Christian Aid and its partners are working to bring an end to poverty around the world - tackling its root causes as well as its effects.
Climate Change
The problem -Scientists predict that at the current rate of carbon emissions tens of millions more people will go hungry in the next couple of decades as agricultural yields diminish across the globe.
And if nothing is done to stem a rise of 2°C in global average temperatures by 2050 - they say - 250 million more people will be forced to leave their homes.
Around 30 million more people will go hungry as agricultural yields go into recession across the globe.
One to three billion people will suffer acute water shortages, while nearly a fifth of Bangladesh will be submerged as sea levels rise.
Not that we have to wait until then for the bad stuff, though.
- A 1°C rise, expected by 2020, would see an extra 240 million people experiencing water ‘stress’ – where supply can no longer be stretched to meet demand.
- The predicted 1.3°C rise by 2025 would see tens of millions more going hungry due to falling agricultural yields in the developing world and rising global food prices.
What we do - But amid the gloomy predictions there is still some hope. Ally Ouedraogo, for example, is now being helped by Christian Aid partner, Reseau Marp, to reclaim his land from the advancing desert.
With our help, Ally is pioneering new methods to cultivate his soil and grow enough crops to feed his family.
From Bolivia to Bangladesh, from India to Tanzania, Christian Aid is helping poor communities to adapt to this growing threat of climate change.
Conflict
Thousands upon thousands of people on the road. Desperate, hungry people fleeing their homes, their life's possessions bundled into pots and sacks. Children crying.
It is a scene from the Democratic Republic of Congo in November 2008, but equally it could be a scene from Europe in May 1945 - the humanitarian disaster that led to the founding of Christian Aid.
What we do - For more than sixty years, Christian Aid has been delivering urgent aid in emergencies triggered by conflict. From Vietnam and Lebanon, to Kosovo and Darfur, we have been there to deliver humanitarian assistance to people in need - refugees, displaced people and vulnerable people caught up in conflict.
But our experience has also told us that our response to conflict needs to be even more far-reaching than the delivery of humanitarian assistance, however important that may be.
Speaking out In Colombia, for example, Christian Aid is speaking out on behalf of and with communities living under the shadow of 40 years of ongoing armed conflict - calling on the government there to protect their lives and their rights.
And because we know there is strength in numbers, we actively work with other organisations and voices to push for peace.
We have also been speaking out against the continuing Israeli blockade of Gaza - a blockade that is strangling the economy of this Palestinian territory and denying civilians sufficient access to food, clean water and basic healthcare.
In the wake of the most recent hostilities in Gaza in January 2009, Christian Aid is again calling upon Israel to lift its blockade and allow humanitarian aid and personnel through.
We are also calling on the international community to use its influence and exert pressure on all parties involved in the conflict to find a sustainable and just resolution to the conflict for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Christian Aid has worked in Israel and what are now the Occupied Palestinian Territories for more than 50 years
After the cameras have gone home Our experience also tells us that our response to conflict must extend beyond the time when the troops go home - the return of peace is often just the beginning of our involvement in a country.
For instance, in countries torn apart by war but now at peace such as Angola or Sierra Leone, we are helping communities to rebuild their lives and work towards peaceful, long-term development.
This involves not only helping to rehabilitate people formerly involved in the conflict (often child soldiers) and building peace and reconciliation between communities, but also helping to build sustainable livelihoods.
HIV
Indian sex-worker Beena turned to prostitution when she could no longer pay her rent and feed her children on her wage as a construction worker. She is the sole support for her four children and her mother. She is also HIV-postive and worries what will happen when she cannot carry on working.
The problem - Her story is all too familiar in many poor countries where the consequences of the global HIV epidemic are most keenly felt. Ninety per cent of new infections happen in poor countries, 11,000 people are infected every day, and 7,500 more die each day as a result.
HIV has a tragic effect on these countries, hampering their economic development and leaving millions of children without parents.
What we do - Christian Aid has more than 250 partner organisations working on HIV in 40 countries. Of these the vast majority are in sub-Saharan Africa, where AIDS-related diseases are now the leading cause of death. But we also have numerous programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Middle East.
