Christian Aid exists to create a world where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty. The charity works with people of all faiths and none, never gives money to governments and is the official development agency of 41 church denominations in Britain and Ireland.

10th to 16th May 2026

Seven days, so many ways to fund lasting change. This Christian Aid Week, what will you do?

• Undertake a sponsored activity. You can add all of the proceeds from your sponsored activity to our dedicated Christian Aid Week fundraising pot.
  
  For example, Jules, one of our church members, will be raising money for Christian Aid Week this year by braving the world’s fastest zip line! She will be zooming down the Velocity 2 zip line at Penrhyn Quarry in North Wales on Tuesday 12th May.
  
  Meanwhile, Ken Pattison, our church representative for Christian Aid, will be cycling a jaw-dropping 140 miles during Christian Aid Week, and very much hoping for good weather!

• Deliver Christian Aid envelopes in our patch of the parish, the village side of Falcondale Road. No knocking on doors required! Please do let Ken know via the parish office if you can help with this.
  
• Donate. You can donate to our dedicated Christian Aid Week fundraising pot online, but cash or cheques are welcome too. You can drop off your donations to the Parish Office, or to the wonderful Sarah C, our local greengrocer in Carlton Court in the village.

Note on donations

Please remember to Gift Aid your donation if you can: it enables Christian Aid to claim £1.25 for every £1 that you give, at no extra cost to the donor.

This year’s focus country

For 2026, the focus country for Christian Aid Week is Kenya, and its partner working in Nairobi, Beacon of Hope.

Where hardship means hunger… urban farmers can grow hope. In the crowded and noisy settlements of Nairobi, most parents wake every single day knowing that they must go and earn money, otherwise their children won’t eat that evening. With no formal work opportunities, heartbreakingly low pay, and no social support, it’s a precarious and frightening daily struggle that no family should have to face. The aching hun-ger is bad enough. The relentless stress is overwhelming. ‘When I wake up, I have a lot of worries. Sometimes I don’t have food,’ says Fridah Moraa, a recently widowed grand-mother determined to support her family on what little she earns. ‘Now I’m responsible for everything.’ With school costs, rent and water to cover, providing food for every meal is a problem that never goes away.
But Fridah’s faith in God, and in her own ability to provide, is unwavering. With tools, seeds and specialist training from Christian Aid’s partner, Beacon of Hope, Fridah’s now making the most of a small space in the city to grow a steady supply of fresh vegetables that she can cook for her family or sell on her market stall.

Gruelling heatwaves, savage storms and unpredictable seasons are ravaging farms. Industrial agriculture is taking over the last of the region’s natural resources to feed the world’s richest countries.  

Christian Aid is seeking to help fund vital tools and training so that local farmers can support their community to escape hunger.

Aurelia’s story

Aurelia is an inspirational farmer and community leader in the Indigenous Q’eqchi’ community of the Alta Verapaz region. The climate crisis and industrial plantations have changed this land dramatically. Many of the vital crops that Aurelia and her family depend on are withering and dying before her eyes.

Aurelia’s father, Ricardo, brought her to the land that she now calls home 53 years ago, when she was two years old. Ricardo described how the land had changed over five decades:

I came to this community when I was 25 years old; I’m 78 now. This was a forest with different types of trees. You could really feel the freshness of the environment while walking through the mountains, under the shade of these trees.

It’s a heartbreaking injustice that a community should be threatened by a climate crisis they didn’t cause. Aurelia, along with the women and girls of her community, has the twice-daily challenge of collecting water from a cenote – a natural sinkhole like a cave, with water at the bottom.

First and foremost, Aurelia’s farm feeds her family. She tries to grow a range of crops so that she can provide them with a balanced diet that contains the vitamins and minerals they need to thrive. In this way, Aurelia can protect her loved ones from malnutrition and ill health. However, as increasingly intense conditions kill her crops, Aurelia’s ability to safeguard her family slips away.

She has observed many impacts of the climate crisis, including extended dry seasons, the degradation of soil, contaminated water and a decreasing diversity of plants and crops.

Thanks to Christian Aid partner Congcoop, Aurelia has gained the skills and knowledge to cultivate native seeds that are better suited to the changing climate. She’s producing her own organic fertiliser, creating nurseries, constructing rainwater collection systems, and making nutritious food and medicine for her chickens.

Please help fund vital tools and training, so that farmers like Aurelia can support their community to escape hunger.

This Christian Aid Week, you can help dreams come true

You can help ensure that more people in Guatemala get the tools and training they need to meet the challenges of climate change. Anything we raise will make a difference to people in Guatemala:

• £6 could buy the pruning saw that means a farmer can tend their fruit trees.
• £30 could help fund the training session that teaches someone how to make valuable organic fertiliser.
• £100 could fund the metal roofing sheets that shield a market stall holder and their produce from the sun and rain.

For more information, please contact Ken Pattison via the Parish Office by calling 0117 950 8644 or emailing office@westbury-parish-church.org.uk.