Agnes Kithikii, CAFOD disaster risk reduction officer, speaks about her admiration for the African nations taking a stand on climate change by walking out of the UN talks in Barcelona
November 6, 2009
Bolivia video: The melting glacier
The third of a series of video blogs, Karen Luyckx, CAFOD’s representative in Bolivia tells us why the Illimani glacier is so vital to the survival of local communities affected by climate change.
October 5, 2009
Brazil: Opening a new world to me
Children dancing at the new cultural centre "Nascedouro"
When I was young I was a member of a gang. I didn’t know that my mother worked at this community centre. Then a friend of mine who used to be involved in bad things got in trouble with a gang and they tried to kill him.
The only person who helped him was a lady who used to work at the community centre in Peixinhos.
I was very impressed that although she didn’t know him, she tried to save his life. That was when I started getting involved with the centre. Seeing this lady help someone that wasn’t part of her family opened a new world to me.
October 19, 2009
Nigeria: A real eye-opener for World Gifts
Even though I am half Nigerian I have only ever been to the city where things are much better than the places we visited. But visiting Ankpakpa and Ankpa to see where pregnant women and mothers have their check ups was hard.
At Ankpakpa, when we spoke to the mothers, some of them looked frightened to talk to us and we didn’t like how the men were crowding round us. We really just wanted to talk to them one on one but we were attracting so much attention everywhere we went.
Thankfully, it was different when we visited the clinic at Ankpa. We spoke to some mothers and they were all healthy. They were benefiting from the clinic being funded through our packs.
October 23, 2009
Zimbabwe: Mothers abandon children in economic crisis
![The economic crisis in Zimbabwe has forced parents to abandon their children leaving them either alone or in the care of grandparents [Caritas/David Snyder]](http://cafod.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/untitled-12.jpg "The economic crisis in Zimbabwe has forced parents to abandon their children leaving them either alone or in the care of grandparents [Caritas/David Snyder]")
If you want to understand the scale of the economic crisis gripping Zimbabwe, travel to the village of Mandabe.
While evidence of the hardships facing the people of Zimbabwe is not hard to find across much of the country, the face of crisis is not what you will find in Mandabe, but rather what you will not: the parents of many of Mandabe’s children.
They have left Zimbabwe, and their families, for a new life in neighbouring Botswana.
October 30, 2009
Kenya: Drought worst in living memory
For hundreds of years, Maasai herders have roamed with their cows in search of pasture and water, a lifestyle uniquely adapted to dry lands. But the current drought is the worst in living memory – three long years without rain.
November 3, 2009
Just One World – CAFOD Youth Retreat
Great fun was had by all the young people and leaders who attended the first CAFOD Leeds youth retreat. During the first three days of half term twelve young people from across the diocese came together at Myddleton Grange to spend time finding out more about the world we live in and how we are called to make a positive difference to our brothers and sisters across the globe.
The young people took part in a number of imaginative interactive activities that helped them understand the work that CAFOD undertakes and how it does it. There was plenty of time to reflect on how fortunate we are and to think about the different ways we can help our brothers and sisters in developing countries.
As well as time for prayer and activities, the young people were able to enjoy the beautiful countryside at Myddelton Grange and appreciate God’s wonderful world. There were mini-adventures too with different animals along the way – all part of the fun! Here’s what Georgia thought,
“I had a really good time and particularly loved the chickens. The leaders weren’t too bad either – awesome and very entertaining!”
Rose thought the encounter with the cows who blocked the path on the walk was quite scary and while exaggerating (just a little!!) she saw the positive side,
“Our ‘near death’ experience with the cows made us realise how lucky were are to be alive, we also realised how lucky were are in lots of ways.”
One of the highlights of the retreat was making a hunger cloth together to represent how the young people would like the world to be.
Everyone also joined in with lots of energy making handprint messages to send to Prime Minister Gordon Brown urging world leaders to take action on climate change at the UN summit in Copenhagen in December. Kieran, aged 14, said,
‘It is important to share my feelings on how I think the world can be changed with people who have the power to make the changes.’
The retreat seemed to have made a real impact on all of the young people. Danielle thought she would really like to start a CAFOD focus group at her school . The retreat hade made her realise that she wanted to, ‘Speak more about equal rights for everyone and get involved in trying to stop poverty.’ She also realised how important it is to pray for those in need and Faye wants a world where we ‘Treat everyone with respect to make unity and peace.’
This is just a tiny flavour of the great ideas these committed young people had in wanting to change our world and they were brought together in a very prayerful closing liturgy.
We felt that the days with the young people had been a privilege. The fact that they had given up three days of their half-term because they wanted to make our world a better place left us feeling full of hope and even more convinced that bringing them together to reflect, pray and share together is something we’d definitely want to do again.
Stephen Davies, CAFOD Youth Team, and Joanne Taylor CAFOD Diocesan Officer
November 2, 2009
Bolivia: Tackling the climate criminals
The law lecture theatre is on the sixth floor of Cochabamba’s San Simón University. From the balcony outside you can see the town below, but the mountains beyond dominate the skyline.
We have spent the last few days on those mountains, talking to farmers affected by a changing climate. Now their concerns and their voices are being heard by an international audience here in Cochabamba.
The law lecture theatre, its gilt-edged faded grandeur now decked with campaign banners, is the ideal setting for today’s Climate Justice tribunal. Here, established legal processes are being questioned and new ones proposed. Keep reading →
October 30, 2009
Bolivia video: The Cochabamba Climate Court
In the second of a series of four videoblogs, Karen Luyckx, CAFOD’s representative in Bolivia, talks from Cochabamba’s Climate Change tribunal, where indigenous leaders gathered in October to hold climate criminals to account…
Posted by KarenL
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