Christian Aid

Paul says in Galatians 2.10: All they asked was that we should keep the poor in mind, which was the very thing I made it my business to do.

“When I wake up, I have a lot of worries. Sometimes I don’t have food,” says Fridah Moraa, who faces a gruelling daily struggle to feed her family in the face of urban poverty.

Fridah lives in a corrugated, metal shelter in the sprawling, yet densely packed informal settlement of Dagoretti, Nairobi, Kenya with her 13-year-old twins Eliud and Abiud, her daughter, and four-year old grandson Quillan. There is no running water and only shared toilet facilities. It is a busy, noisy environment with a hectic rhythm that’s dictated by the pace of residents, who are forced to live precariously day to day.

With secure jobs hard to find, and most people earning less than a dollar a day, buying food to feed your children is a constant struggle. With rent, water, school and medicine to pay for too, some days there is not enough money for a meal. Here, aching hunger compounds relentless stress.

Thankfully, seeds of change are being planted in the heart of Dagoretti. Our trusted partner, Beacon of Hope is supporting parents to find security, and nurture hope through urban farming.

But, with the support of our church, parents like Fridah can learn how to cultivate crops, build a small business, and nurture hope.

Since 1957, Christian Aid Week has inspired churches like ours to give, act and pray each May in support of global neighbours who are living in poverty. This powerful act of witness has funded countless projects that have supported communities across the world to transform their own lives and futures.

This May, it runs from 10-16 May. Our coffee morning will take place around August / September .

Christian Aid needs to call on our continued kindness and generosity, so that families who are gripped by poverty today can build a brighter tomorrow - families like Fridah’s.

Thankfully, seeds of change are being planted in the heart of Dagoretti. Our trusted partner, Beacon of Hope, is supporting parents to find security, and nurture hope through urban farming.

This May, can our church fundraise to support families like Fridah’s to overcome poverty?

I often passed Dagoretti on my way from Alliance High School, Kikuyu to Nairobi. The school, the first Secondary in Kenya, was founded in 1926 by the alliance of Protestant Missions, with Dr. Arthur, a Scot, one of the instigators. The first headmaster was George Grieve from Markinch. Every month the boys competed for the Markinch Cup! Dagoretti has grown as Fridah makes clear.

I am so grateful to those who faithfully, every year, take up responsibility for their allotted districts, often without being asked.

Christian Aid Week this year brings hope. Volunteers are asked to either deliver-and-collect envelopes or deliver-only. Deliver and collect has proved to be the more successful method of assuring donations. Volunteers who wish to deliver only are requested to take on 2-3 streets.

George Black