2104 Christian Aid News 16pg_FA

ChRISTIAN
AID IRElAND
Winter 2012 ■ Number 40
GUATeMALA
where tax dodging leads to hunger
■ TAX JUsTICe BUs
Tours Ireland
■ CARTOOn COnTesT
Winning entry inside

www.christianaid.ie
Christian Aid Ireland is the official relief and
development agency of the Church of Ireland,
the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Nonsubscribing
Presbyterian Church of Ireland,
the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Moravian
Church, the Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers), the Salvation Army, and the Irish
Council of Churches.
It is a member of ACT Alliance (Action by
Churches Together), the worldwide ecumenical
network for emergency relief.
Christian Aid is a signatory to the Dóchas Code
of Conduct on Images & Messages. More
details can be found on www.dochas.ie
Please send any feedback about images in this
publication to ahorsman@christian-aid.org
Chief executive,
Christian Aid Ireland
Rosamond Bennett
Belfast Office:
Linden House, Beechill Business Park,
96 Beechill Road, Belfast BT8 7QN
Tel: (028) 9064 8133
email: Belfast@christian-aid.org
Contacts:
deborah doherty,
Head of Church & Community
Adrian Horsman,
Head of Communications & Media
Dublin Office:
16-17 Clanwilliam Terrace
Grand Canal Quay, dublin 2
Tel: (01) 611 0801
Fax: (01) 661 0949
email: dublin@christian-aid.org
Contacts:
Nazma Kabir,
Head of Programme development
Peter Byrne, Churches Liaison/
development Offi cer
Cork Office:
Hill View
Bandon, Cork
Tel: (023) 88 41468
email: Cork@christian-aid.org
Contact:
Andrew Coleman, South west Co-ordinator
NI Company no. NI059154
NI Charity no. XR94639
RoI Company no. 426928
RoI Charity no. CHy 6998
www.christianaid.ie
CHRIsTMAs Is FUn
FOR KIDs – SO Why
NOT GIve A GOAT?
Inside your magazine
you will find this year’s
present Aid catalogue
and we hope you will be
able to find a gift which
will be perfect for
someone you know.
These life-changing gifts, both large and small, will help
people to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty.
There are small gifts from £5/6 and also larger gifts where
you can join together with friends, relatives and colleagues to
buy as a group.
If you’ve already received a copy of our catalogue, please take
the opportunity to pass this one on to someone else – or if you
would like extra copies to distribute in church, school or work
please call Helen in Belfast (028) 9064 8133 or Jennifer in
Dublin (01) 611 0801.
Christian Aid is a Christian
organisation that insists the world can
and must be swiftly changed to one
where everyone can live a full life,
free from poverty.
We work globally for profound change that eradicates the
causes of poverty, striving to achieve equality, dignity and
freedom for all, regardless of faith or nationality. We are
part of a wider movement for social justice.
We provide urgent, practical and effective assistance
where need is great, tackling the effects of poverty as well
as its root causes.
Christian aid Ireland
is on Facebook
2
Christian Aid Ireland

CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
It’s hard to believe that I have been here two months
already. In some ways I feel as if I have been here
a lot longer simply because everyone has made me
feel so welcome and I can’t seem to remember ever
enjoying a job so much. A highlight has been meeting
the many supporters who volunteer in our offices and
I am really looking forward to meeting many more
of you.
One of the other highlights of the past few weeks was the arrival of the
Tax Justice Bus. It started its tour of Ireland in Dublin. There a number of
prominent politicians came on board, including Trade and Development
Minister Joe Costello TD and Gay Mitchell MEP, along with the Christian
Aid Ireland Board.
After travelling to Limerick the bus headed north to Larne and it was
there in 1st Larne Presbyterian Church that I met Sammy Wilson
MP MLA, Northern Ireland’s Minister of Finance, to talk about the
tax campaign. We had a good discussion about how tax avoidance
contributes to poverty and why we in Christian Aid believe it is so
important to speak out about tax justice. I am delighted to say Mr Wilson
is very supportive and will help us in our campaign to create change.
Now that the nights are drawing in, the conversation in our house
frequently turns to Christmas. As a working mother Christmas can
become a time of stress rather than celebration. This year, more than
ever, I am aware of how much we actually have as a family and how little
others have. For us it’s usually a case of too much food, while for many
people around the world it’s a case of little or no food at all – and what’s
worse, the insecurity of not knowing when there will be food. So this
year I am not going to buy more things for my friends and family, who
let’s face it, probably have everything they need already. I am going to
make my life a little bit easier by buying from Present Aid. By doing that
I know I will be helping people who really need it and that will make
Christmas better.
I would encourage you to take a look at the Present Aid catalogue and
see what a difference you could make by giving something a little bit
different this Christmas. A gift with God’s blessing.
God bless.
Rosamond Bennett
Chief Executive
Christian Aid Ireland
8
news
■ 5 TAX CARTOON
The winning entry!
■ 6 BLACK SANTA
Visiting India with Christian Aid
■ 7 CAMPAIGN SUCCESS
Land Rights march called off
FEATURES
■ 8 GUATEMALA
Hunger in a land of plenty
■ 10 THE WORST PLACE IN
THE WORLD
…to be a woman
REGULARS
■ 12 CAMPAIGNS
The Tax Justice Bus
tours Ireland
■ 15 DIARY DATES
‘Celebrate a Life’
Thanksgiving Service
7
8
12
■ Cover 12 year old Santos and his younger brother Mauricio live high
in the mountains of eastern Guatemala. Child malnutrition is rife in
their village and Santos has had to leave school to work with his father.
See the feature story on page 8. Photo: Dave Thomas
Christian Aid Ireland 3

NEWS
4:48 Challenge
Raising money
the hard way
Climbing Carrauntoohill
in Co. Kerry at the end
of August, this group of
Christian Aid supporters
are nearing the climax of
their monumental ‘4:48
Challenge’.
The challenge was to climb the highest peak in each of Ireland’s
four provinces, and to complete it in less than 48 hours.
They succeeded in their quest, and they succeeded in raising
thousands for Christian Aid’s work overseas.
Sheep’s Head Hike
World
Changers
Required
A Northern Ireland politician
once said that if just six of
his constituents write to
him about the same thing
then it becomes an issue.
Next year is a big year politically for the UK and
Ireland. The G8 leaders’ summit will be taking
place in the UK in May or June, while Ireland
will hold the presidency of the European Union
during the first half of 2013. This means that it’s
the perfect opportunity to raise issues of global
poverty with our politicians, as both the British
and Irish governments will be in strong positions
to take action that could make a huge difference
to the world’s poorest.
Around 130 people of all ages took part in this year’s Sheep’s Head
Hike, raising nearly g6,000. This popular event at the beginning of
September has become a regular feature in the Co. Cork calendar.
Christian Aid would like to
recruit 2 people in each
political constituency across
the island of Ireland.
4
Christian Aid Ireland
Country
Managers
visit to Dublin
Christian Aid’s Country
Managers from Angola,
Colombia, Guatemala,
El Salvador, IoPT, Sierra
Leone and Zimbabwe met in
Dublin for their Annual Global
Meeting, funded by Irish Aid. They’re pictured here with some
of their Irish colleagues. The meeting was an opportunity
to share lessons learnt across Irish Aid funded programmes in
their respective countries.
They will learn more about the root causes of poverty
that Christian Aid campaigns on, such as tax dodging,
and they will write to and meet with their local
politicians throughout 2013 to ensure that tackling
poverty is high up the agenda with both the G8 and
the European Union.
We will provide campaign training and briefings that
you can send to your politicians.
If this sounds like something that you could do,
then please contact David Thomas in Belfast,
email dthomas@christian-aid.org, or Michael
Briggs in Dublin, email mbriggs@christian-aid.org

