Christian Aid

Christian Aid

Christian Aid began as British churches ecumenical refugee council (BCER), and it was set up in 1944, to help loads of Europeans who were made homeless due to the Second World War. In 1945 it turned into Christian aid and began to help poor people who needed extra help in less developed countries.

The main aims of Christian Aid is to stop poverty all together and help less developed countries become more developed so they can live a better life.

“Christian Aid works in over sixty countries providing emergency aid and long term assistance…”

(Statement of aims published by Christian aid news October 1995)

This quote states that there are two different ways Christian Aid help less developed countries and people in need, these two main ways are Emergency Aid and Long Term Aid.

Emergency aid deals mostly with natural disasters and refugees. Its takes priority over long term aid as it has to be quick and without it people can die. Emergency Aid make sure that food is sent out quickly along with blankets and shelter, examples of their help includes sending resources and antibiotics to the victims in Honduras of the 1998 hurricanes. Christian Aid also made sure they send food quickly out to Zimbabwe during the drought. They also sent tents, blankets, and food to war refugees in Bosnia and Rwanda.

Emergency aid is also known as short term aid and the opposite of this is long term aid. Christian Aid spends between 10 to 15 percent on emergency aid.

Recently Christian Aid has spent around £100,000 to help India as devastating floods have affected 12.5 million!

 Long term aid is different to Emergency aid as long term aid aims to help countries and people over a longer period of time. They aim to build homes, give materials, build school and educate children.  Christian aid also supports other charities, other groups and organisations often come up with ideas for long term aid and they then ask Christian Aid to support them.

Christian Aid is working in Afghanistan to support a plan to increase wheat production, and they hope to share out the harvest fairly. This means poor farmers can afford to feed their family and live a better life.

Christian Aid is supporting an organisation called AZZA by helping war widows feed their families. In order to do this they are teaching them how to make bottle of perfumes and sell them on in the market. This will earn them 150 Sudanese dinars which will be enough to feed their family.

It is important Christian Aid teach less developed countries to do certain things because then the countries can eventually learn on their own and live a better life.

Christian Aid needs to raise money in order to work towards relieving poverty; this money can be raised in several different ways. Christian aid week first took place in 1957, since then its being making millions of pounds in order to end poverty. It’s a nationwide event and happens every May; churches divide up the town between them and put an envelope and Christian Aid information sheet through everyone’s door. The most Christian Aid ever made from this was 8.6million and this staggering figure was made in 1995.

Churches and individuals also hold many events in order to raise money. Individuals can be sponsored by people to take on various tasks or jobs, churches can raise money by holding charity events such as fairs. This type of fund raising can usually make up to three times what Christian Aid Week make.

It is important Christian aid spend some of their money on teaching individuals on their work and projects because that person may want to help raise money and help put an end to poverty. It teaches people how they can help less developed countries live a better life, and around five per cent of their money they raise is spent on teaching people and Churches of Britain.

I think Christian Aid is a very hardworking and generous charity. Everyone who is part of Christian aid doesn’t just give their money; they give their time in order to help people who aren’t as well of as other people. Christian aid works hard to raise money for other countries and everyday they get a step closer to putting poverty to an end.