The group of walkers carried buckets of water and pictures of Esther, a Zambian woman who has to get up at night and queue for hours to get water for her family. The walk finished at Westminster Cathedral where we displayed thousands of messages from people all over the UK, written on paper water droplets. Blue ribbons held by supporters created symbolic ‘rivers of change’. Walking in solidarity Rose Krzyz, a campaigner from the Hallam diocese, said: “We’re here to walk in solidarity with women who wake at the crack of dawn to fetch water. We are here walking for those for whom water is a luxury. If we solve the problem of water poverty, then we are a long way towards solving the problem of poverty. My message to David Cameron is: Please, please use the G8 to get something concrete done on water poverty.”

Young local CAFOD supporters Grace and Louis were so moved by what they learnt in school to do their bit for children who live without access to safe clean water.  They told their story to CAFOD Diocesan Manager, Angela Powell:

Grace turns clothes into cash for those living in water poverty.

Grace and Louis had heard about the Thirst for Change campaign at school. Grace had been particularly struck by a story about a schoolgirl having to walk so far to get water, and whose grandma died after drinking contaminated water.  They had heard about the government matching fundraising at school, and had been inspired by the many fundraising activities organised to help raise awareness to combat water poverty.  Over Easter they had a big clear out of their wardrobes and their mum organised an Open House to sell Phoenix greetings cards - Mum said “the kids are always asking if they can have a stall at these events to sell their old toys so the idea of selling the clothes came about.  We decided that if they each manned their own stall (boys’ clothes and girls’ clothes), they would donate half the proceeds to CAFOD, which would be government matched, and they would split the other half between them”.  Louis and Grace told Angela about how they had helped price up all the items (mostly 50p) and enjoyed setting  up and managing their own stall.  It was a great success, they took £52 and donated £26 to CAFOD which will be matched back up to £52.  Louis and Grace enjoyed it so much that they are planning to do it again, which is great news for CAFOD!

Monday 7th May 2012, set off between 10.00 – 10.40am from Bolsterstone village hall, north Sheffield.

To register and for more info about the 5, 10 or 15 mile routes visit: http://www.sheffieldmaydaytrek.org.uk/ 

This year we have an additional challenge for you all… 2012 marks 50 years since CAFOD was established as the official aid and development agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

To celebrate this, we will give a CAFOD biodegradable water bottle to any walker who manages to get 50 sponsors or more for the May Day Trek – one for each year of CAFOD’s life.

Be creative in thinking of ways to attract sponsors. How about running a sweepstake for your sponsors? Draw one of their names from a hat after your walk and send them a prize as a thank you. Or ask them to ‘sponsor a year’ between 1962 and 2012. Or anything else to do with the number 50!

 And remember – this Lent, the UK Government will match each donation pound for pound, giving us a unique opportunity to help thousands more people living in poverty. So, for every £1 you raise in sponsorship, the government will give CAFOD another £1! Please help us make this most of this great opportunity. Sign up your sponsors before the Trek to double your fundraising.

See you on 7th May!

www.sheffieldmaydaytrek.org.uk

It is currently estimated that 783 million people are still without access to clean water and 2.5 billion are without safe sanitation. To help raise awareness about this injustice, pupils from St Thomas of Canterbury Primary School, Holy Family, Worksop, Mylnhurst and St Maries Sheffield are contributing droplets of suggestions and fundraising to help improve water access, sanitation and hygiene for some of the worlds most vulnerable and neglected people. 

The droplet shaped messages will form a ‘river’ and encourage others to add their messages of support to end water poverty.  Members of the public are invited to view the display and learn more about how water poverty impacts on young children, women and girls in particular and how we can all work together to bring about change, to improve water and sanitation for all.

 Angela Wood, CAFOD supporter and staff member from St Thomas Canterbury, Primary School Sheffield, said “pupils are writing on the droplets and asking Mr Cameron to ensure that the issue of water poverty remains a priority of world leaders, it must be addressed at the next G8 summit later in the year”.

For further information about this event please contact: Angela Powell on 0114 2687817 or 07779804247. Or view the CAFOD Thirst for Change film featuring Actor David Harewood, please visit http://www.youtube.com/cafodtv and for further information on the CAFOD ‘Thirst for Change’ campaign and how to support it, visit www.cafod.org.uk/thirst.

As well as promoting an understanding of Fairtrade products, CAFOD is making the link between Fairtrade and our Thirst for Change campaign. The fair wages earned by communities who grow and make fairtrade produce means they are more able to put money into projects like, for example, boreholes and sanitation. However, there are still 884 million people around the world who have no access to clean, safe water and 2.6 billion who have no safe sanitation.

Come and find us on Level 2 of the main SHU building, City Campus, Howard Street, to add your voice to the thousands of others asking David Cameron to put ‘Taps, Toilets and Training’ at the top of the G8 agenda in May.

SHU students add their voice to the Thirst for Change campaign

CAFOD will be at SHU from Monday 27th February until Friday 2nd March.www.cafod.org.uk/thirstwww.fairtrade.org.uk

CAFOD Procession of Solidarity

At the end of the Mass, Angela Powell, Diocesan Manager for CAFOD said “as the local representative, it is my privilege to say a huge thank you to our loyal and faithful supporters for their prayers, campaigning and most generous fundraising and wealth sharing”.  Since1993, parish and school communities, religious, Catholic organisations and individuals in Hallam have donated more than £5 million to CAFOD. This has enabled CAFOD partners to work with many grass root organisations, bringing humanitarian relief, as well as improving the livelihoods of thousands of poor communities around the world.  