COmpETITION
WINNER
“A stitch in time saves nine”
!
tax
()
?
*
%
CARTOON
competition
TAX CARTOON WINNER
We are pleased to announce that the winner of
the Christian Aid Tax Cartoon Competition is
Bairbre Smith from Booterstown, Co. Dublin with
her cartoon “A stitch in time saves nine”.
The judging panel, including Irish Times cartoonist
Martyn Turner, really liked Bairbre’s colourful cartoon
with a powerful message.
Bairbre says of her cartoon, ‘This cartoon aims to portray
how tax dodging companies assume different national
identities in order to avail of their tax advantages.
‘It represents their approach as purely an accounting
exercise with no regard for the nationalities being
assumed, or the number of nationalities assumed.
‘It shows the corporate figure at the front switching to
the next nationality, as long as it pays.
‘There is also the double meaning of the accountants
depicted at their sewing machines, as if in a sweatshop,
perhaps to suggest they are also being exploited.’
Bairbre wins the original ink drawing of
martyn Turner’s cartoon ‘Twister’, which
he created exclusively for Christian Aid.
Christian Aid Ireland 5

NEWS
Belfast’s Black Santa,
dean John Mann, is travelling
to India in November to see
how funds raised on the steps
of St Anne’s Cathedral each
Christmas are making
a difference to lives far away.
‘BlACK SANTA’ TO
VISIT ChRISTIAN
AID PROJeCTs
In InDIA
Dean John mann and his wife helen
will visit a number of Christian Aid
projects. They will be accompanied
by Christian Aid’s Chief Executive
Rosamond Bennett and Deborah
Doherty, head of Church and
Community.
When he distributed cheques totalling £180,000 at
the Good Samaritans’ Service last February, the Dean
expressed a desire to visit some of the projects which
had received funding for the charitable work they do.
In Tamil Nadu province, they will visit two Christian Aid
partners; one working on Dalit human rights and the
economic empowerment of Dalit women and another
focused on HIV prevention.
Afterwards the group will travel to Andrapradesh to
view a project working with Muslim women, and
another working with Dalit women and agriculture.
Very Revd John mann, aka ‘Black Santa, will visit India before
beginning this year’s sit-out on the steps of St Anne’s Cathedral
in Belfast.
‘heading to India is something that
helen and I have dreamt of doing for a
long time, but to go with Christian Aid
will be very special as we visit projects
supported through the gifts of many
fundraisers and personal donors in
Ireland,’ said Dean mann.
‘The Black Santa fund has contributed
to this important work over a number of
years – so I shall be wearing that hat as
I learn where the money is being spent.
Scarf and gloves and black cloak will
not be needed – it will be hot!’
This year’s Black Santa Sit-Out begins on Saturday
15th December.
you can follow the Dean’s visit to India
on Rosamond Bennett’s blog ‘BeenAndseen’
and on Twitter @christianaidirl
photo credit: Church of Ireland
6
Christian Aid Ireland

InDIA: sUCCess OF THe
MARCH FOR LAnD RIGHTs
The march crosses the
Chambal Bridge on Day five.
The line goes on for as far as
the eye can see.
photo credits: Ekta parishad
On 11th October Christian Aid
partner Ekta Parishad was able
to call off the Jan Satyagraha
march after just one week, as
the Indian Government agreed
to the marchers’ demands for
land rights. The march – which
was expected to last one month
– was the main cover story
in the summer edition of this
magazine.
Since the march was called off, the
Land Reform Task Force (set up as
part of the agreement) has met for the
first time and agreed various action
points with timelines within 90 days.
Ekta Parishad’s President is one of 11
members of this Task Force. While the
agreement and subsequent progress
is encouraging, Ekta Parishad are
willing to re-call the 60,000 marchers
to continue the march to Delhi if the
government fail to fulfil their promises.
anand Kumar, Christian Aid’s Country
Manager in India said,
young women from Assam lead their group on Day Three of the march with local folk dances.
‘Congratulations to Ekta
parishad and the marchers. This
is a true example of people’s
victory through peaceful
negotiation.
‘Access to land is critical for
the eradication of poverty. We
hope that today’s success will
give hope and inspire other land
struggles in other parts of the
world.’
Thank you to our supporters for all
your prayers, commitment and
solidarity surrounding this march.
By publicly supporting Ekta parishad’s
campaign we helped give credibility
to those who were marching and there
is no doubt that this international
pressure helped to bring about the
successful agreement.
Christian Aid Ireland 7

