The Christmas Appeal raises money to support all the work and partners of CWS. Every year we focus ondifferent partners to give you a better idea of the work that is being done. With this year’s focus is on food programmes. This is just a small snapshot of the change your donations help to achieve.
Emergency Aid
Catastrophic events are all too common but Christian World Service helps people cope by providing food and other essentials. When rain failed in Zvishavane (Zwe-sha-va-nae) in the midlands of Zimbabwe, and food reserves were gone, CWS partner Christian Care stepped in to provide children with maize meal porridge at school each day. Without it, they would have had to drop out from hunger, missing vital schooling. The school feeding programme enabled them to keep up their studies and relieved some of the pressure on their families. Now the focus for food is in the Horn of Africa where millions of people face famine.
CWS Cambodia
For Mr Kong Chun in Cambodia, CWS funding has turned his family’s fortune around. With training and materials to build a home garden Chun says, “I have raised 40 healthy chickens and grow different kinds of vegetables. The vegetables from my home garden are for my family to eat and to sell at the market.” It is a far cry from the days when the family scavenged to survive for up to seven months of the year.
Monlar, Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka we are helping support a farming revolution that is fast getting world attention. The many success stories coming out of this movement are a collective effort but their public face is undoubtedly, Sarath Fernando. Sarath Fernando is the moderator of MONLAR. He has spoken in New Zealand as a guest of Christian World Service. MONLAR stands for the Sir Lankan Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform.
Timor Leste
Timor Leste is a new country, with extreme poverty and a recent history of violence. Many parents are unable to provide for their children. The Dominican Sisters care for these young people alongside those left orphaned. Teenagers are trained in gardening, agriculture and aquaculture and other livelihood skills. The children learn to produce their own food and share the surplus with others in need. Feeding and supporting each other strengthens the community and makes sharing the care a fact of life.
Church of Uganda
With costs rising and the dominance of large scale production, poor small farmers are being squeezed, pushing more people into poverty. In Uganda there have been food riots as people expressed their anger at hunger and the lack of sound policies that will make a difference. CWS Supports the Church of Uganda which runs agricultural training programmes for rural people to improve production but more are needed to feed the whole country
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