Tag: Refugees

The Child Breadwinners of Bekaa

November 12, 2018

Presenter and reporter Julie Etchingham travelled to Lebanon to see the work of CAFOD partner Caritas Lebanon. 

The brothers working at the bakery.
The brothers working at the bakery.

In a side road in a small town in the Bekaa Valley Yazan and Majed are hard at work. They are brothers aged 10 and 11. Their day started in darkness, getting up at 4am they were a bit scared to be going out before dawn, to get to their jobs in a local bakery.

The tiny bakery turns out flatbreads for local restaurants. The boys work alongside two grown men. The adults receive $40 (£30) a day. The boys get $3 (£2.30) a day between them. But these meagre earnings are vital for their family to survive after fleeing the war in Syria.

Donate to CAFOD’s Syria Crisis Appeal. Continue reading “The Child Breadwinners of Bekaa”

Gospel reflection: Jesus is rejected in his home town

July 6, 2018

Every Friday we offer you a reflection on the Sunday gospel. This week’s reflection was written by Trevor Stockton, a CAFOD supporter from St Anthony of Padua parish, Wolverhampton.

Based on the gospel for Sunday 8 July – Mark 6:1-6

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“Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him…?”

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A livesimply parish group transforms lives of local refugees

January 31, 2018

Carol Chilton, a Justice and Peace and livesimply group member from St John the Baptist  Cathedral in Norwich shares how their livesimply group made a real difference to local refugees.

It all started with a phone call

The members of the Justice and Peace and Livesimply group in St John the Baptist Cathedral in Norwich, East Anglia diocese, after receiving the 27th livesimply award. Carol, who shares her experience in this blog, is the one holding the livesimply award
The members of the Justice and Peace and Livesimply group receiving their livesimply award. Carol holds the livesimply award.

There’s a whole network of underground support for refugees and asylum seekers in Norwich. I didn’t know about any of it until I made a phone call to find out what our group could do to help.

We heard from a health visitor that families were being moved into the area, but the accommodation they were staying in was so dirty. The families had nothing to clean it with.

Discover our campaign Share the Journey to stand up for the dignity of refugees

Continue reading “A livesimply parish group transforms lives of local refugees”

Our favourite walks

January 24, 2018

Throughout England and Wales, hundreds of people are getting ready to Share the Journey with refugees by planning walks in solidarity with those forced to flee. Our free guide can help you organise your own walk – by yourself or in a group, as long as you want and wherever you want! To give you some ideas here are some of our favourite walks.

Jeremy: A walk from Seahouses to Low Newton, Northumberland

For some the Northumberland coast conjures up images of horizontal rain and freezing winds. Instead, imagine long stretches of golden sands, dunes teeming with wildlife and cosy coastal villages.

Park the car at Seahouses, head down to the harbour, trying to resist the ice cream and fish and chip shops, and turn right. The beauty of this walk is that that’s just about all the directions you’ll need: keep the sea close on your left and you’ll be fine!

Once you get to Beadnell harbour- and as long as the tide is out- you can drop down to the beach. If you’re walking with children this is going to slow you down seriously, as they stop to do all the things kids do on beaches, but that’s all part of the fun!

Plan a walk in solidarity with refugees – order a free guide

Continue reading “Our favourite walks”

Sussex CAFOD volunteers attend historic papal audience

January 4, 2018

Christina Lucey, a parishioner at St Mary Magdalene, Bexhill-on-Sea, and CAFOD volunteer, writes about her experience of hearing Pope Francis announce the new global migration campaign – ‘Share the Journey’ – at Saint Peter’s Square in Rome. 

What a wonderful morning – despite having to queue for over an hour from 7am to have a chance of a good situation in the square! Under the guidance of our tour guide, our group managed to find places close to the barrier where we could sit and rest for the long wait until Pope Francis was scheduled to appear.

