Today we call it empowerment.
Rob Rees (Pan-Africa Advocacy Team): “I first went to work in Africa as a still wet-behind-the-ears graduate and it took me more than two years of working in an isolated, rural community in Ethiopia to appreciate just how little I knew and how rich was the culture and tradition of the society to which I was attached. It was some years later, working with the Catholic Church in Kenya, when my flame was properly ignited. The approach used there had evolved from liberation theology: communities know what the solutions to their problems are but the right conditions must be created to allow them to take control of their own destiny.
Today we call it empowerment. The underlying element to this was that people should speak and decision makers should listen, the complete antithesis of the top-down approach to which I had been accustomed. The impact on me was an appreciation that every one of us has a contribution to make: no-one individual has all the answers and, regardless of any spiritual dimension, we are all mutually inter-dependent. The more we are able to appreciate the value of diversity and the richness that different traditions, cultures and beliefs bring to the global community, the more we will be able to break down barriers of fear and mistrust.
Over the years I have been shown extreme generosity by people who genuinely didn’t even have enough for themselves – I hope that the work that I do goes some way to repay that generosity, albeit not so tangibly.”
As we mark our 50th anniversary at CAFOD, it is time to reflect. We are asking all staff, volunteers, supporters and other friends of CAFOD to look back over their lives and recall the moment when they were first drawn into the fight against poverty and injustice. http://www.cafod.org.uk/whatlityourflame
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