I would like to send a gift to support CAFOD cafod.org.uk Title: Initials: Surname: Home address: "CAFOD makes the world seem smaller. When Postcode: you know and Telephone number: (where we may contact you) care about people, Email address: it doesn't ma"er (where we may contact you) that we live on Please accept my donation of: £ different sides I enclose a cheque/postal order (please make donations payable to CAFOD) of our planet." Lola, St Paul's Academy. or please debit my: Visa MasterCard CharityCard AmericanExpress Switch/Maestro Delta Card no: (Switch/Maestro only) Valid from: Expiry date: Switch issue no: Signature: Date: / / R21773 If you are a UK tax payer, the value of your donations could increase by nearly a third at no extra cost to you, just print your full name here. On the front cover: These women live in southern Ethiopia, a region Taxpayer’s full name:_______________________________________ which suffers from severe drought. Thanks to your generosity, we have been able to provide water I would like CAFOD to treat all donations I have made from and food. 6 April 2003 and until further notice as Gift Aid donations. My annual UK Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax is more than the tax CAFOD will reclaim in the appropriate tax year. Patron Charles Reeve-Tucker FCA His Eminence, Cardinal Cormac (Honorary Treasurer) Or please tick I am not a UK taxpayer cafod.org.uk Murphy-O’Connor Robert Archer Jenny Cosgrave Trustees Clare Gardner Right Reverend John Rawsthorne Dominic Jermey OBE Right Reverend Kieran Conry (from 12th December 2008) CAFOD is the official overseas development and relief agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Dr Mary Hallaway OBE Mark McGreevy (to 26th September 2008) Mary McHugh Review of the year Please send your completed form, with gift, to: CAFOD, Romero Close, Stockwell Road, London SW9 9TY Mary Ney (from 26th September 2008) Fr James O’Keefe CAFOD, FREEPOST, Romero Close, Stockwell Road, London SW9 9BR Tel: 020 7733 7900 Email: [email protected] Website: cafod.org.uk Nicholas Warren Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP Registered charity no. 285776 Donation line: 0500 85 88 85 Victoria Santer Fr Frank Turner SJ Photographs: Innocent Baryinyonza, Bridget Burrows, Annie Bungeroth, CAFOD staff, George Coppock, Thank you for your support Wilde Fry, Marcella Haddad, Islamic Relief, Alessandra Magri, PQNSR Peru staff, Astrid de Valon, Simon Rawles. 2008/09 Printed on 100% recycled paper. Registered charity no. 285776 Annual Review 09:Layout 1 11/8/09 12:30 Page 2 Letter from the director “Human rights the entire UK government aid budget. The can only be World Bank estimates that lower economic recognised, growth will trap 46 million more people on they cannot be 1.25 dollars a day than was expected before conferred or taken the downturn. CAFOD's future work will be away. They are affected too. Current income estimates mean inherent in our we will be cutting our costs, including salaries, nature as God’s by up to £1.5 million in the coming year. Welcome creation.” December 2008 saw the 60th anniversary of New Zealand Bishops’ the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Conference 60 years in which the world has taken great steps to acknowledge the inherent equality of all human beings. Such advances must My heartfelt thanks go to everyone who not be allowed to slip back. More than ever, Welcome supports our work with gifts of time, prayer the poorest in our world stand in need of and money. Amazingly, you have ensured predictable and reliable aid. that despite the credit crunch, the grants we provide to those who are the poorest CAFOD believes passionately that upholding and most disadvantaged have not so far people’s rights and human dignity is as been cut. important as meeting basic needs. These pages tell how the right to peace, to equal However, the global recession is inevitably treatment, to justice, is fundamental to the hitting the poorest hardest. The weak pound development of the human person. and local inflation have wiped out up to 25 per cent of the real value of our aid, and of Chris Bain, Director Contents pages 2-3 Welcome Weathering the storm The problems of very poor communities in How opportune the message of the pages 4-5 Saving lives the developing world seem suddenly closer livesimply network of Catholic organisations pages 6-7 Justice and peace to us in our current economic difficulties. has proved. Well ahead of the credit crunch, With a renewed sense of shared destiny, it spoke of recovering genuine values, of pages 8-9 Living positively we can perhaps open ourselves to learn caring more about justice than wealth – in from those with long experience of crisis. short, of living in a