June 6, 2022
In National Volunteers’ Week, Communications Volunteer Caitlin Miller tells us about how her childhood determination to collect money for CAFOD turned into a volunteer role that connects her to her faith and community.
Continue reading “The joy of volunteering with CAFOD”June 3, 2020
Thomas Kimaru is a CAFOD volunteer in Southwark. This Volunteers’ Week, he describes how he was first inspired to volunteer by his parish priest in Kenya, and why he thinks it’s important to stay in touch during lockdown.
Continue reading “‘Volunteering helps me feel more connected – even in lockdown’”May 27, 2016
Ahead of Volunteers’ week, we asked a number of CAFOD volunteers to share their experiences with us. Here, Anne-Marie McBrien, a parish volunteer in the Portsmouth diocese, tells us why she makes time in a very busy schedule to help:
Firstly – because I was asked to! This is a very important point, I think, as lots of people don’t realise that CAFOD always needs more people to help and that you don’t need to do much to make a difference.
I was asked by an older parishioner to take on the role because she was tired and her husband was ill and I am younger and more mobile. I resisted at first because I do so many other things, and I have so little time, but I said yes because she needed someone to take it off her. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to devote any time to CAFOD. I was invited to, but couldn’t make, the supporter’s meeting just after I had taken on the role. I didn’t think it mattered really, as I gave the short talk at mass for Lent and I put up the posters I was sent. I felt I was too busy with other church things, school responsibilities and latterly, the Scouts. Too much to do!
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The next supporters’ meeting I was able to attend. As a result of it, my attitude to volunteering with CAFOD changed.
Continue reading “Why I volunteer – to be “part of a vital piece of God’s machinery””
May 24, 2016
Ahead of Volunteers’ Week, we asked a number of CAFOD volunteers to share why volunteering with CAFOD is important to them. One volunteer, Trevor Stockton, has been an active volunteer for more that 40 years in the Birmingham diocese. Here, he shares his inspiration for volunteering and tips for those wanting to get involved.
My volunteer work with CAFOD has been an important part of my life, especially my spiritual life, since the early 1970s. I was inspired by Pope Paul’s encyclical ‘Populorum Progressio’ and by Dom Helder Camara and his work in Brazil.
My whole working career was in social work and so my commitment to people who are disadvantaged was already active. So, parish involvement in Lent and Harvest Fast Days, and campaigns such as that against apartheid in South Africa were my starting points with CAFOD.
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Continue reading “Why I volunteer: “we must care for each other and be good stewards””
