CAFOD on the Isle of Wight

Jo Lewry enjoyed visiting the Isle of Wight last week and meeting with CAFOD parish volunteers and supporters in person!

It was lovely to meet with our CAFOD volunteers and supporters in the Isle of Wight in person on Saturday 3rd September. It was a fantastic meeting and many thanks to Ed Matyjeszek the Headteacher at The Priory School of Our Lady of Walsingham in Whippingham for hosting the meeting.

As always, we started the meeting in prayer remembering all those affected by the terrible floods in Pakistan and continuing droughts in Africa. I shared an update on parish collections for Lent fast day and the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Then we looked in more depth at the worsening situation in East Africa where communities are suffering from 3 years of drought and the worse plague of locusts in years. Over 1.5 million cattle and sheep have died devastating the pastoralists communities and many crops have failed. “It is very distressing to be unable to feed your children…. As a mother when you don’t have anything to give them any water, any food to give them that is the most distressing thing of all.” Talaso from Northern Kenya. I then shared the resources for Harvest Fast Day which is on Friday 7th October and will focus on the World Food Crisis, and we ended the meeting in prayer. Many thanks to Geraldine our Parish Volunteer Coordinator for the Isle of Wight for organising the meeting and providing the refreshments and thank you to all those who came.

Please do join me for my next CAFOD meeting on Saturday 17th September from 10:30am to 12 noon at St Bedes Church Hall Basingstoke where Ibrahim Njuguna CAFOD’s Surge Country representative for Africa will be speaking about the situation in East Africa and CAFOD’s response. Please contact me on portsmouth@cafod.org.uk to book your place at this meeting.