April 25, 2022
Neil Roper talks to Margaret Clark, President of the National Board of Catholic Women (NBCW), about the year of fundraising for CAFOD’s 60th anniversary and invites you to a quiz on Saturday May 7th at 7pm, raising money to support vulnerable Lebanese and refugee women.
Continue reading “Supporting Lebanese and refugee women”June 19, 2020
During World Refugee Week, Yasmin Kayali, co-founder of charity Basmeh and Zeitooneh (B&Z) and CAFOD partner, explains the challenges the coronavirus pandemic has brought to refugee communities and how she is working alongside these communities to help them better prepare for the future.
Continue reading “How I’m working alongside Syrian refugees in Lebanon to help them build a better future ”November 23, 2018
Presenter and reporter Julie Etchingham travelled to Lebanon to see the work of CAFOD partner Caritas Lebanon.
So I’m flying home early this morning after three eye-opening days in Lebanon – expertly guided by CAFOD and their partners on the ground Caritas Lebanon. As we wind slowly upwards away from Beirut, I’m thinking of all the children we met in the past few days.
Help a refugee child. This charity gift will give much-needed emotional and educational support to children who have fled the violent trauma of war. Continue reading “Bringing childhoods back to life”
November 19, 2018
Presenter and reporter Julie Etchingham travelled to Lebanon to see the work of CAFOD partner Caritas Lebanon.
Thursday morning and we’re up before dawn to take the winding road to Mount Lebanon.
It’s a beautiful clear day as the sun comes up and we arrive at the home of a family of six refugees from Syria.
They’re living in a couple of rooms in a house which is still being built – but there’s a stove burning and the four children are happily pouring tea and having breakfast.
And even better – Hussein, 11, Mostafa, 10 and Amar who’s 6 are just about to put on their school uniforms.
Continue reading ““I want to be an engineer so that I can rebuild Syria””
November 16, 2018
Presenter and reporter Julie Etchingham travelled to Lebanon to see the work of CAFOD partner Caritas Lebanon.
It is Wednesday afternoon and we’re sitting on the floor of a shack covered in tarpaulin with eight year old Karim, where he’s been living with his family since fleeing Syria.
He was up at 6am this morning picking potatoes in the neighbouring field to bring in a few dollars a week for his family. He is a strikingly handsome young boy – bright eyed and smart – and he’s sick of having to work.
Help a refugee child Continue reading “Future? What do you mean by future?”
November 12, 2018
Presenter and reporter Julie Etchingham travelled to Lebanon to see the work of CAFOD partner Caritas Lebanon.
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”
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.
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”
June 20, 2017
Olwen Maynard is a member of the Asia and Middle East team. She tells us how bringing young people together in Lebanon is helping to build trust among local people and Syrian refugees.
There’s been a lot of heart-searching in this country about taking in Syrian refugees, and how many would be our ‘fair share’. Something we tend to forget is that most displaced Syrians are still in the Middle East region. Lebanon, a small country with a population of about four million (half that of Greater London), has taken in over a million. Just stop and think about that for a minute.
This World Refugee Day donate to our Refugee Crisis Appeal for refugees around the world. Continue reading “World Refugee Day: Building trust and friendship”
June 20, 2016
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg98m9DY3lE]
For World Refugee Day, CAFOD communications officer, Mark Chamberlain reflects on attitudes towards refugees
In the past fortnight a time machine took me back to the late 1980s. I was sitting watching my favourite tea-time programme: a re-run, in glorious Technicolor, of a McCarthy-era, American sci-fi series.
The meek, unsuspecting earthlings were being duped again, by the cold, cunning aliens. More invaders had landed in their town and were taking over. But the only people that could see this were a small boy who kept shouting for people to listen…and me.
Send a message of hope to refugees on World Refugee Day Continue reading “World Refugee Day: Send a message of hope”
