marchers leaving from Orissa, this will grow to 100,000 in 2012, by the time the marchers reach Delhi. Their goal is to claim rights to lands that their families have worked and lived on for generations. Households have already been putting aside two handfuls of rice a week in preparation for the long walk.

Christian Aid supporters will be walking again this year to show their solidarity with the Indian marchers, this time from Arlingham, along the Severn

Way, to Gloucester Cathedral. Please contact the Bristol office for details of how you can get involved.

EVENTS IN THE SOUTH AND WEST SATURDAY 21 JANUARY Global Aware Conference 9.30am-4pm, Broadmead Baptist Church, Union Street, Bristol.

To empower God’s people to take action against poverty and climate change. Speakers: Roger Forster (Chair of Evangelical Alliance) and Helen Stawski (Archbishop of Canterbury’s international development programme officer). For details, contact west@christian-aid.org or 01454 415923.

THURSDAY 15 MARCH 2012 Hunger for Justice day conference 9.15am-4.30pm (Doors open 8.45am), Manvers Street Baptist Church, Bath.

Speakers: Rev Joel Edwards and Aldrin Calixte, as above.

Worship: Liz Baddeley (The Sanctuary). Workshops and drop-in sessions. Book online at hungerforjustice.eventbrite.com or contact west@christian-aid. org or 01454 415923.

SUNDAY 22 JANUARY Loretta Minghella talk 6pm, St John the Baptist Parish Church, Market Place, Cirencester. The director of Christian Aid is the keynote speaker at the Churches Together in Cirencester service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Refreshments follow the service. For details, contact west@christian-aid.org or 01454 415923.

TUESDAY 27 MARCH Cheltenham Christian Aid AGM 7.30pm, St Mark’s Methodist Church, Gloucester Road, Cheltenham.

Speaker: Mike Secker (Christian Aid West student and youth worker) on Sierra Leone.

For details, contact west@christian-aid.org or 01454 415923.

FRIDAY 10 FEBRUARY Salisbury Quiz Aid Quiz Night for Christian Aid, run

by St Thomas’ Church in Salisbury. Tables of six people.

For details, contact saint. thomas@btinternet.com or 01722 322537.

TUESDAY 14 FEBRUARY Exeter Valentine’s Abseil St Thomas the Apostle Church, Cowick Street, Exeter.

Make your heart beat faster with a Valentine’s Day abseil, 80 feet down the church tower.

For details, contact hwilson@ christian-aid.org or 01395 222308.

WEDNESDAY 29 FEBRUARY Dorset Coast Abseil St Mary’s Church, Church Hill, Swanage.

An abseil 100 feet down the church tower. For details, contact hwilson@christian-aid.org or 01395 222308.

WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2012 Hunger for Justice evening celebration 7.30–9.15pm (Doors open 6.15pm), Manvers Street Baptist Church, Bath.

Speakers: Rev Joel Edwards (international director, Micah Challenge) and Aldrin Calixte (Christian Aid partner Haiti Survie). Worship: Renewal Gospel Choir. Book online at hungerforjustice.eventbrite.com or contact west@christian-aid. org or 01454 415923.

SUNDAY 13 MAY – SATURDAY 19 MAY 2012 Christian Aid Week For resources and support, contact your local Christian Aid office.

YOUR LOCAL OFFICE BRISTOL OFFICE (Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire) 57 High Street, Thornbury, Bristol BS35 2AP. 01454 415923 west@christian-aid.org facebook.com/ ChristianAidWest SOUTHAMPTON OFFICE (Channel Isles, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight) Isaac Watts Memorial Church Winchester Road Southampton SO16 6TS 023 8070 6969 southwest@christian-aid.org • We are on the ground floor with easy access and plenty of parking so do pop in to see us (please phone beforehand).

BETTER TOGETHER Our South West team is bringing its Better Together Tour to the doorsteps of supporters in the region again this year. The events will be full of real-life stories, music and images from across the world.

Come and be informed and inspired, encouraged and equipped, to put your faith into action at your nearest presentation. To find out more details of times and venues, contact our Southampton office: southwest@christianaid.org or 02380 706969.

