September 8, 2022
For the last three years, CAFOD’s Volunteer Coordinator Specialist Eileen Hayes has been hosting online talks from a little desk in the corner of her kitchen. Recently she met with colleagues and local experts from all over the world to learn more about the world food crisis.
Continue reading “World Food Crisis: Lives and a way of life at risk”April 29, 2020
Kayode Akintola is CAFOD’s country representative in Sierra Leone and Liberia. He tells us how volunteers fought on the front line in the Ebola crisis and how these countries are preparing for Covid-19.
Continue reading “The crucial role of local experts fighting Covid-19”April 8, 2020
Nana Anto-Awuakye recalls her visit to Sierra Leone in 2015 at the peak of the Ebola outbreak and reports on the work that CAFOD has begun with local experts in the country now to fight coronavirus.
Continue reading “Covid-19: “We refuse to be overwhelmed by the odds stacked against us””March 11, 2020
“Much has been spoken and written about the country of my birth,” says Sylvester Mutsigwa. A year on from Cyclone Idai, CAFOD’s Community Participation Coordinator for Birmingham visited Zimbabwe and found that its recovery is being built on the hope, resilience and love of its people.
Continue reading “Zimbabwe: the country of my birth”September 26, 2019
Yael Eshel is CAFOD’s Emergency Response Officer for Indonesia. Here she shares stories from a recent visit to Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province, where she met families affected by the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2018, and found out how they are rebuilding their lives thanks to donations from CAFOD supporters.
Continue reading “Indonesia earthquake and tsunami: Residents remain positive 12 months on”July 31, 2019
Laura Purves, one of CAFOD’s Emergency Response Officers, reflects on her experiences in Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic in 2015 – in particular, what was learned that can be used to help in the Democratic Republic of Congo now.
Continue reading “Ebola in the DRC: Learning from the past”May 23, 2019
Mark Chamberlain, CAFOD Communications Officer, describes how people’s lives are changing around the world because of climate change.
Continue reading “This is a climate emergency”May 21, 2019
Allie Phillip leads Caritas St Lucia’s ‘Youth Emergency Action Committees’ (YEACs), which help vulnerable communities be their own first responders when disasters strike.
St Lucia is in the ‘hurricane belt’ of the Caribbean. The YEACs are run by young people who train other community members to be prepared for, mitigate, and manage responses to extreme weather.
Allie also coordinates the Church’s regional emergency response and the network of YEACs in the Caribbean. Hurricane Irma in 2017 was a particularly bad hurricane, killing people and destroying communities in 14 countries.
Here, Allie offers Sam from our campaigns team her reflections on her current work, climate change and young people.
Continue reading ““Our needs back home are being considered””September 6, 2018
Chris Knowles works in our education team. In this blog he explains why young leadership is essential to CAFOD’s work.
Our new Hands On project in Colombia has young leadership at its heart because young people are not just the future of our world, but as Rosana, involved in the project in Colombia says;
“We have a responsibility towards our country, we are the present”. Rosana
Read about our latest Hands On project
Continue reading “Why are young people at the heart of what we do?”
August 23, 2018
Timothy Cohen from CAFOD’s emergency response team reflect back on his visit to Nepal. He talks about the role of an aid worker.
If someone tells you they’re an ‘aid worker’, how would you picture them? You probably think of someone who’s any (or all) of the following:
That’s certainly how we (the aid sector) have sold ourselves to the public for the past 20 years. It’s good for our image and our branding. And it’s not untrue either; but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
But if you’ve paid close attention, maybe you’ve noticed this narrative changing slightly over the past few years? Maybe you’ve noticed that members of the local communities, and the organisations that they work for, are in the spotlight more and more?
