This year we are combining our Lent Appeal and our Christian Aid week work into one Lent to Pentecost fund raising effort for Christian Aid.

This year Christian Aid is focusing on the link between climate change and poverty –  “ecological justice”. 

An example of the problem is a lady from Kenya called Rose Katanu Jonathan, pictured above She’s over 60 years old and cares for her grandchildren. Rose does all she can to give them the happy childhood she had. She says "When I was young, there was plenty of food,. Now, the rains are totally unreliable because of climate change. I worry a lot about food. I pray to God that the rainfall will become normal like it used to be.”

During droughts, Rose has to walk a long way every morning to collect water. It takes most of the day. She says “Because I am old, I can’t walk very fast. When I get home I just rest. I have no energy to do anything else,”

Even when rain does come, relief is often short lived. There’s an earth dam just minutes away from Rose’s home which collects water but it’s not wide enough or deep enough for everyone’s needs so it runs out too quickly.  Rose  watches rain fall for days, only to find the reservoir empty soon after. Also the rains are much heavier than they used to be, putting Rose’s house at risk of flooding.

We've seen the effect of climate change here with drier summers and wet winters like the this year’s, but for us it’s just an inconvenience – we can still turn the tap on and get water in the summer, and however depressing the endless rain is it doesn’t wash away our food and mean we will be hungry.

So please fund-raise and/or donate to our Lent to Pentecost Appeal so that Rose and people like her can have the access to food and water we take for granted. If you can tell us how you have saved or raised money for the appeal to give other people good ideas.