Thursday 9 February Pilgrim URC, Plymouth Saturday 11 February Richmond Hill St Andrews URC, Bournemouth Tuesday 21 February Axminster, Devon Wednesday 22 February St Agnes Friday 24 February Lent lunch in Dawlish Tuesday 6 March Barnfield Theatre, Exeter

Tuesday 31 January Ottery St Mary Thursday 2 February Afternoon workshop, Brixham Friday 3 February Afternoon workshop, Totnes Monday 6 February Penzance Tuesday 7 February Bideford Baptist Church

Christian Aid News 29

AROUND WALES

¡Viva Guatemala!

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF WALES has regularly punched above its weight in support of the work of Christian Aid through its five-yearly denominational appeal, with the Sierra Leone Appeal in 2007 achieving a magnificent total of £250,000.

For 2012 they have gone for Guatemala, with a ‘¡Viva Guatemala!’ appeal, looking at the work of six Christian Aid partners in the country.

Catrin Roberts, Christian Aid coordinator for the PCW, said: ‘Most of the churches know very little about the country and why Christian Aid is there.’

Guatemala is classed as a middleincome country, but with great inequality and some shocking statistics. Almost half the children under five are chronically malnourished (meaning they don’t have enough of the right food over a long period to develop healthily); around 25 per cent of the population don’t have enough to eat; three out of five people live on less than US$1 a day; and Guatemala’s murder rate is 10 times the world average.

Mari Fflur, head of communications for the PCW, went to Guatemala during the summer of 2011. She said: ‘We saw some fantastic work being done by organisations such as Bethania on dealing with malnutrition. But it was frustrating to witness the inequality.

Although Guatemala has wealth and potential, money and education opportunities aren’t reaching the people who most need them.’

Catrin added: ‘As well as raising funds, there is a strong emphasis on the importance of praying for the people and for the hope of a brighter future.’

An added bonus in the run-up to launching the appeal was the visit of Caja Lúdica, one of the partner organisations featured, to the Greenbelt festival last summer. ‘We took advantage of the visit and organised a number of pre-appeal meetings for the PCW churches in Wales,’ explained Mari.

Caja Lúdica is doing innovative work with youngsters on the harsh streets of Guatemala City, where life is rife with drugs and gangs. Using activities such as

28 Christian Aid News

Caja Lúdica strut their stuff

drama, dance and circus skills, it helps to give youngsters a range of social and educational opportunities. ‘Having Caja Lúdicia here demonstrating what it does and talking about the way that lives have been changed was really helpful and made a great impression on those in the meetings,’ said Mari.

STAFF UPDATE THE WALES TEAM is pleased to welcome Moses Tutesigensi, our volunteer intern for 2011-12. Moses is a postgraduate student from Cardiff University and will be concentrating on working with church youth and student groups in Cardiff and southeast Wales. Moses recently returned from a visit to Sierra Leone. If you know of a group who would like to hear more about the work of Christian Aid, you can contact Moses on 029 2084 4646 or email Mtutesigensi@christian-aid.org

‘¡Viva Guatemala!’ runs throughout 2012 and the target set is £1 per member per month.

The Wales pages on the Christian Aid website will promote the appeal, and some of the appeal materials will also be available to download, from christianaid. org.uk/cymru Aled Pickard, who joined the Wales team as a volunteer development officer, has recently been appointed to the new post of youth coordinator for Wales. Aled will be working with youth organisations across Wales to raise awareness of Christian Aid’s work and to encourage young people to campaign and fundraise. Please get in touch with Aled if you would like more information about his work, or if you would like him to visit. He can be contacted on 029 2084 4646 or by email at apickard@ christian-aid.org

PUDS DO GOOD After-pud entertainment

LIKE MANY OTHERS throughout Wales, Manon Elin and Enlli Lewis, students at Ysgol Bro Myrddin, Carmarthen, saw the pictures of drought and famine in east Africa on the television, and were determined to do

something to help. They came up with a pudding evening with entertainment (Paned a Phwdin), in Penygraig Chapel, near Carmarthen, with proceeds going to the Christian Aid East Africa Appeal.

About 60 people crowded into the chapel schoolroom on Friday 2 September, eager to taste a wide range of puddings, from fairy cakes to cheesecakes. When everyone had enjoyed at least one, they were entertained by the Fflur Dafydd a’r Barf band, which gave a wonderful acoustic performance. Also present was Tom Davies, the Christian Aid coordinator for West Wales, and he talked about

NO SHOES NOVEMBER! NOVEMBER WOULDN’T BE anyone’s ideal time for not wearing shoes. But Simon Dalton from Cardiff set aside all footwear that month to raise awareness of the millions of people around the world who cannot afford enough food or basic sanitation, let alone the plethora of shoes owned by most of us in the western world. Simon also

how the money raised would help. Proceeds on the night totalled £600, but with the help of Barclays’ ‘pound for pound’ scheme, the final total came to £1,200.