simpler way. Thousands pages 10-11 Land and freedom have shown they were ready to do this long While the rich world is ruled by the law of before the economy forced them to do so. pages 12-13 A force for change competition, the poor know they can only survive through collaboration. Every CAFOD As a church community, we already have pages 14-16 Your actions count project I visit proves the value of this rich inner resources. We know that fullness instinctive solidarity – as volunteer carers of life comes through trust in God and in page 17 CAFOD’s finances sit with AIDS patients, as women run one another, and through according each micro-credit operations based on mutual trust. person their rights and dignity. The Church’s page 18 Where we work answer to what can bring real happiness I also see it in the commitment of CAFOD page 19 Vision, mission and values and meaning to our lives never changes – staff, who suffer for the communities they whatever the economic weather. accompany, as the global downturn and climate change threaten years of John Rawsthorne, painstaking progress. Bishop of Hallam, Chair of CAFOD 2 cafod.org.uk Review of the year 2008/09 3 Annual Review 09:Layout 1 11/8/09 12:30 Page 4 Saving lives When lives are at stake, there’s no time to lose. We push to get aid through, against the odds, sometimes in the most extreme situations. DRC: Long road to recovery The crisis in the Democratic Republic “As Christians, of Congo has left the world reeling. Emergencies we are called to Around three million lives have been respond to the lost through war, and the suffering needs of all our continues today. Renewed fighting brothers and in the east has left 250,000 homeless. sisters, but those We appealed for funds and you with the greatest responded with an outpouring of Emergencies needs require the generosity. This year, you raised almost Emergencies greatest response.” £2.4 million – showing strong solidarity US Bishops’ Conference with the people of Congo even during this time of financial uncertainty. Today, your money is providing shelter materials, cooking equipment and clothing to more than 45,000 forced to flee their homes. It’s also stocking hospitals with life-saving medicines, We provided emergency supplies, including medical equipment, in crisis-torn Gaza. providing medical care for women Gaza: Courage under fire who have been sexually attacked, and piping drinking water to thousands This year, conflict in Gaza killed 1,300 16 January 2009 Our emergency food aid is saving lives in Zimbabwe. in urgent need. Palestinians and injured thousands more. “Yesterday we delivered hospital trolleys, We gave £229,000 for emergency heart machines and first aid equipment Zimbabwe: Being there Our partners are also helping reintegrate medical supplies, food, drinking water including bandages and syringes to five child soldiers back into society and and blankets. Our local partners were hospitals. Today our work was suspended. In October 2008, up to 90 per cent of households interviewed giving people the seeds, tools and working in the thick of the crisis, doing Aid is entering through Israel and Egypt for a survey by our partner, Caritas Zimbabwe, were on the brink knowledge to grow food. everything possible to save lives. but people can’t collect the food and of hunger. When we respond to an emergency, medicines – it’s not safe for them to we’re there for the long haul. Hatem Shurrab (left), an Many families were surviving on wild fruits, roots and insects. leave their homes.” aid worker for our partner, A three-month ban on international aid imposed by the Zimbabwean Islamic Relief, wrote a Feb 12 2009 government in June, followed by a cholera epidemic in December, moving account of this “Many people are sleeping in tents – they exacerbated this deadly situation. You cared… inspirational work. have no homes to return to. I have seen Your ongoing support is helping some of Zimbabwe’s poorest people Some emergencies make the headlines; how aid agencies can make a real difference to feed their families and access clean water. Our partners are others are ‘hidden’ or forgotten to people’s lives – in some cases even saving distributing food to 159,000 people, and providing seeds and training disasters. All bring heartache and them. But it’s the strength of the people 8 January 2009 so families can grow crops and cope better with future food crises. suffering. This year, 1,218 supporters “I live with my family in the centre of Gaza. of Gaza and their ability to keep going became part of our emergency response Every window and door has been broken by amongst the horror and devastation that The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe has a strong history of providing team, raising over £63,000.