In Bangalore where Beena lives, we support a sex-worker collective - Vijaya Mahila Sangha - which is now fighting the spread of HIV through education. Beena is a member of the collective; she and her fellow members are now at the heart of the government's HIV strategy, educating other workers about the importance of HIV prevention.
Among our priorities in this area of our work are:
- HIV work in fragile states, and in conflict and post-conflict areas
- HIV and nutrition/food security
- HIV work with and for young people
- Support for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV
- Community-based HIV care and prevention
Back in the UK and Ireland, we carry out HIV work in the form of advocacy, campaigning, education and fundraising.
SAVE - Christian Aid supports the SAVE approach - which was developed by our African partner organisation ANERELA+ - as a way of working more effectively to prevent HIV infection.
SAVE provides a holistic way of preventing HIV by incorporating the principles of the ABC approach (Abstinence, Be faithful and Condom use) as well as providing information about HIV transmission and prevention, providing support and care for those already infected and actively challenging the denial, stigma and discrimination so commonly associated with HIV.
Rights and Justice
Life is difficult for the people of the impoverished neighbourhood of El Alto, situated on the edge of the Bolivian capital La Paz. But in 2006 they won a major victory - with the help of Christian Aid partner Fundación Solón.
Fundación Solón helped them to protest against soaring water costs after the privatisation of El Alto's water system. In 2006, the government cancelled the contract with the private company and took back responsibility for connecting homes and providing water - a huge relief for the thousands of households that had been unable to pay to connect to the privatised water.
The victory is a good illustration of one of Christian Aid's major concerns: giving people the information, skills, tools and confidence they need to get what they need from those in authority - access to water, health and education services, for example - and ensuring that local leaders and government officials listen and respond to people living in poverty.
The problem - This focus derives from our understanding that at poverty's core are unequal power relations within and among countries, and within and among groups and individuals.
Poverty is a lack of power and the injustices that result.
The corruption and human rights violations endemic in many countries we work in are symptoms of this power imbalance.
What we do - A related focus of our work is challenging the discrimination against and marginalisation of particular groups - be that women in Afghanistan, dalits in India or Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic.
We also work to provide people with security from violence. In some countries the situation is so dangerous that before people can engage with local authorities they need security. This is why we focus on building peace in many countries. In others such as Colombia we support groups like Peace Brigades International who defend human rights activists.
Poverty over - But simply working at a national level to empower people will be unsuccessful unless we challenge the broader global problems.
To end poverty, we must seek justice on the international level, tackling the root causes of poverty such as unfair international trade rules that rob people living in poverty of economic opportunity or the multinational tax dodging that strips developing countries of natural resources and massive tax revenues.
Ending poverty will also require a global commitment to systems of governance that are sensitive to the needs of the poor - democratic, just and transparent.
Trade
Kofi Eliasa used to own a tomato farm, but now he breaks stones in a quarry for a living, earning less than a dollar a day to feed his family.
He is one of the many farmers in Ghana who have fallen victim to cheap European food imports that have flooded his country ever since the Ghanaian government was forced to open up its markets in return for loans and aid from the IMF and the World Bank.
The problem - It's all part of a wider global picture in which unfair trade rules designed largely by rich countries work against the interests of poor communities in developing countries.
While international trade is worth $10 million a minute, poor countries only account for 0.4% of this trade - half the share they had in 1980.
All this, while the world's richest countries still have exactly the kind of support for their domestic businesses that they are forcing developing countries to drop.
The average EU cow is subsidised to the tune of around $800. In Ethiopia, the average annual income per person is just $100.
What we do - So, what can we do about this situation? Here at Christian Aid, we believe that trade must be used to help bring an end to poverty - not deepen and prolong it.
We also believe that poor countries should have the freedom to help and support their vulnerable farmers and industries.
Therefore, we are demanding that:
- The EU stop insisting that its former colonies open up their markets through the economic partnership agreements.
- The IMF and World Bank remove all economic policy conditions attached to their loans and debt-cancellation agreements.
- World Trade Organisation agreements support development rather than promote free trade for the sake of free trade.
