Who is Christian Aid?

Christian Aid is a collection of 41 Christian churches in Ireland and the UK from Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic denominations, who work together through the relief agency to do charity work. It supports civil societies, offers disaster relief, helps with sustainable development and works to get rid of poverty in the areas of Asia, South America, Africa and the Caribbean. Its headquarters are located in London, England but there are teams across Ireland and the UK. There are also some offices in areas where it does a lot of its work. Christian aid week is a big door to door collection that happens usually in May to raise money for the organisation.

Projects they are committed to

Christian Aid has been involved with many projects helping people around the world. They were part of the reconstruction process after the Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam wars. They help countries after they have overthrown dictators with aid, as with Uganda, Cambodia and Nicaragua. Across 50 countries it has helped vulnerable people in several ways and worked with more than 700 local organisations. Currently, it is also involved with supporting communities as COVID-19 sweeps through.

Source of income

There are a number of ways in which Christian Aid raises money to fund their actions. It receives institutional grants, gifts from regular patrons, general donations, emergency appeals and likely its biggest week, its Christian Aid Week campaign. A good portion comes from the European Commission and the Department for International Development and then another good amount comes from communities and churches and their collections. They also run walks, quizzes, and other events. As well as Christian Aid Week other top collection times are when more people head to church, Lent, Easter, Christmas, and Harvest time.

A closer look at Christian Aid Week

This is a campaign Christian Aid runs every year as a means of fundraising. Traditionally it has been held in the second week of May across the whole of Britain. Thousands of volunteers will post the red collection envelopes through letterboxes all over. The first Christian Aid Week took place in 1957 meaning until this year it has been running for 72 years. It is the longest-running money-raising week in Britain even though this year COVID-19 has meant the week was unable to happen. Over 10% of its total income comes from this week usually but with the need for social distancing, Christian Aid made the difficult choice to not have the in-person envelope money drive. Instead, they have been asking for donations online.

Summary

From training people about the effects of climate change to helping defend against natural disasters, working on HIV education and developing better sanitation and getting access to clean water, Christian Aid has been helping communities all over the world. Now more then ever it needs people to make the effort to send in a donation. There are communities in serious need who are vulnerable and need help, right now.