When crops fail, families go hungry because the land they depend on can no longer sustain them. Too much rain. Too little rain. Nothing can grow.
In God's eyes, we are one global family, called to be neighbours. Give today to help your neighbours put food on the table.
Rejoice with her children
Rejoice is a mother in South Sudan. To protect her children, she was forced to flee conflict twice, losing everything she owned. Just as she began to rebuild her life, disaster struck again.
Severe flooding submerged her farmland. Crops were destroyed. Livestock was lost. Rejoice explains:
“The farmlands were submerged underwater. Everything, including livestock, was completely destroyed.”
Rejoice is a skilled farmer, but when the land disappeared beneath the water, there was nothing she could do. With no food to harvest, she faced the terrifying reality of not being able to feed her children.
But Rejoice didn’t give up. With the support of local experts and donations like yours, she learned a remarkable solution: growing food on top of the water. Floating gardens now rise with the floodwater, allowing crops to grow where fields once lay underwater.
As we journey through Lent, a time of prayer, fasting and giving alms, could you consider showing your compassion, love and commitment beyond Lent too, by pledging a transformative monthly gift? By making a monthly gift, you'll be helping even more families grow enough food to eat.
As we journey through Lent, a time of prayer, fasting and giving alms, could you consider showing your compassion, love and commitment beyond Lent too, by pledging a transformative monthly gift?
Set up your monthly gift today and help families like Rejoice, Obayedul, Shorai and Hamunyare’s build a stronger, more resilient future.
£7 a month can help a farmer build and care for their own flood resistant garden for an entire year
£15 a month can fund a pump mechanic to repair and maintain their village’s water pump
£24 a month can help 5 farmers build and maintain their own floating garden
Obayedul and his family
In Bangladesh, large areas of fertile farmland were left underwater and unusable for months at a time, with worsening storms causing even more severe damage to crops.
Local experts worked alongside communities to develop floating gardens. A simple but powerful innovations that allow families to grow food all year round.
Obayedul, a farmer in Bangladesh, explains the difference this has made:
“Nowadays, since we started farming on floating beds, we always have some money on hand.”
With food to eat and surplus to sell, families like Obayedul’s are building more secure futures.
Shorai and Hamunyare
In northern Zimbabwe, Hamunyare and her husband Shorai faced a different challenge, drought. As the rains failed year after year, their crops withered and hunger became a constant worry. With support from local experts, their community came together to build a solar-powered water pump. They grew a drought-resistant eco-garden, helping families feed themselves again. For Shorai, this support showed the true meaning of solidarity:
“A good neighbour is someone who can help me in times of need — someone who can lift me when I’m drowning. It shows togetherness as a community, and love for one another.”
This Lent, your can help families like Shorai and Hamunyare grow enough to eat.
Give a donation today and your gift of love will take root in the heart of a community.
Lent is a time of reflection and renewal leading up to the celebration of Easter. It lasts for 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday (not including Sundays).
The practice is based on Jesus’ 40 days in the desert where he fasted, prayed and had to face temptation (Luke 4: 1-13).
Many people think of it as a time to ‘give something up’, but actually it is an opportunity to make important changes in our lives. We can spend the time thinking about how we live, whether we have got our priorities right, saying sorry for the things we have done wrong, and preparing to live in a better way. Then we will be ready for the great celebration of Easter.
During Lent, Christians are asked to pray, to fast and to share what they have with people who are poor (almsgiving). In this way they re-connect with God, with themselves, and with their neighbours.
Easter in 2026 falls on Sunday 05 April. Good Friday is on Friday 3 April.
Easter moves each year because it is always celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon that follows the spring equinox. Jesus’ death and resurrection took place around the Jewish Passover, which is also calculated on the lunar calendar.
This Lent, CAFOD’s Family Fast Day will be on Friday 27 February. The first Family Fast Day was held by a pioneering group of women in 1960. Read more about what the outcome was of that work. We invite you to get involved with our Family Fast Day this year.
You can buy an Easter card and also lots of lovely Easter treats through CAFOD World Gifts. Look out for: Fantastic Fisherfolk. A perfect Easter gift for your loved ones.
All of your gifts are vital in our work to end poverty, but monthly gifts are particularly useful as they mean we can plan ahead for the long term projects that our local experts run with communities.
Nearly a quarter of the work we do is made possible by people who give monthly, which means it is one of our largest sources of funding.
Monthly gifts that were set up on our website in October 2022 or later, can be managed by visiting donors.cafod.org.uk
If you set up your donation in another way or before October 2022, and you need to manage your Direct Debit, please call our Supporter Care team on 0303 303 3030. They’re available Monday to Friday, from 9.30am to 5.30pm. You can also email them on supportercare@cafod.org.uk (never send your card details via email).
