Harvest Fast Day Briefings: Book your place!

By Sarah Vincent, Social Media Volunteer 

Are you ready for Harvest Fast Day?

There are only 73 days left until Harvest Fast Day, so book your place now for a Harvest Fast Day Briefing! That is 73 days until CAFOD takes you to the Catholic community on an amazing journey to El Salvador.

Community in El Salvador

In order to guarantee the success of this journey, we need all of our fantastic parish volunteers to gain an insight into our project for Harvest Fast Day. The best way you can do this is by joining us at one of our many Harvest Fast Day briefings. At these briefings, you will be given everything you need to know in order to be prepared for Harvest Fast Day 2017.

You will be presented with information about a community seed bank; you will hear about people like Endelmira and her husband Martir who are farmers in an area with a hard land to cultivate. Additionally, we will inform you about a project where they can “Plant the seeds that one day will grow” (Archbishop Oscar Romero prayer).

Book a briefing today:

Saturday 9 September: London – Romero House – 10:00 am to 3:15 pm  (Refreshments available from 9:30 am)  Bring and share lunch! 

Saturday 16 September: Bromley – St James Church – Time TBC

Thursday 21 September: London/Amigo Hall – School Volunteers briefing – Time TBC
Friday 22 September: Bexleyheath – St John Vianney from 2:30 – 4:30pm.

TBC: Briefing in Lewisham and Dover deanery

Voices from the field – Tomorrow and Friday

By Sarah Vincent, Social Media Volunteer

You are invited to a special evening, whereby you will be given the opportunity to listen to the fascinating experiences of supporters of CAFOD, as well as hear them discuss their perspective of their role.

We are very fortunate to have Father Peter Hughes deliver an inspirational talk about his many experiences working alongside our brothers and sisters living in the poorest communities.

Father Peter Hughes

Father Peter is an Irish Columban Priest from County Mayo who has spent the majority of his life as a missionary based in Lima, Peru. Father Peter has been working in severely impoverished communities in Lima and is also a significant theological advisor in Latin America. Additionally, Father Peter is a close collaborator of Gustavo Gutierrez and supports developing programmes of social and pastoral action with the help of Peruvian bishops.

 

CAFOD has known Father Peter for over 30 years! We knew him first as Superior of the Columban Fathers in Peru, and we supported programmes in Peru through the Columban Fathers for many years. He was a parish priest in a highly impoverished part of town, whereby the location of the parish was on top of a rubbish dump. He later became Director of another CAFOD partner in Peru, CEAPAZ and was also a Board Member of our partner Centro San Bartolomé de las Casas for some time.

Father Peter became the Executive Secretary of a key strategic partner of CAFOD: the Department for Justice and Solidarity of Latin American Bishops Conference (CELAM). For many years we have supported and continue to support the work of the Department to ensure a clear direction for the Church’s Justice and Solidarity work across the Latin American region. Father Peter, stepped down from his role as Executive Secretary in 2015, but has not yet escaped our clutches as a CAFOD partner. Since Father Peter stepped down, he has helped to found and is now the Board of REPAM, the Church Network for Pan-Amazon!

As you can tell from his experiences, Father Peter has been extremely involved in communities within Latin America and so has a lot to discuss regarding his experiences living and working alongside those in some of the world’s poorest communities.

Details for the event on Thursday

Date: Thursday 13 July 2017

Time: 7pm until 9pm

Location: St Edmunds of Canterbury Church Hall, Village Way, Beckenham BR3 3NP

Details for the event on Friday

Date: Friday 14 July 2017

Time: 2pm until 3:30pm

Location: Comboni Missionary Sisters, 2 Chiswick Lane, London, W4 2JF

Come and join us for this unique experience. We look forward to seeing you there!

Why East Africa needs you : a lunch-talk with Dc Tesfa Mahari.

Thank you to Streatham and Clapham United Nations Association who organised a simple lunch on Saturday, 29th April 1.00pm to find out why East Africa needs your help.

A woman from South Sudan collecting wild leaves to eat. Photo by David Mutua

The event was held at the English Martyrs Church lower hall (2 Mitcham Lane, Streatham, SW16 6NN) to understand why East Africa needs us . Guests were invited to share a simple bread and cheese lunch, with a lecture that talks about the East African Famine.

The talk’s principal lecturer was Dr. Tesfa Mehari, from the International Business and Economics Department of the University of Greenwich. She discussed the causes, immediate needs and longer term solutions for the East African crisis.

Food distributions in South Sudan; Photos taken by David Mutua

This event aimed to raise funds and awareness for these communities suffering severely of hunger caused by long periods of drought. The proceeds from this event will be split between UNICEF and CAFOD. More information available here.

Our thanks goes out to Sarah and her United Nations Association group who organised this.