Donate to the Parish
Catholic Legacy Week
24th –  30th May
Gifts in Wills pay for over a third of CAFOD’s development work.
We would have to turn down one in three requests for help, 
​without them.
​
Your gift enables many more families to access nourishing food, clean water, and the tools they need to build a better life and a brighter future.
​
CAFOD are offering a free Will-writing service; to help you make your Will and look after the people and causes you care about most.




Use the QR code below for CAFOD’s free Will-writing service.

​Make your Will online or over the phone.
​CAFOD free Will service

​Make your Will face-to-face with a local solicitor.

UPDATE ON CAFODS CAMPAIGNS

Sudan and war: On the 9th January Sudan had been at war for 1,000 days:
What's happening and how can you help:
CAFOD's Head of Region said, "What I heard left me speechless. Atrocities, mass displacement, and a humanitarian crisis that continues to unfold in silence. The scale of suffering is staggering, and the muted global response has been profoundly disheartening.”

Almost 12 million people have been driven from their homes, more than half of them women and children. 7.2 million people are currently displaced inside Sudan, many living in overcrowded camps facing extreme hunger and disease outbreaks, with millions fleeing across borders into South Sudan and Chad.

Urge the Foreign secretary to act on Sudan. CAFOD has joined with 11 other agencies to ask the UK Government to:
  • Scale up diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire
  • Increase humanitarian access across Sudan
  • Increase funding, in particular to local aid groups

Please sign the petition.

CAFOD are responding working closely with Church partners and other local experts to provide:
  • Emergency food, and nutrition screening and treatment in North Darfur State, to quickly identify and treat people who are malnourished
  • Cash vouchers for vulnerable families to buy essentials
  • Water supply planning and repairs to latrines, including building emergency latrines and trucking water to relocated South Sudanese refugees in the White Nile region
  • Support for people who have had to flee their homes

For further details from CAFOD please follow the link The Sudan crisis.
Debt and Food
​2.33 billion people are facing food insecurity.  Most insecure countries have increased their debt by 75% in recent years.  Climate change is making agricultural production harder.  Debt diverts resources from agriculture.  Kenya spent 16% of its National income on interest payments and 2.46% on agriculture.

Many countries are forced to use land to grow crops for export (coffee & cotton) to get
foreign currency and debt payments. They then cannot produce enough food for local
demand/consumption so import staple foods from outside.
Food security can be achieved by:
  • A new global debt framework to provide a level playing field for creditors and debtors. The UK as President of G20 can play a key role in this.
  • Alternative ways of producing food such as agroecology, working with nature. This is being applied across the world.
  • Urge the government to support sustainable ways of growing food, by writing to the Minister for International Development email the minister with this link.
​For further details from CAFOD please follow the link Debt and Food.
Restrictive seed laws overturned: Kenyan farmers' rights restored
​After years of campaigning Kenya's seed laws have been declared unconstitutional, setting a positive precedent to challenge similar laws in other countries. The ruling means that, without fear of prosecution, farmers in Kenya are now free to:
  • save their own seeds
  • share seeds within their communities
  • exchange and sell farmer varieties
  • strengthen farmer-managed seed systems.
This is a huge step towards restoring seed sovereignty, defending indigenous knowledge and protecting the heart of African agroecology, and affirms that seeds belong to farmers, communities and generations.
​What was the outcome at COP30?

​Hopes were very high ahead of the conference, which took place in Belém, in the Amazon.

Some issues were progressed:

CAFOD's Climate Change Policy Lead, Liz Cronin said “The final Mutirão decision text contains a very significant victory on a just transition implementation mechanism.” This is a plan or process for ensuring that the world can shift away from fossil fuels and towards a greener future in a fair and democratic way.

However this COP did not deliver everything wanted. Far greater amounts of funding are needed to help local communities cope with the effects of climate change and prepare for the future. This funding needs to be in the form of grants, not loans, to avoid adding further debt to struggling countries.
​
For further details from CAFOD please follow the link COP30 outcomes.

