15 February 2022
This Lent UK charity CAFOD is calling on its supporters to join them in tackling global food poverty.
Jo Kitterick, CAFOD’s head of fundraising and participation, said:
“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 make 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.
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,” said Kitterick. She continued, “according to the UN around 45 per cent 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, concluded:
“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.”
Here’s everything you need to ensure all your steps count.
Notes to Editor
For further information, broadcast interviews, film footage and photos please contact:
Tamala Ceasar on
tceasar@cafod.org.uk or, CAFOD’s 24-hour media hotline on +44 (0)7919 301 429
To sign up for Walk Against Hunger click here.
Walk Against Hunger is CAFOD’s Lent challenge where supporters are asked to do 5K steps a day – for the 40 days of Lent, done in any way they like, to raise money to end world hunger.
Lent starts on 2nd March (Ash Wednesday) – for 40 days
Money raised for CAFOD this Lent will enable its local aid workers to reach vulnerable families. For example:
£12 can buy the basic ingredients for a new mum to make sesame seed paste for her malnourished baby
£20 can pay for expert food and healthcare classes for new mums and dads in rural communities
£200 can feed ten malnourished children sesame paste for a week, helping them grow big and strong.
£1000 can provide hardy seeds to a whole farming community throughout a planting season.
CAFOD is the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and part of Caritas International. Across the world we bring hope and compassion to poor communities, standing side by side with them to end poverty and injustice. Because we work through the local Church, we can reach people and places that others can’t.