Watch a video to learn more about the campaign launch

There was great excitement when Pope Francis finally appeared and did his usual tour. I stood on a chair so that I could see better and was able to alert the group when he was coming. We had to wait until almost the end, but it was worth it.

Continue reading “Sussex CAFOD volunteers attend historic papal audience”

“When they heard my Palestinian accent, they didn’t call back”

December 7, 2017

Richard Sloman is CAFOD’s Middle East Programme Officer. Here he reflects on his time in Lebanon where almost 40 per cent of the population are Syrian and Palestinian refugees. Richard visited one of Lebanon’s twelve Palestinian refugee camps – home to 450,000 people, one in ten of the country’s population.

Bourj el Barajneh in Beirut, Lebanon is one of the world’s oldest refugee camps. Established in 1948, it’s home to more than 31,000 people. These women, men and children live in just one square kilometre of land. That’s roughly 31 people for every square metre of earth.

Please give to CAFOD’s Advent appeal to help people living in poverty

Continue reading ““When they heard my Palestinian accent, they didn’t call back””

Small acts of kindness make a huge difference to refugees

November 26, 2017

Rosie Heaton, CAFOD’s regional communications assistant in the North West, reflects on the compassion being shown from Catholic people across England and Wales to refugees.

Get involved now

During the Year of Mercy, CAFOD supporters from parishes and schools across England and Wales responded to the refugee crisis by writing more than 30,000 Messages of Hope.  I had the honour of delivering just a few of these messages when I visited a refugee wellbeing class in Salford.

Continue reading “Small acts of kindness make a huge difference to refugees”

Rohingya Crisis Appeal: Caritas volunteers join relief efforts

October 20, 2017

Tom Delamere is CAFOD’s Bangladesh Programme Officer. Here he tells us about his recent visits to Bangladesh, a country struggling to cope with the arrival of more than 582,000 refugees from Myanmar, on top of the devastating effects of recent flooding.

On landing in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s bustling capital city, two things immediately strike you. The first is the close, warm climate; growing up in the North of England didn’t really prepare me for South Asia’s summer temperatures. The second is just how busy the roads and streets are, ringing with vehicle horns, rickshaw bells and the movement of crowds of people.

Please donate to CAFOD’s Rohingya Crisis Appeal 

What sticks in my mind the most about the country is the hospitality shown by its people – a warm welcome, a cup of char and an engaging conversation are never far away.

Continue reading “Rohingya Crisis Appeal: Caritas volunteers join relief efforts”

Gifts in wills: Lisl’s legacy of love

September 15, 2017

CAFOD legacy officer Hannah Caldwell shares the inspiring story of Lisl Steiner, who fled the Nazis, became a teacher and continues to change children’s lives by the gift she left to CAFOD in her will.

There are so many inspirational people at the heart of CAFOD’s work, each with their own story. I’m lucky that in my job every now and then I get to hear a little more of some of these stories.

One that I often think of is that of Lisl Steiner, who supported CAFOD for many years and remembered us with a gift in her will.

Lisl was born into a Jewish family in Vienna, 1923. At 15, as the world was on the brink of war and Jews were suffering cruelty and persecution at the hands of the Nazi regime, she made a lonely journey to England.

Continue reading “Gifts in wills: Lisl’s legacy of love”

World Humanitarian Day – a day with Syrian refugees

August 18, 2017

Each year since 2009, World Humanitarian Day has been held on 19 August to mobilise support for people affected by crises around the world and to pay tribute to all those who risk their lives in humanitarian service. Yadviga Clark, CAFOD’s Emergency Programme Officer for the Syria Crisis response, shares her experiences of visiting Syrian refugees that have settled in Lebanon.

Conflict so often affects innocent people – many flee for their lives, families are torn apart and displaced from their homes, children are traumatised and taken out of school, and aid workers risk their lives to care for people caught up in the violence.

Pray for all those affected by conflict

Last month I spent a day with Syrian refugee children who are living in an informal settlement in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon.

Continue reading “World Humanitarian Day – a day with Syrian refugees”