My Lent Challenge: Going ‘tea’-total!

April 7, 2016

Tom, from CAFOD’s fundraising team, challenged himself to give up hot drinks for Lent. He tells us how he got on, and reflects on how the generosity of CAFOD supporters in the UK is helping people like those he met in Kenya.

CAFOD's Tom has his first cup of tea since the start of Lent
First brew and a slice of brack – Happy Easter!

This Lent, I took on a challenge very different to my usual no-sweet-things observance. In line with CAFOD’s aqua themed fundraising appeal, I decided to take up a water challenge and drink no hot drinks for 40 days and 40 nights.

There is still time to donate to CAFOD’s Lent appeal and help change lives

For some people this would be fairly straight forward. But I come from a long line of tea drinkers and would usually have at least 3 cups a day. A visit to my Nan’s is synonymous with having a brew, and if you were to turn one down you’d immediately be confronted with a “What’s wrong?!”

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Virgin London Marathon 2016: Team CPL Aromas running for CAFOD!

April 6, 2016

Bright and early on the morning of Sunday, 24 April, eight runners from CAFOD corporate supporter CPL Aromas will be making their way to the start line of the 2016 Virgin London Marathon. Here three members of Team CPL tell us about the highs and lows of training, along with their motivations for taking on this huge challenge.

Chris Pickthall, Group CEO, CPL Aromas:

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Chris has completed 14 marathons and visited CAFOD projects in Kenya and Sudan

“When I heard that CAFOD had spaces for the London Marathon, we put a note on the CPL intranet asking if anyone would like to take part. Much to my surprise, we now have eight runners!

Sponsor Team CPL and support CAFOD’s work with vulnerable communities

Back in January, I completed the Dubai marathon. I’ve done 14 marathons and this was the most difficult. I found it really tough. We were running up and down one long road, which gets a bit monotonous. The atmosphere at the London Marathon is sensational and I am really looking forward to it.

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Running for water: Unexpected challenges

April 5, 2016

Damian Conlin, from our fundraising team, took on a new challenge this Lent, one that mirrors the challenge faced by thousands of young girls around the world. With Lent over, he reflects on some of the difficulties he expected to face, and others that surprised him.

CAFOD Lent Appeal Damian at the river for his Lent challenge
Damian at the river he ran to every week in Lent

I’ve (just about) been keeping up with my Lent challenge of running to water once a week.

For the most part, the experience has been what I expected. That is, I knew I’d find it difficult. I’ve always enjoyed sports and still do exercise, but running has never really been my thing. 5km is not a particularly long way, but my body has always made it pretty clear it considers itself to have been built for running distances of 50-60 metres tops.

There is still time to donate to CAFOD’s Lent appeal and help change lives

So there’s been lots of wheezing and knee creaking. Observers would be forgiven for thinking my Lent challenge has been to perfect my impression of a man running backwards. But there have also been a couple of things I did not expect.

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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>>

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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.

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Lenten works of mercy: Love and mercy in action

March 25, 2016

Our final Friday blog on Lenten works of mercy is from schools volunteer Penny Morse.

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Guti (far left) and her friends collecting safe clean water from a local pump in Uganda.

During Lent I have been visiting  primary schools in the Clifton diocese, meeting children and sharing stories from Uganda in assemblies and workshops. In this Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis e invites us to be living signs of Jesus’ love. This Lent I’ve really seen these living signs of love and mercy lived out through children’s actions.

Support CAFOD’s Lent water appeal

Here’s a flavour of what I’ve observed these past few weeks.

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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.

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Lent 2016: Damian’s river run challenge

March 14, 2016

Damian Conlin, from our fundraising team, has set himself a Lent challenge to run 5km at least once a week to a local water source. He reflects on how his challenge has helped him think about those who need to take hours out of their day simply to collect the water they need to survive.

Damian and Hazel water challenges
Damian getting ready for his running challenge, with colleague Hazel who is also taking on a challenge this Lent

I rise early. I climb reluctantly from my warm bed and dress quietly in the dark, not wanting to wake my family. I stretch a few times then step out of the house into the cold morning. With only the faint glow of the streetlights to show me the way, I begin to run.

It is Lent and I have a new challenge. Before completing my usual morning routine and going to work, I have to find time at least once a week to go to the local river.

Donate to CAFOD’s Lent appeal

Elsewhere a young girl rises early. She too climbs reluctantly from her bed, dresses quickly and efficiently and leaves the family home. She lifts up the large water containers and begins to walk.

She too has a new challenge. She is now deemed old enough to take on certain responsibilities. So, instead of completing her usual morning routine of getting ready for school, she is going to the local river to collect water.

Despite the parallel storylines there are worlds of difference between the trips.

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International Women’s Day: Working together for equality in Ethiopia

March 8, 2016

Yadviga Clark is CAFOD’s Gender Coordinator. Today, on International Women’s Day, she shares the story of Dawi from Ethiopia whose community is coming together to tackle challenges faced by women and girls.

Today is a day to honour the achievements of women and girls across the world. Very often I think how privileged I am to be born and live in a society where as a woman I feel safe, protected and have an opportunity to develop my full potential. I can freely exercise my rights to education, family life and a career. At the same time, on this particular day my thoughts are with thousands of women and girls who are deprived of their childhood, have no voice, no rights, are hungry, exhausted from hard work and are physically and emotionally abused.

Our Lent Appeal this year tells the story of Proscovia, a 14 year old girl who nearly had to stop going to school because she had to spend so much of her day collecting water. Our partners in Uganda repaired her village borehole and now Proscovia is able to continue with her education.

Please support our Lent Appeal today

For CAFOD, International Women’s Day  is a chance to celebrate the vision and bravery of women who are fighting for equality, their human rights and an end to poverty. The women we work with are trying to overcome the social, economic and political barriers which stop them reaching their full potential. In Ethiopia, our partner organisation HUNDEE is working with women, men and local leaders to empower women at home and in the community, with the aim of reducing harmful traditional practices and achieving greater gender equality in the community. The project supports women’s self-help groups and has set up community conversation forums to engage with the wider community.

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Mother’s Day: Meeting Teko Anna

March 6, 2016

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Teko Anna, Daphne and Violet in their home (Credit: David Mutua)

 

CAFOD writer, Mark Chamberlain recently travelled to Uganda. This Mothering Sunday, he writes on some of the women he met and how they reminded him of his own family.

There was a point when I stood sheltering from those first welcome rains that everything seemed still. It was so strange. Teko Anna’s children running through that heavy roar – Daphne, her nine-year-old over there under the roof of her uncle’s house, jumping in the quickly forming puddles. The younger ones watching Daphne, following her, copying her actions with awkward limbs, splashing though the same puddles.

Proscovia now through the lines of water running with a box of ducklings, bringing them in from the rain.

How will you help mums like Teko Anna this Lent?

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