COVER STORY
Guatemala
– hunger in the
midst of plenty
David Thomas
Nurse Rosalina with Sylvia and Gonzalo in the Bethania
clinic in Jocotan.
Juana Mendoza in her kitchen garden in La
Marimba. She says, ‘We thank God for the help
that Bethania have given us and the work they
have done for us. I feel happy now.’
Guatemala is not a
poor country. But
it is a very unequal
country.
Half of all children
under the age of
five in this Central
American nation
are chronically
malnourished. In
some areas this
figure rises to
over 70%.
In July, Christian Aid took a
group of young people from
the Methodist Church in
Ireland to visit Guatemala
to learn more about how
our partners, with the
support of their church, are
trying to tackle malnutrition
at individual, community
and national levels.
Bethania is one of those partners.
It works in the mountainous region
of Chiquimula about 100 miles east
of Guatemala City. Many people
here are indigenous Chorti people
descended from the pre-Spanish
Mayan inhabitants. They have been
forced off the best lands into the
mountains and even there much of
the remaining farmland is owned by
wealthy landowners.
Malnutrition in this area is so common
that many parents don’t notice their
child is malnourished because they
appear to be developing normally
when compared with other children
in the community. In the villages that
Bethania have been working with
malnutrition is being reduced.
Bethania has a clinic in the town of
Jocotán that takes in young children to
treat them for malnutrition. When we
visited, Sylvia (2) and Gonzalo (4) were
being fed with traditional Guatemalan
food, which provides a balanced
diet, including frijoles (refried beans),
plantain, maize tortillas and a sweet
maize drink.
The children were very quiet and
subdued. Their nurse, Rosalina,
8
Christian Aid Ireland

The group of young methodists visiting the village of la marimba.
moe (with Ny t-shirt) and Nikki are in the centre.
Santos and his brother mauricio playing
marbles outside their house.
explained that the children are
often like this when they are
first admitted, but after a couple
of weeks of a good healthy diet
they will begin to play and act like
normal children again.
Unfortunately if children are
malnourished within the critical
first 1,000 days of life, and for a
long enough period, the effects on
brain development and growth can
be permanent.
Bethania also works to change
things at a community level
to prevent the children from
becoming malnourished in the
first place.
In the high mountain village of
La Marimba, Bethania has been
providing training, seeds, fruittree
saplings and tools to enable
people to set up their own kitchen
gardens. Bethania has particularly
selected plants that have a high
nutritional value and provide
nutrients that are missing from
people’s diets, such as iron.
Nikki Hanna from Bangor, County
Down said, ‘I was able to fully
appreciate the amazing work
that Christian Aid does. It
was such a privilege to hear
about how this had changed
their lives and given them
new opportunities. We met
a lady called Juana and she
was so full of joy, it was hard
to stand next to her and not
feel happy!’
nO MORe sCHOOL
Like children anywhere in the world,
brothers Santos (12) and Mauricio (11)
enjoy playing when they get the chance.
But life in the mountain village of
La Marimba is difficult and many children
are smaller than they should be because
of chronic malnourishment. And despite
doing well at maths at school and his wish
to become a teacher, Santos has had to
leave behind his studies to help his father
in the fields.
As Moe Coonagh from Dublin said, ‘Never
have I met a 12-year-old with so little and
such happiness. Seeing how excited Santos
was to show us his kitchen garden and talk
about his life really made me think about
everything I have and take for granted.’
TAX DODGInG In GUATeMALA
The Methodist Church in Ireland also supports another
Christian Aid partner in Guatemala called ICEFI. This is the
economic organisation that economist Ricardo Barrientos
works for. Ricardo visited Ireland in September with the
Tax Justice Bus, as featured on page 12.
ICEFI says that malnutrition is not adequately tackled in part
because the Guatemalan government lacks the resources to
invest properly in education, health and food security.
Guatemala’s total tax revenue as a percentage of Gross
Domestic product (GDp) is only 12%. In Ireland it’s nearly
31% and in the UK 39%. part of this is due to a high level
of tax evasion and avoidance by wealthy individuals and
companies in Guatemala, but a growing problem is tax
dodging by multinational companies operating within
Guatemala.
Christian Aid Ireland 9

