“Throughout my childhood, my mother would tell me to be grateful for all the things I had that she didn’t have in hers, growing up in Asia: running water; regular, healthy meals; and the opportunity to go to university. During the war, when the Japanese invaded and my grandfather was sent to a prison camp, my grandmother was left to fend for herself and her small children. My grandfather survived the war, re-trained and managed to sustain work as a carpenter, a valuable skill that enabled him to make a living and provide for his family.
Their story transformed my understanding of these seemingly stern and taciturn people, whom I could only remember hazily, into real and remarkable human beings, and it was a powerful and immediate illustration of how any person, given a little training and compassion, can build something new, whatever hardship and injustice they have experienced.
The sad truth is that there are still families in Asia, struggling with the same difficulties my family faced: the risk of being without shelter, or losing their possessions, livelihoods or liberty. Any positive change we can make ‘now’ in one life can have not only have immediate effects for that individual but a beneficial influence on the lives of future generations.”
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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