This lovely photo of primroses is from one of our team of walkers, Eduarda, who tells us that in Portugal they are called “pascoinhas”, meaning “little Easters”. They are flowers symbolising Easter and as there, they are fairly rare, they are held in great esteem. This patch made her remember how we are walking towards Easter, an overabundance of life and joy!

We have been walking towards Easter in solidarity with, and to raise funds for, those in Ethiopia who have no choice but to walk miles every day to find clean, safe water. Our wonderful supporters have donated over £1000, and we thought you might like to see how some of your previous donations to CAFOD have been used to change lives.

You will remember Sister Consilia from last year’s Lent appeal. She’s a pharmacist at Mtora Mission Hospital, a rural clinic in Zimbabwe, where she treats mothers and babies with malaria, typhoid and other preventable diseases. Her faith motivates her work with the people she lives among: “Through treating and caring for them, I try to show them the love that Christ shows us.”

Coronavirus has made a challenging situation worse for Sister Consilia, with the hospital struggling to get enough PPE and sanitiser. But staff are continuing to help those who need it, using masks, hand washing and social distancing to keep themselves as safe as possible. She told CAFOD that “We attend to every patient who come into the health facility. We are surviving by the grace of God.”

We met Marian and her son Svondo during Lent 2018.

The vegetable garden that your donations helped to provide is growing well and during the pandemic Marian, Svondo and their family have been surviving on the vegetables. “Last year was a dry year, so we are exchanging vegetables for maize, and we are also processing and drying our vegetables so we can preserve them to use during the lean season.” The community has adapted their work in the garden to limit the spread of coronavirus, by taking it in turns to water vegetables and limiting the number of people farming at one time. Your support has also helped to provide soap and handwashing stations in the garden and in family homes.

Please continue to remember these people in your prayers and of course you can always-

• Donate to the “Walk for Water campaign” at https://walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-james-and-st-boniface-walking-together-for
• Tell your friends!

Next week, in the final of our Lenten series, we’ll let you know our final “Walk for Water” total steps and funds raised. See you then.