Manon and Enlli were grateful for the help they received: ‘As well as good local support on the evening, all the raffle prizes were supplied by local businesses and Fflur Dafydd a’r Barf performed for free.

‘We were inspired by a sad situation, but this wasn’t a sad evening. It was a night of enjoyment as people had the opportunity to contribute and do something. We’re already thinking about organising another night.’

EICH SWYDDFA LEOL – YOUR LOCAL OFFICE BANGOR (Gogledd Cymru/ North Wales) 106 Stryd Fawr, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 1NS. Tel/Ffôn: 01248 353574 bangor@christian-aid.org CAERFYRDDIN/CARMARTHEN (De Orllewin a’r Canolbarth/ South West and Mid Wales) 75 Heol Dwr, Caerfyrddin/ Carmarthen SA31 1PY. Tel/Ffôn: 01267 237257 carmarthen@christian-aid.org CAERDYDD/CARDIFF (Cenedlaethol/National Office) 5 Station Road, Radyr, Caerdydd/Cardiff CF15 8AA. Tel/Ffôn: 029 2084 4646 cardiff@christian-aid.org

decided that he would use the event, entitled No Shoes November, to raise funds for the work of Christian Aid. ‘It was an interesting experience,’ he said, ‘and I got a few stares as I walked around. But I tried to carry on as normal as possible, including going to a gig and a fireworks display barefoot.’

Some of Simon’s friends joined him for a day or two, and he organised a flash mob in Cardiff (right) with around 30 people. Simon surpassed his target of £500, raising more than £2,200.

EVENTS IN WALES DIGWYDDIADAU YNG NGHYMRU SUL 15 IONAWR ¡Viva Guatemala! – Apêl Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru Capel Tegid, Y Bala am 6 yr hwyr.

Yng nghwmni Anna Jane Evans, Cymorth Cristnogol.

IAU 19 IONAWR ¡Viva Guatemala! – Apêl Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru Capel Seilo, Pengorffwysfa, Ynys Môn am 7 yr hwyr.

Yng nghwmni Anna Jane Evans, Cymorth Cristnogol.

SUL 22 IONAWR ¡Viva Guatemala! – Apêl Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru Cyfarfod i’r teulu yng nghapel Gosen, Llangwyllog, Ynys Môn am 10 y bore.

Yng nghwmni Anna Jane Evans, Cymorth Cristnogol.

WEDNESDAY 25 JANUARY Cardiff Christian Aid Organisers’ and Supporters’ Meeting 7pm, City URC Church, Windsor Place, Cardiff.

Christian Aid Week 2012 Organisers’ Kits will be available to pick up and there will also be samples of Christian Aid Week 2012 resources to view.

Please contact Robin Samuel on 029 2084 4646 for further details.

MERCHER 25 IONAWR Cyfarfod Trefnyddion a Chefnogwyr Cymorth Cristnogol Caerdydd 7yh, Capel City URC, Windsor Place, Caerdydd.

Pecynnau trefnyddio ar gyfer Wythnos Cymorth Cristnogol 2012 ar gael a chyfle i weld rhai o adnoddau lliwgar yr Wythnos.

Mwy o fanylion gan Robin Samuel ar 029 2084 4646.

SUL 29 IONAWR ¡Viva Guatemala! – Apêl Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru Capel y Porth, Porthmadog am 10 y bore.

Yng nghwmni Anna Jane Evans, Cymorth Cristnogol.

SUL 19 CHWEFROR ¡Viva Guatemala! – Apêl Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru Capel y Drindod, Pwllheli am 10 y bore.

Yng nghwmni Anna Jane Evans, Cymorth Cristnogol.

SUL 21 CHWEFROR ¡Viva Guatemala! - Apêl Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru Eglwys Noddfa, Caernarfon am

1.30 y prynhawn Cyfarfod Lawnsio’r Apel yn Henaduriaeth Arfon.

Yng nghwmni Anna Jane Evans, Cymorth Cristnogol.