FEATURES
More than 10 years
of war have left a
legacy of poverty, poor
governance, violence
and displacement in the
Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC).
The worst place
in the world
to be a woman
Florence Mutesasira
The high incidence of rape has been one of the
grim hallmarks of this conflict. The use of sexual
violence against women and girls, and in
some cases against men and the elderly too,
has earned the country the grim epithet of
“rape capital of the world”.
This photograph of a group of women
holding a protest banner was taken by
Niall on the road from Kamituga to
Bukavu. The women are survivors of
sexual violence.
Their banner is calling for ‘all rapists to
be sent to prison’. Christian Aid partner
SARCAF is working to address the culture
of impunity that exists in this area, where
the perpetrators of sexual violence often
go unpunished.
In September an Irish Aid monitoring
team visited projects supported by
Christian Aid in South Kivu, in eastern
Congo. They included Joseph Burke
and Emma Warwick from Irish Aid, and
Niall O’Rourke, Christian Aid Ireland’s
Humanitarian Officer.
The team met some of the survivors
of this violence in villages in Mwenga
territory, who have been receiving
counselling and economic support.
‘We must raise awareness
of what is happening to
women and girls in eastern
Congo,’ Niall says.
‘For more than a decade eastern Congo
has been infamous as the ‘rape capital
of the world’. Sexual violence is being
perpetrated by armed forces and in
wider society on an unprecedented
scale.
‘With our partners we are working to
support the survivors and to bring an
end to this outrage by changing the
existing culture of impunity.’
Since 2010 the Irish Aid Emergency
& Recovery section has provided
F670,000 in funding to Christian Aid
to support our work in South Kivu.
We are working with local partners
ECC-Meru and SARCAF, providing
direct emergency assistance to the
displaced population and working with
our partners to raise awareness of the
causes of gender based violence, as
well as providing support to survivors
in the region.
Niall O’Rourke, Christian Aid’s Dublinbased
Humanitarian Officer in South Kivu.
The continuing presence of armed groups
in eastern Congo is fuelling the use of
rape as a weapon of war. While the attacks
are often committed by rebel militia, illdisciplined
members of the Congolese army
have been responsible for some of the rape
cases.
As Niall says, ‘More needs to be done,
by the Congo and Rwandan governments,
as well as the international community,
to bring an end to this conflict.’
10 Christian Aid Ireland
Late news: Christian Aid’s DRC-based Emergency Officer Salome Ntububa will be visiting
Ireland from 26th Feb-11th March 2013. Contact Deborah Doherty in Belfast for more details.

EL SALVADOR
Shrimp farming without flood defences
to obtain permission from the government to set up the
shrimp farm, which included demonstrating how they
would ensure the protection of the local environment,
by replanting mangrove trees for example.
Francisco says that ‘the people most
interested in protecting the area are
the cooperative as their livelihoods
depend on it, rather than a large
[shrimp farming] enterprise that can
easily move elsewhere.’
Francisco CHAVEZ is a
shrimp farmer. He lives
in San Hilario, El Salvador.
After the civil war ended in
1992 Francisco (pictured left)
and his family were living as
refugees in Nicaragua. Along
with 250 other families, they
were relocated to land that the
government had acquired as
part of the peace agreement
from a wealthy land-owner.
When the community first arrived there was very little
here. With the help of a Christian Aid partner called
Procares, the community has built houses and accessed
credit to help them invest in income generating projects.
One of the projects that Procares has helped the local
people to set up is a shrimp farm, which is owned by a
cooperative of farmers. Procares supported the farmers
Procares has also supported Francisco’s community
to lobby the government for flood defences on the
Lempa river. According to Bertha Aguirre, the director of
Procares, flooding is happening more frequently in this
area as a result of climate change. In the last five years
the shrimp farm has been damaged four times. Each time
Procares has helped the community to repair the damage.
What they really need though for the long term is
government investment. The Salvadorean government say
that flood defences would cost US$11 million and they
simply don’t have the resources. Bertha says that
‘rich people and big enterprises in
El Salvador pay very little tax.
El Salvador needs a new fiscal law
that prioritises the poor. If you have
more you have to pay more.’
Christian Aid Ireland 11