Great Generation participate in Hallam 50th Anniversary Mass

Bishop John Arnold called us to look to the future and CAFOD’s ongoing commitment to building Gods Kingdom on Earth. This was picked up again at the end of the Mass, when everyone was invited to say together, a prayer of recommitment. CAFOD’s 50^th year Anniversary is an opportunity to reflect and affirm what has been achieved over the years. It is also a time to look forward and acknowledge that there is still much to do to achieve our vision of a world where all can live with dignity and share in the good things of God’s creation. 

Supporters in Hallam celebrate 50 years of CAFOD

 Following Mass, a reception was held in the parish hall, thanks to the hospitality of Fr Brian Lowden and the parish community of St William of York.

CAFOD 50th Birthday Cake

Angela Powell, CAFOD Hallam’s Diocesan Manager, ’stepped out’ on a ‘Coffee Crawl’ organised jointly with Christian Aid and Local Churches Together. The group presented certificates to four coffee shops in Sheffield town centre in recognition for their commitment to promotion and sale of Fairtrade produce.

CAFOD presents a Certificate of Appreciation to Zooby's, Winter Gardens

Presenting a Certificate of Appreciation to Crucible Corner, Tudor Square Starbucks receive their Certificate of Appreciation

Marks & Spencer show off their Fairtrade products and receive their Certificate

These boots were made for walking...

Every day this week I have begun my day by getting dressed and walking 1.2km to my friend’s house, filling my five 2-litre bottles from her outside tap and walking home again. At the beginning of the week it was quite pleasant to spend 45 minutes in the fresh air first thing in the morning, especially if I managed to do the trip in the calm before the rush hour traffic. My mum even came to join me for the journey one morning, as in her experience in Kenya, collecting water was often a sociable experience when the women got chance to be with their friends and catch up on the gossip.

As the week has progressed, however, the novelty has definitely been wearing off. It has become harder and more wearisome to wake up in the morning knowing that I can’t do anything else until I’ve collected my water.

Tomorrow I am going to London for the day and as I am being picked up at 7am I decided to fetch my water this evening so that I wouldn’t have to get up any earlier than absolutely necessary. Whilst I am very much looking forward to not having to walk for 45 minutes before I can have my wash tomorrow, doing the journey twice in one day really made me think. Maybe because it was the end of the day, maybe because it was dark and raining, but the trip this evening seemed to take much longer than it had done this morning. I can’t imagine how long it would feel if I was doing it several times a day. And the reality for many people is a much, much longer journey.

Besides the early mornings, the walking has taken other tolls on my body. Due to socks with holes in I ended up with blisters on my heels on the first day, which made walking painful for several days after.

Weighing my water: 1 litre = 1 kg

The weight of water in my rucksack – 10 kilos if my calculations are correct (1 litre = 1 kilo) – pulls at my shoulders and makes them ache. I do not have the skill of carrying water on my head but 11-year old Rosena from Zambia used to so on a daily basis, until a borehole was drilled in her village with support from CAFOD:

“Fetching water from the river was tiring,” says Rosena. “The walk home was worse because we were carrying heavy containers on our heads. I gave thanks to God when the borehole was drilled because it has made life so much easier. My neck used to ache a lot, sometimes it stopped me sleeping. But now we don’t have to walk as far, the pain has gone away.”

I only have another day to go, but there are so many for whom there is no end in sight.

www.cafod.org.uk/thirst

When planning my other meals, I am conscious not only of the amount of water a meal takes to prepare and cook, but also how much washing up I produce in the process. Consequently I am trying to cook meals which use a minimal number of dishes and pans, and am re-using plates, mugs and cutlery rather than getting clean items out of the cupboard each time.

I am fortunate to live in a culture where we have such a wide variety of foods available that it is possible to choose meals which are don’t require too much water to cook – e.g. fajitas, sausage and mash, noodles, sandwiches – but I imagine it would be a very different story if my staple diet was rice and pulses and fresh vegetables which take far more water to prepare. And I am already in the habit of using a steamer to cook most of my veg, which uses much less water than boiling them (and also retains much more of the goodness of the veg).

Preparing my Burn's Night haggis supper on Wednesday

I am trying to avoid using processed or pre-prepared food. However, I’ve realised as the week has gone on that even ‘unprepared’ foods like fresh vegetables have already used a lot of water on their way from field to fridge for example, my potatoes are already clean, my cous cous processed, my bread baked. And this is before even considering the amount of water it took to grow the raw ingredients in the first place. In fact, while we only need to drink two to five litres of water each day to stay healthy, it takes between 2,000 to 5,000 litres of water to produce enough food per person, per day. Wow.

One person who will already understand the impact of this is Judith, 38, from Zimbabwe . She is not only a full-time mum, but also the breadwinner for the household. She relies on water to drink, wash with, and to grow the vegetables in her garden – an important source of income for her family. “I get so frustrated when I am standing in the water queue. I panic because I imagine my vegetables are getting destroyed by the sun. I think to myself: ‘how will we make money? What will we eat? How will I cope?’ The change in weather has affected all of Zimbabwe, particularly poor people like us. Less rain equals less food, equals hunger. It seems like our water problems just keep getting worse.”

www.cafod.org.uk/thirst