Lent Family Fast Day

​Lent Family Fast Day is on Friday 27 February. Our Parish's support for this Fast Day will help our neighbours grow enough food to eat. Around the world – despite farmers’ best efforts – crops are failing and families are going hungry.
In areas of Zimbabwe rain is very scarce. In parts of Bangladesh and South Sudan, too much causing flooding. Either way, the result is the same – seeds fail to grow, harvests disappear, and families go hungry. 
But there is hope and there are solutions. It needs all of us: our community, CAFOD’s local experts, and families who are willing to embrace innovative ideas to overcome the dire consequences of extreme weather events.
In Zimbabwe, where drought threatens everything, Shorai is a farmer and a father. He and his family worked with CAFOD’s local experts to build an eco-garden, using drought-resistant crops and a solar-powered water pump. That pump, funded by Fast Day donations, draws water from a nearby dam, turning dry ground into fertile land.
Shorai put it simply: “As a father, it will be difficult for you to sleep.” It is not just the hunger that kept him awake at night, but the guilt and pain of seeing his children go to bed with empty stomachs. He told CAFOD: “A good neighbour is someone who can help me in periods of need.”
​In South Sudan and Bangladesh, where devastating floods destroyed farmland, CAFOD’s  local partners helped families develop a remarkable solution: gardens that float on water. (See picture above.) Rejoice, who lives in South Sudan, built a floating garden to grow food above the floodwaters. She told CAFOD: “The yields from the garden help me feed my family.”
In God's eyes, we are one global family, called by Jesus to be neighbours. Our parish's support this Family Fast Day will mean more of our neighbours can put food on the table.
​Donations
This Lent Family Fast Day please donate to CAFOD to help families adapt to extreme weather.
Please donate with either:-
  1. the CAFOD envelopes returned in the second collection to be taken on 28 February and 1 March.
  2. the contactless machines or Church website  link
  3. Directly to CAFOD Virtual Envelope 
  4. Text CAFOD to 70560 to donate £10
​
  1. Using this QR code

​Please consider starting a monthly gift.
  • Prayer for Lent Family Fast Day
    Hope is a kernel of light and strength
    which dwells in our hearts
    in expectation of good things to come.
    Light up our lives with your love
    so that we may be signs of hope.
    Hope shines brightly,
    but the burdens of life
    can dampen its glow.
    Light up our lives with your love
    so that we may be signs of hope.
    Lead us as pilgrims on a journey
    alongside our brothers and sisters
    as we respond to your call to share.
    Light up our lives with your love
    so that we may be signs of hope.
    Renew our faith
    and move us to action
    as we commit to building a better world.
    Light up our lives with your love
    so that we may be signs of hope.
    Amen. ​
  • They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and
    their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword
    against nation, no longer will they learn how to make war.
    ISAIAH 2:4

    Christ, Prince of Peace, 
    hear our prayer and lament, 
    for our suffering sisters and brothers. 
    Our hearts are heavy as we witness lives torn apart,  
    as we see the faces of frightened children 
    and hear the pleas of those without water or food. 
    We pray for the dead and the grieving, 
    for the injured and the afraid. 
    We pray for courage and perseverance, 
    for those working for healing and to bring aid. 
    We pray for world leaders, 
    that they may strive for a just and lasting peace. 
    God of new beginnings, 
    in your ways are compassion and hope. 
    Open our hearts to dialogue and understanding. 
    Lead us all to answer your call 
    to become peacemakers 
    today, and all the days of our life. 
    Amen. 

  • ​God of Hope
    God of hope,
    we cling to you,
    for you renew the face of the earth. 
    Through the gift of your Son,
    our Lord Jesus,
    we follow you on the path of dawn.
    Enlightened by your love and wisdom,
    help us to lead each other
    and all creatures
    back to your open arms.
    Amen.
    Rachel McCarthy/CAFOD
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