CAMPAIGNS
All aboard for Tax Justice
A big red Christian Aid Tax Justice bus was seen driving the length and
breadth of Ireland at the end of September. It was emblazoned with a
simple but urgent message “Tax dodging hurts the poor”.
Sammy Wilson MP, Rosamond Bennett and
Ricardo Barrientos in Larne, Co Antrim.
Tax dodging is a global problem hurting
poor communities at home as well as in
the developing world. This is a message
the bus was bringing to politicians, church
leaders and Christian Aid supporters in
Dublin, Limerick, and around greater
Belfast.
The Dublin-based economic think-tank
TASC provided research in support of
Christian Aid’s tax campaign, showing how
some Irish tax breaks that favour wealthy
individuals are costing Ireland money that
could benefit poor communities closer to
home.
In Northern Ireland, Christian Aid teamed
up with UK-focused anti-poverty group
Church Action on Poverty to highlight the
impact of tax dodging on those living in
poverty in the UK.
One of the travellers on the bus was Dr
Ricardo Barrientos, Senior Economist
with Christian Aid’s partner ICEFI. ICEFI
is a Guatemala-based research centre
specialising in assessing Central American
governments’ policies on tax collection
and how that money is spent. They are
trying to ensure that tax is collected
fairly and is used to tackle poverty and
inequality in Central America.
The bus first pulled up outside
Government Buildings in Dublin, where
it welcomed on board a number of high
profile politicians.
After meeting with Christian Aid on the
bus, Trade and Development Minister Joe
Costello TD said ‘Irish Aid plays a vital role
in helping to meet the needs of people in
some of the poorest parts of the world.’
12
Christian Aid Ireland

Sorley McCaughey of Christian Aid with Trade & Development Minister Joe Costello TD
Outside Government Buildings in Dublin
The Minister added, ‘However, to
achieve a sustainable solution to poverty,
developing countries need to generate
their own revenues... The recent public
consultations for the review of the
White Paper on Irish Aid highlighted the
importance of the international community
acting to combat illicit financial flows and
capital flight which is depriving developing
countries of much-needed resources. This
is being highlighted here again today by
the Tax Bus visit to Dublin.’
of the world where perhaps the issues
are sharper…that loss of revenue is very
important.’
The tour ended with the tax bus arriving
at the Sunday morning service at First
Bangor Presbyterian Church, Co Down,
with many of the congregation – including
local MP Lady Sylvia Hermon – coming
onto the bus to view the exhibition and
meet Ricardo.
Christian Aid’s David Thomas speaking to
Irish Aid staff on board the bus in Limerick
Whilst in Dublin the tax bus also called
in at St Patrick’s Cathedral to meet with
church leaders, students from St Patricks
Cathedral Grammar School and Gay
Mitchell MEP. In the evening Ricardo was
part of a panel speaking at a well-attended
event in European Union House chaired by
Senator Katherine Zappone entitled
“Tax dodging hurts us all.”
The following day the bus was on the road
again heading towards Limerick, where it
was welcomed by Lord Mayor Cllr Gerry
Loughlin and local church leaders. Limerick
is home to the Irish Aid’s head office and
so the tax bus welcomed aboard a number
of the staff to hear from Ricardo about his
work on tax in Guatemala, which is partly
funded through Christian Aid’s Irish Aid
programme.
The bus then made its way to Northern
Ireland to First Larne Presbyterian
Church in the East Antrim constituency
of Finance Minister Sammy Wilson MLA
MP. Mr Wilson said, ‘As Finance Minister
I’m well aware of the consequences of
tax dodging…whether it’s in Northern
Ireland or some of the poorer countries
Lady Sylvia Hermon MP with supporters on the bus in Bangor, Co Down
If you didn’t get an opportunity to see the bus you can still take
action by signing one of the ‘Tick for Tax Justice’ postcards to
add your voice calling on the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister
to use their influence to support Christian Aid’s campaign against
tax dodging. Please contact our Belfast or Dublin office if you’d
like some postcards.
Christian Aid Ireland 13

