This Lent CAFOD is calling on its supporters to join it in tackling global food poverty.
Right now, people across the world are working harder than ever before to provide for their families, but their children are still going hungry. The climate crisis and the pandemic are making an existing food crisis even worse for the world’s poorest communities.
Thousands of supporters across England and Wales are tying up the laces on their trainers and preparing to walk, run, stroll, jog or skip, 200km over the 40 days of Lent for CAFOD’s Walk Against Hunger challenge.
Supporters’ efforts will raise the issue of global hunger in solidarity with others and raise money so that CAFOD can continue vital work with families and communities. This work includes helping communities gain better access to food in the long-term through initiatives such as support for women, training in farming methods resilient to climate change, and savings and loans schemes which can help families and individuals to start small businesses.
Each year, more and more people around the world are going hungry despite there being enough food in the world to feed everyone. According to the UN around 45% of deaths among children under five years of age are linked to not having enough nutritious food because of the way we grow, process, sell and distribute food – it is a broken system that is causing a global food crisis.
The story that CAFOD’s local aid experts have shared is of Lombeh, an energetic four-year-old who lives in Upper Bambara County, Kailahun district, in Sierra Leone. She has recovered from life- threatening malnutrition. Her mother, Amie, did everything she could to keep her child alive, and with support from a community nutrition clinic, run by nuns and supported by CAFOD, Amie received the right food nutrition and information which enabled Lombeh to thrive into the healthy little girl she is today.
Jo Kitterick, CAFOD’s Head of Supporter Participation and Fundraising, said:
“For 60 years the Catholic community has stood in solidarity with people in poverty; Pope Francis urges us now to tackle the causes, as well as the symptoms, of hunger.
“We are incredibly lucky to have such committed and compassionate supporters, who in the face of Coronavirus over the last 18 months, have kept us together as a faith community.
“I know that CAFOD supporters will put all their energy into this year’s Lent fundraiser and will continue to hold close Pope Francis’s powerful call to take care of creation – by challenging those in power to protect the environment, to make changes in our own lifestyles, and to campaign for a fairer global food system.”