TUESDAY 21 FEBRUARY Pancake evening 7pm, St Thomas’s Church, Vale Street, Denbigh.

Organised by the local Christian Aid committee. All proceeds to Christian Aid. MERCHER 29 CHWEFROR ¡Viva Guatemala! – Apêl Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru Capel Cross Inn, Dryslwyn, Caerfyrddin am 7 yr hwyr.

Yng nghwmni Anna Jane Evans, Cymorth Cristnogol.

Noson dathlu Gwyl Ddewi gyda lluniaeth ysgafn i ddilyn.

Christian Aid News 29

A reflection on playing a part in the fight against poverty, and living life in the wider family of Christian Aid Jean Harrison spent 17 years working for Christian Aid, and now she’s serving on the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

Ecumenical accompaniers provide a protective presence to vulnerable communities, monitor human rights abuses and support Palestinians and Israelis working together for a just peace. Here Jean tells us about life in Bethlehem – the challenges, privileges, and sometimes heart-rending moments of living alongside a community under occupation I HARDLY KNOW where to start in describing life as an ecumenical accompanier. You arrive and have a comprehensive handover with the previous team, who introduce you to key people, organisations and places. Then suddenly it’s your responsibility, and despite the training you think ‘where do I go?’ and ‘what do I do?’. We plan our time around certain givens; such as the checkpoint watch, which we do four days a week from 4-8am. We keep track of how many Palestinians are passing through, and try and help anyone that gets turned away. Last Sunday four people were turned back: their permit papers were taken, and without those they will lose their jobs. We got their names and IDs, and sent those to an Israeli group called Machsom Watch, which can often help.

The first time I went to the checkpoint, I was horrified. I was on duty in the metal detector area and had to walk through the main queue and push through the crush of people. Sometimes there is only one detector open, even though all three should be running. It’s our job to call the humanitarian hotline and ask them to open the others; usually that works.

Aside from our weekly duties, we’re also here as a team to respond to urgent

30 Christian Aid News

‘PEOPLE APPRECIATE US BECAUSE WE’RE THERE AT DIFFICULT TIMES’ Jean watches children go to school

Christian Aid/Charlotte Marshall

LAST WORD

Although sometimes I come home feeling angry and helpless, I know that our presence makes a difference situations. In the first week, we had a call from a Palestinian school in Tuqu. They said: ‘Please come, there are Israeli soldiers at the school stopping the children to line them up and search their bags’. The previous week, the soldiers had gone into the school and forced it to close for the day. The Israeli army claims that the schoolchildren are throwing stones at settlers’ cars as they walk along the road, so now they have stationed four soldiers along the route that the children take to school. As a team, we decided we’d also stand along this route, to be a protective presence as the children make their way to school.

I was horrified to see the soldiers with guns, which are often pointed at the children. A lot of them are tiny children

and I worry about what is going on in their minds as a consequence. A local taxi driver has a six-year-old son who attends one of these schools. He said to his father one day that he didn’t want to go to school, because he was ‘scared the soldiers will kill me’.

Although at times I come home feeling angry and helpless, I know our presence makes a difference. People appreciate us because we’re there at difficult times. We have time to drink tea, talk and listen to them. It’s been one of the best aspects of my experience: you feel you like you belong here and it’s a privilege.

The views contained here are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of Jean’s employer Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW) or the World Council of Churches (WCC). If you would like to publish the information contained here (including posting it on a website), or distribute it further, please first contact teresap@quaker.org.uk for permission.

For more information, or to find out how to join EAPPI, please visit eappi.org

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The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. (Registered No. 990937), Head Office, P.O. Box 101, 1 Balloon Street, Manchester M60 4EP. The Co-operative Bank is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (No. 121885), subscribes to the Lending Code, the Financial Ombudsman Service and is licensed by the Office of Fair Trading (No. 006110). Calls may be monitored or recorded for security and training purposes. For BT customers, calls to 0800 numbers are free. Call charges from other companies may vary and you may want to check this with your service provider. Christian Aid UK registered charity no. 1105851, Company no. 5171525, Scotland charity no. SC039150, Northern Ireland charity no. XR94639, Company no. NI059154.

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Client Kerry McMahon 2726 CHR Legacy Ad_299x222_Lay out 1 16/12/2011 Page 1 Client team Events and15:47 Fundraising

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