Celebrate offering case histories

CAFOD and the Celebrate Conference: How your generosity is helping to change lives

The Celebrate Conference has been supporting CAFOD’s work for almost a decade, helping CAFOD to reach the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged.

CAFOD is the official Catholic aid agency for England and Wales. We work with partners in more than 40 countries across the world to bring hope, compassion and solidarity to poor communities, standing side by side with them to end poverty and injustice. We work with people of all faiths and none.

Indian Ocean Tsunami

Back in 2004, when the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami struck, the Celebrate Conference supported CAFOD’s emergency response in the most devastated areas of Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. The tsunami killed over 230,000 people and left millions without homes, food or livelihoods.


© Stephen Wood/CAFOD
Netty, 33yrs, with her husband Amran Johan, 34yrs and 2nd daughter Firanti Kurnia, 10yrs, outside her new home in West Aceh.

© Caritas Internationalis/CAFOD
Children on Simeulue Island, Aceh celebrate their newly built school after the tsunami.

By the end of 2007, CAFOD’s partners had built 3,916 houses, 23 schools, three pre-schools, 7 health facilities, 402 water and sanitation systems, 1 community centre and 16 net and fish drying yards. On top of physical reconstruction, CAFOD also assisted to re-build communities and livelihoods, including short-term cash for work schemes, loans to assist people restart their businesses or start afresh, provided tools and seeds, vocational training and livelihood support.

Our partners also made sure that children received the equipment and uniforms necessary to help them return to school.

Sudan

The Celebrate Conference has also supported CAFOD’s partners in Sudan and in the newly independent Republic of South Sudan. Across such a vast land, the people have suffered terribly from long and bloody civil wars, leaving millions homeless and destitute.

In January 2011, a referendum on southern independence voted in favour of division. CAFOD has offices in both the North and South of Sudan, and is therefore well placed to monitor and react to all situations on the ground. We worked with the Sudanese Bishops’ Conference to call for a peaceful referendum and transition of power in July 2011.


Sara A. Fajardo/ © CRS

In the run-up to the referendum, there were fears of civil unrest and violence. We worked with our Catholic partners to prepare for every eventuality, twinning with local dioceses, and putting emergency food aid and household survival kits in place. We also worked with partners to provide support for the thousands of southerners who returned from Northern Sudan in the run-up to the election.

In the UK, we launched the Sudan Peace campaign asking the Catholic community in England and Wales to pray for Sudan in solidarity with the Sudanese Bishops’ Conference’s 101 days of prayer for peace. The referendum took place peacefully. However, a number of complex areas such as citizenship, borders and sharing of natural resources remain unresolved. We are continuing to ask our supporters to pray for a peaceful transition of power.

Current emergency: East Africa


© Laura Donkin/CAFOD
Baby Maria, 9mths, is assessed for malnutrition at the Catholic Clinic at Hula-Hula village near Marsabit. The clinic’s supplementary feeding programme provides plumpynut—a peanut-based nutrient-rich food—for severely malnourished children.

The Celebrate Conference also supports CAFOD’s general funds, providing a wonderful boost to the work that CAFOD undertakes together with some of the world’s poorest communities. Giving to CAFOD’s general funds allows us to continue to support long-term development work and to react quickly in times of emergencies, such as the unprecedented and still unfolding situation in East Africa.

People living in some regions of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are potentially facing their worst drought for 60 years. The United Nations has declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia, as the devastating drought continues to affect the lives of millions in East Africa. Poor rains have led to failed harvests, serious water shortages and the deaths of tens of thousands of precious livestock.

CAFOD is working with a wide range of local partners in Kenya and in dioceses in the worst affected areas of Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan. Our partners are providing emergency food aid to the most vulnerable, including young children, pregnant women, mothers with infants and elderly people. They are also rehabilitating existing water-sources including wells and are helping pastoralists keep their animals alive by providing animal feed and veterinary support.

CAFOD will additionally be helping people become more resilient to future disasters, for example by building earth dams (artificial reservoirs) that hold water for longer and by supplying drought-resistant crops to farmers.

Praying with CAFOD: East Africa

“ ‘Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,’ says the LORD.” (Psalm 12:5 NIV)

Lord God, creator and giver of all that is,
defender and protector of those in need,
we ask you to bring the peoples of East Africa
beneath your loving care.
Their children are hungry and their land is dry.
Lord God, bringer of hope,
your love brings water to flow in the desert
and light into the darkness of despair.
Show us how to be witnesses to your love
and bearers of your light,
alongside our sisters and brothers,
who face the urgent challenges
and terrible fears of lasting drought.

Linda Jones/CAFOD

On behalf of CAFOD and our partners around the world, thank-you to all at the Celebrate Conference for your continued support and trust in our work.