This year’s Christmas appeal will help support Shede and her daughter Saida. Photo credit: David Macharia.
The Diocese of Gloucester is supporting Christian Aid this Christmas, and we are asking communities to contribute to their 2024 Christmas Appeal which focuses on the plight of refugees in South Sudan.
More than four million people are without homes in South Sudan. Thousands cross the border from Sudan every day, seeking refuge from the war there. Food shortages, high prices, a lack of clean water, and poor sanitation make daily life an enormous challenge. With hunger, malnutrition, trauma and violence against women rife, extreme poverty is deepening.
Christian Aid has been in South Sudan since the 1970s, working with churches and other partners to promote peace, while also delivering and supporting projects which offer lifesaving supplies, train community champions in the prevention of violence against women, and support farmers in climate-resilient practices. Last year, the organisation and its partners supported more than 43,500 people.
But as the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan deepens, with new families arriving to seek refuge every day, the need is greater then ever before.
Christian Aid have shared the story of Shede, a 35-year-old mother from Sudan. She fled to South Sudan’s Wedweil Refugee Settlement in 2023 after conflict devastated her home, killed family members, and left her with nothing but the clothes she wore. She now lives in a UN shelter with her six-year-old daughter Saida and granddaughter Mariem, while her older daughters work elsewhere to support the family. Despite receiving food and cash rations, Shede struggles to meet basic needs like clothing and medicine, and dreams of rebuilding her life by starting a cooking business
Thanks to Christian Aid’s supporters throughout the UK, the charity’s partner, Smile Again Africa Development Organisation has been delivering a programme which provides vital financial assistance to refugees such as Shede and Saida in Wedweil Refugee Settlement.
We are asking worshipping communities to collect donations from carol concerts and special services. Donations to the appeal can help provide nutritious meals, medicine, blankets and other essential supplies. In the long term, will support people to develop sustainable incomes which increase their resilience to the many challenges they tackle.
Listen to Christian Aid’s new charity single, ‘Hold on to Hope’, a collaboration between Christian Aid, London rap artist Jords, and the Insignia Choir. Proceeds from downloads and streams will go to the work of Christian Aid’s partners.
Paper doves made by children from Chaldon, Surrey.
We are also inviting people to make paper doves to hang in windows and on Christmas trees, as an act of solidarity and to demonstrate a call for world leaders to do more to encourage peacebuilding. You can use this Solidarity Dove Template, and share your Dove on social media using the tag @christianaid.
Every prayer, every gift, every action helps transforms lives: £4 could buy meat which means four people can eat a nutritious meal; £20 could fund a cooking pot so someone can prepare meals and earn a living; and £50 could pay for a wheelbarrow which helps a community gather in their harvest.
As we start to think about how we will celebrate this Christmas, why not take a moment to share a gift with our global neighbours, which could bring some comfort as they wait and hope for peace.
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