Author: CAFOD

CAFOD stands for the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development. We are an international development charity and the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. We stand beside people living in poverty – whatever their religion or culture. Through local church partners, we help people directly in their own communities, and campaign for global justice, so that everyone can reach their full potential. How to get involved with CAFOD None of our work is possible without you. Whether you donate, campaign, download prayers or volunteer we are grateful for your support.

Walsingham pilgrims pray for refugees with CAFOD’s Lampedusa cross

May 16, 2016

CAFOD volunteer Kris Pears from Coventry went on a pilgrimage to Walsingham and spoke to fellow pilgrims about the Lampedusa cross

Kris Pears took the Lampedusa cross on a pilgrimage to Walsingham

“Hello my name is Kris and I am a CAFOD volunteer”, an opening line that I have used many times in the past, but this time it was very different.

Pentecost Sunday 2016 was the third and final day of the weekend pilgrimage to Walsingham by my parish, St Thomas More’s. The day before I had been privileged to serve Mass for Bishop Robert Byrne at the climax of the Archdiocese of Birmingham’s Diocesan day pilgrimage to the shrine. This morning the crowds had gone and as we left Elmham house to walk the pilgrims’ mile down to the shrine.

A few minutes before the group of 50 of us set out I had briefly explained to the Coventry group and our fellow pilgrims from Liverpool about the Lampedusa cross. Now I carried it at the font of our group as we walked the path between the fields from the village. Continue reading “Walsingham pilgrims pray for refugees with CAFOD’s Lampedusa cross”

Rediscovering Mercy: an invitation to connect faith and mercy

April 3, 2016

Catherine Gorman works in CAFOD’s Theology Programme. On Divine Mercy Sunday she reflects on how we can “be merciful as our Father is merciful”.

CAFOD Syrian refugee father and child — A father warms his child after arriving on the beach in Greece.

Throughout this Year of Mercy, but perhaps particularly today on Divine Mercy Sunday, we are called to “be merciful as our Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). For Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation, this call “serves as an invitation to follow the merciful example of the Father who asks us not to judge or condemn, but to forgive and to give love and forgiveness without measure.”

This is a real challenge. Personally, I find that it is so much easier to hold a grudge, to judge others, to close myself off, rather than to open myself up, to let go and forgive. How can I possibly try to emulate the mercy of God in my interactions with others?

Download our Rediscovering Mercy resource>>

Continue reading “Rediscovering Mercy: an invitation to connect faith and mercy”

CAFOD Lent challenges: What we learned and what we’ll remember

March 31, 2016

Mariacristina Lubrano from our digital team tells us about her colleagues who have taken up some really exciting challenges this Lent.

CAFOD staff ready for Lent challenges — CAFOD staff at the beginning of our challenges

Back in February, right at the beginning of Lent, I shared my excitement about the number of extraordinary challenges that some of my colleagues had set themselves.

Some decided to fundraise for the CAFOD Lent appeal, seizing the amazing opportunity to double their impact with match funding.

Others chose to reflect personally and raise awareness in solidarity with people who struggle to get clean water. As I heard each idea, I was touched by their commitment and willingness to push themselves.

Continue reading “CAFOD Lent challenges: What we learned and what we’ll remember”

Elly’s Lent challenge: Swimming the length of the English channel!

March 23, 2016

CAFOD’s Eleanor Heans-Glogowska set herself the challenge of swimming the length of the English Channel over the course of the 40 days of Lent.

CAFOD Lent Elly swimming the length of the English channel — Elly is swimming the length of the English channel this Lent!

This Lent I set myself the challenge of swimming 22 miles – the length of the English Channel.

Good Friday is approaching and I can almost see the French coast appearing on the horizon! I’ve now got just 300 lengths left of my Lent Channel Challenge.

Support CAFOD’s Lent Appeal

I decided to attempt a Channel swim (although admittedly it was in my local swimming pool rather than the cold waters of the Channel) in solidarity with girls like Proscovia, who have to walk two to four hours just to get the water they need.

Continue reading “Elly’s Lent challenge: Swimming the length of the English channel!”

Torquay Volunteer Skydives for Lent Appeal

March 7, 2016

From water challenges to community lunches, there are a plethora of ways to help make a difference for CAFOD during Lent. It is not every day, though, that someone decides to jump out of a plane. Here, we meet one volunteer who is planning on going the extra 15,000 feet for CAFOD.

Lent 2016: 7 ways to survive a 10 litre water challenge

March 3, 2016

Ffion works in our digital team. This Lent she’s challenging herself to live on just 10 litres of water a day for a week to raise awareness of the CAFOD Lent Appeal.

Ffion and others — Ffion (right) with CAFOD colleagues who are all taking on water challenges during Lent 2016

When I first heard that people like Proscovia, a young girl from rural Uganda, sometimes live on 10 litres of water a day I thought, “that’s not too bad”. I’ve heard we humans are supposed to drink about two litres of liquid a day to stay healthy, so that’s a whole eight litres to clean your teeth and wash yourself. And wash your dishes and do your laundry. Oh, and then there’s flushing the toilet as well which, I’ve since discovered, uses at least four litres of water!