FUNDRAISING
Nets Work
Young Amy Hardy demonstrates
how to use a mosquito net at the
launch of the ‘Net Works’ project
at the recent Derry and Raphoe
Diocesan Synod. Also pictured
are Bishop Ken Good and Revd
Sampson Ajuka.
The special diocesan appeal, in
conjunction with Christian Aid and
the Church of Ireland Bishops’
Appeal, aims to buy 20,000 nets
over the next year.
Every 45 seconds a child will die
from malaria – yet the disease
can so easily be prevented by the
provision of a mosquito net.
Bishop Good said ‘I am very excited
that Derry and Raphoe has identified
a life-saving project in Nigeria –
providing thousands of mosquito
nets for people who can’t afford
them.’
COFFEE IN CO DOWN
Sarah Jeffers, Gemma Brown, Rachel Crawford and Beth
Wilson from The Church of the Ascension, Annahilt in
Co Down, at the regular Christian Aid coffee morning that
they organise in their church.
Building houses
in Haiti
Revd Dr Roger Purce of Groomsport Presbyterian Church
presents a cheque for £20,000 to Christian Aid’s Deborah
Doherty, which will build four homes in Haiti for those left
homeless after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
The money was raised at the church’s Flower Festival
held in May this year. Also pictured are Adam Purce and
Leah Montgomery.
CHRISTMAS CARDS
Fighting Poverty through Trade
We are selling a range of Fair Trade
products, including Christmas cards and
chocolate advent calendars. Please call into
the Christian Aid Belfast or Dublin offices.
We can also place an order on your behalf if
14 Christian Aid Ireland
you want to set up a stand in your church
or organisation
Fair Trade products allow producers not
just to live, but to flourish.

DATES fOR
yOuR DIARy
DIaRY Date
1 sT DeC
margaret Kisilu from
BIDII, a Christian Aid
partner in Kenya, was
photographed at the
World AIDS Day event
at the mansion house
in Dublin last year.
wORLD AIDs DAY
There are 34 million people in the world today who are living with HIV/AIDS.
Seventy five percent of those living with HIV live in developing countries,
and two and a half million of them are children under the age of 15.
Christian Aid works with more than 250 partners in 40 countries on HIV
education and care programmes.
DIaRY Date
2 nD DeC
ADvenT HOPe
When: Sunday 2nd December 2012
Time: 8.00pm
Where: Dundrum Methodist Church, Ballinteer, Dublin 16.
A special one hour event of music and reflections to mark
World AIDS Day.
Speaker: Christian Aid’s Tendai Madondo. She will speak about
her visit to Zimbabwe and the work of our partners there.
DIaRY Date
10 TH FeB
When: Sunday 10th February 2013
Time:
Where:
3.30pm
St Anne’s Cathedral,
Belfast
preacher: Very Revd John Mann,
Dean of Belfast
CeLeBRATe A LIFe
This special Service has been planned
as a Thanksgiving Service for the families
of the many people who have in the past
left a legacy to Christian Aid, or donations
in lieu of flowers, and for those who have
pledged their legacy support in the future.
We plan to contact as many relatives and
friends as possible, but we would also ask
our supporters to get in touch with us if
you would like to attend this service.
Please phone or email Ann McIntyre,
028 9064 8133 amcintyre@christian
-aid.org and leave your details.
Celebrate a Life is the first time we have
ever taken the opportunity to acknowledge
the wonderful work which has been
achieved through the generosity of our
donors who have remembered Christian
Aid in their Will and we would plan to hold
a similar event in Dublin later in 2013 and
for those who have pledged their legacy
support in the future.
wARM sOUP FOR COLD DAYs …
If you are in the following towns please take time to support our regular soup and cheese lunches:
every Tuesday :
in First Lisburn presbyterian Church
every Thursday :
in Hillsborough parish Church
1st wednesday of each month :
Armagh Road presbyterian Church, portadown
1st wednesday of each month :
9 Vicar’s Hill, Armagh (beside Cathedral)
Christian Aid Ireland 15

a prayer at Christmas
How ancient and lovely this news of a star,
A baby, a mother, the kings from afar.
Come close now, Lord Jesus, we ask you to stay
And show us your face in your people today.
What star shall we follow but one that leads here
To a baby born homeless and a family in fear?
What heav’n shall we long for but one that starts
there
For all the world’s children in your tender care?
We thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth;
For the lights in the darkness that shone at your birth,
For life in its fullness that you promise today,
And the hope in a baby asleep on the hay.
Rebecca Dudley
Thank you for your continuing prayerful support
Northern Ireland Charity number XR94639 Company number NI059154 Republic of Ireland Charity number CHY 6998 Company number 426928.