CAFOD NEWS – LENT 2021, Week 2

Last week we introduced you to Ibrahim who has benefitted from the work achieved by CAFOD’s partners in Ethiopia, the provision of solar pumps to provide water for his village.

This week we thought you might like to hear a bit more about another CAFOD friend, Abdella, the young man featured in the moving film which accompanies the Walk for Water campaign.

Abdella is 28, or thereabouts, and lives in a small village in Afar, Ethiopia. For as long as he was able to make the long journey to the spring high in the mountains, he has always had the job of collecting water for his family and other members of the community. He is uncomplaining but does have his own dreams, to have a house, a small business, and a family of his own, but all this is on hold until his community have a more secure source of water. He certainly does not want his young nephews to follow this way of life, he dreams of something better for them. You can see his route in the map on this news update.

As you can see, he takes his donkey, but only so far. The end of the journey is taken alone, as he climbs, barefoot, to the water hole.

He leaves the village before dawn to avoid the worst of the heat, and the journey there and back takes about five hours.

He does this twice a day.

He’s not the only one. There are plenty more “Abdellas” in the region, and around the world and CAFOD want to help them.

CAFOD and their partners can provide pumps and the training for local people to maintain them, meaning that so many more people can follow their hearts and dreams instead of a dusty track to a dried-up water hole.

This Lent we are trying to help make this happen.

So far, the Parish virtual team have walked 295,817 (real!) steps which is about 148 miles and that’s almost as far as from Tiverton to Birmingham. Not bad for the first week! Our current target is 1 million steps which is about 500 miles-Tiverton to Amsterdam. Maybe we’ll beat that target and walk back too! Well done team-enjoy your walking!

Since we began the campaign, our kind parishioners and friends have raised £615, for which many thanks. Maybe we could raise some more??

Please help us in any way you can this Lent-

Thank you.

P