This year marks CAFOD’s 60th Anniversary as an official charity. The very first Family Fast Day in 1958 was organised by 4 friends (Jacquie Stuyt, Evelyn White, Nora Warmington and Elspeth Orchard), raised over £6000 for the Dominica Mother and Baby Clinic. Just four years later, in 1962, CAFOD became an official charity. For the […]
International Development
14 Feb – CAFOD’s Lenten Walk Against Hunger
By Matthew Maslen It will be Ash Wednesday in a fortnight. This year, CAFOD’s Lenten campaign is the Walk Against Hunger; inviting people to walk 200km during Lent to raise awareness and funds for CAFOD’s nutrition projects. The campaign is particularly focusing on Sierra Leone. Around the world there are 200 million children living at […]
21 Jul – J&P Diocesan Annual Gathering
By John Battle, Commission Chair On the 24th June 2020 we held the annual meeting of our Leeds Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission as an open “gathering” on ” Zoom” to announce the refocussing of our project work; responding as a Diocese to the climate crisis, developing our parish “Poverty in the UK” workshop pack […]
We could all do with a bit of ‘FACTFULNESS’
Every day we seem to be bombarded with statistics of one sort or another in connection with the Covid-19 crisis. The phrase ‘the scientific evidence leads us…’ is one that is frequently heard. If you ever needed any persuading about the importance of having a modest statistical education, then our current predicament should be motivation […]
20 Jan – Being a Schools Volunteer with CAFOD
Who are you? I’m Julie Bowyer and I live in Saint John Mary Vianney Parish (SJMV). I am a retired sales manager, hold a volunteer position as school governor at my local Catholic primary and am an active parish member at SJMV.What attracted you to becoming a CAFOD schools volunteer? I have always been interested […]
18 Jun – Goodbye to Madeline -CAFOD Step into the Gap volunteer
Madeline started as a CAFOD ‘Step into the Gap’ volunteer at Leeds Trinity University last September. This programme is for people aged 18-30 who want to take a year out in the service of others. CAFOD works with various placement organisers such as universities, retreat centres and diocesan youth teams. Madeline first heard about the […]
04 Apr – New CAFOD Director, Christine Allan, visits Leeds
Christine Allen, the new Director of CAFOD, was in Leeds today to meet with Bishop Marcus. She described her meeting with Bishop Marcus as ‘very positive’ with the Bishop asking what else he could do to support the work of CAFOD in the Diocese. Christine also visited the CAFOD Volunteer centre in St Monica’s House, […]
05 Dec – CAFOD @ Leeds Trinity University
Hello, I’m Madeline. I’m a recent graduate and this academic year I am on CAFOD’s Step into the Gap programme. The majority of this leadership programme, run by CAFOD, is based at a placement in the UK. For me, this is Leeds Trinity University. I first heard about the programme from my mother, who is […]
19 Apr – CAFOD’s work in El Salvador & Nicaragua
by Sophie Aulton the CAFOD Step into the Gap volunteer at Leeds Trinity University. I have recently returned from a two-and-a-half-week trip to El Salvador and Nicaragua as part of my gap year on CAFODs Step into the Gap programme for 18-30 year olds. Before the trip, I had few expectations never having visited a […]
24 Jan – Good Shepherd Mytholmroyd & Live Simply
We asked people who attended our Live Simply Workshop in June 2017 if they had done anything following it. At the start of January Michael Emly gave an update from Our Lady of Kirkstall parish in NW Leeds. Here, Janet Almond provides an update from Good Shepherd Parish in Mytholmroyd. As with everything, it is […]
The UK – A Leader In Development Aid?
During 2009-10 I was a VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) volunteer in Sri Lanka, working with a small NGO (the Business for Peace Alliance – or BPA for short). It is a network organisation of regional Chambers of Commerce. The civil war there had recently reached its bloody climax and the island was now ‘at peace’. […]
24 Apr 17 – ‘Vivir bien’ – working with communities to shape development in Bolivia
This article is by Nikki Evans, CAFOD’s Programme Officer for Bolivia. As she lives in Yorkshire she is regularly to be seen around the Leeds CAFOD Volunteer Centre. This article serves as an introduction to the lecture she will be giving at Leeds Trinity University on 4th May – see the end of the article […]
17 APR 17 -New CAFOD Volunteer Campaigns Coordinator
This is Patrick Taulo Chabviaka. He is the new volunteer Campaigns Coordinator in the Leeds Diocese CAFOD Volunteer Centre. Patrick says about himself: “I come from Malawi which is a land locked tiny country on the South eastern part of Africa. Inspired by my modest upbringing and experience of being born in one of the […]
The Girl Effect
Sophie comes from Manchester but has seen the error of her ways and moved to the east side of the Pennines to do her Masters in Global Development at the University of Leeds and be a volunteer in the Leeds CAFOD Volunteer Centre The Girl Effect is an initiative founded by the NIKE Foundation that aims […]
Don’t halt UK Development Aid
There are still 350 million children in our world in extreme poverty at risk from death by hunger, lack of clean fresh water, healthcare and with little chance of education, or productive supporting work. Despite decades of international efforts and resolutions at the United Nations and some real reductions in the scale of poverty world-wide, […]