Far from thinking that 10 litres of water is sufficient, I’m now quite worried about my Lent challenge. I’ve done some research, which taught me that 10 litres is less than 10% of what we normally use per person per day in the UK. Washing things – yourself, clothes and laundry – seems to be where we use (or waste) the most amount of water so that’s what I think will be most difficult.

Please donate to our Lent Appeal

Ground rules

I’m starting my challenge tomorrow (4 March) so I’ve set myself some ground rules and have been thinking about little ‘tricks’ I can use to stop myself from using water when I don’t need to. Continue reading “Lent 2016: 7 ways to survive a 10 litre water challenge”

Lent 2016: Walking to Work for My Water Challenge

February 27, 2016

Laura Ouseley works in CAFOD’s Media team. She shares with us her experience of walking more than 12 miles to work for her Lent Water Challenge.

Laura at the end of her CAFOD Lent water challenge — Laura at the end of her 12.7 mile Lent water challenge

Alongside some of my colleagues (many of whom are taking on much bigger challenges than I am), this Lent I volunteered to take on my own Water Challenge in solidarity with people who don’t have access to safe water. For my challenge I decided that, rather than take the tube, I would walk my 12 mile journey into work!

Support CAFOD’s Lent water appeal

This Lent, we’re telling the story of girls like 14-year-old Proscovia from Uganda, who had to walk every day to collect water for her family until CAFOD’s partner built a water pump near their home. Leaving at 6am, it would take her 4-5 hours to collect water and as a result, she would miss hours of school.

Continue reading “Lent 2016: Walking to Work for My Water Challenge”

Lost Family Portraits: meeting Souraya’s family

February 4, 2016

Nana Anto-Awuakye is CAFOD’s World News Manager. She recently met families living in the Bekka refugee camp in Lebanon as part of CAFOD’s Lost Family Portaits project.

Nana with young refugee children — Nana playing with some of the young children at Bekka refugee camp

Last Christmas, various family members snapped away on their latest mobile phone cameras, and we all dutifully posed for the camera. I asked for the unflattering photos of me to be deleted, my sister refused saying, “It’s Christmas, and we are all together.”

Only a few weeks earlier I was in Lebanon’s Bekka valley, just nine kilometres from the Syrian border. I was working with our partner Caritas Lebanon Migrant Centre, the photographer Dario Mitidieri, and the creative agency M&C Saatchi to photograph family portraits of Syrian refugees inside some of the informal camp settlements in the Bekka.

See the Lost Family Portraits

Our arrival with the photography crew creates an air of excitement, as children run out from the labyrinth pathways in between the tented dwellings, as if the Pied Piper were calling them.

The camp leader, or ‘Chawish’ tells me: “Every family here has someone missing; they are either dead, kidnapped, or trapped.”

Continue reading “Lost Family Portraits: meeting Souraya’s family”

Freezing temperatures await refugees at the start of their Balkan journey

February 2, 2016

Laura Ouseley, CAFOD’s World News Officer, recently traveled to Greece to meet refugees attempting to continue their journey through Europe, and the Caritas partners working with them.

As we drove up out of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, and headed north towards the border with Macedonia, snow-capped mountains gradually came into view, the temperature dropped, and the landscape became increasingly barren.

I was in northern Greece to meet refugees who had already risked their lives crossing the Aegean Sea in overloaded boats and were now attempting to continue their journey through Europe. They had all saved up, borrowed money or sold their possessions so that they could make this dangerous journey in search of a better, safer life. They had already traveled at least 20 days to get there. For some it had taken much longer.

Meet Syrian refugee families whose lives were shattered as they fled the conflict

Every day at the border, coaches arrived with hopeful refugees. Hassan, a Syrian teenager I met there told me that this part had been the most difficult. “I have been waiting for so long. It is boring and so cold”, he said.

Continue reading “Freezing temperatures await refugees at the start of their Balkan journey”

World Day for Migrants and Refugees

January 17, 2016

This blog is written by Linda Jones, Head of the CAFOD Theology Programme. Linda shares her thoughts on the World Day for Migrants and Refugees in this Year of Mercy.

‘Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.’ (Luke 6:36).

“They (refugees) are men and women like us… seeking a better life, starving, persecuted, wounded, exploited, victims of war” Pope Francis.

Last year the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) recorded that more than one million migrants and refugees had crossed the Mediterranean Sea, seeking sanctuary in Europe. Sadly, the UN Refugee agency (UNCHR) say that over 3,700 other children, women and men did not survive the perilous journey by sea, and drowned on their journey to safety.

Find out more about our response to the refugee crisis

Aza fled Syria with her infant son because of the war. She said, “They told us that there would be 35 people in our boat but when we arrived there were more than 200. We were in the sea and the engine stopped. The first thing we did was call the coastguard but they didn’t come.

Continue reading “World Day for Migrants and Refugees”