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Some CAFOD Projects
At home
It can be difficult for us to imagine what it must be like to
live in a poor country without a proper house, running water or enough money to go to
school. But this is what life is like for many children in the PHILIPPINES. St. Mark's
primary school in Birmingham decided to spend a day learning about life in the
PHILIPPINES. The children enjoyed dressing up in FILIPINO costumes and had great fun
playing lots of musical instruments.
Tramaine Largie (aged 11) said: "It doesn't seem fair some
people are poor while others are better off. I'd like to see people who run businesses at
least give fair prices to those who grow crops like pineapples. It would be really nice if
people from the PHILIPPINES and us could meet each other. I would really like that."
Joanne McCarthy liked making music:- "I thought the musical
instrument was interesting. It made you think that FILIPINOS must be happy people."
All the children left the day thinking about what they could do
to make the world a better place for everybody to live.
 This rather unusually shaped map
is called the Peters projection map. It represents the real size
of each country and the space it takes up in the world
Brazil
Seven million children struggle to look after
themselves on the streets of Brazil.
They receive no help or money from their families.
Many of them survive by selling things or doing odd jobs such as shining shoes or washing
cars.
Others are forced to beg or steal and some even get
involved with glue-sniffing and drugs so that they can forget for a while their terrible
life on the streets.
Life on the streets can be very dangerous, and many
children have been killed, because they are seen to be "nuisances" by the
authorities.
In Olinda, CAFOD supports a project set up by the
local people. The project provides the street children with the chance to learn skills
such as printing, painting (as in photograph above), sewing, puppet-making, and even how
to make flip-flops. These skills can give them a more hopeful future and mean they can
apply for better jobs.
Bangladesh
Many people throughout Bangladesh have small plots of land on
which they grow rice. These are called paddy fields. The farmers sell some of this rice
and buy food, clothes and other household items. From time to time there are problems with
water. Sometimes it can rain too much which can cause a flood. At other times there is not
enough rain and a drought occurs. These problems can have disastrous effects and entire
rice crops can be lost. To prevent the floods from affecting the farmers too badly, an
organisation for peasant farmers was set up. This organisation, supported by CAFOD,
advises the farmers about when it is the best time to sell the rice.
The organisation also set up a savings scheme to help the
farmers manage when the crops fail. With the money saved from this scheme the farmers have
been able to start up other small farming projects including one of rearing ducks. They
are able to sell the duck eggs and feathers.
Kenya
 Northern Hola in Kenya has a population of 12,000
people. Many of these people are part of a nomadic tribe, which means they move around a
lot and only live in villages for part of the year. Because of this, it is difficult for
them to get help particularly when they become ill.
CAFOD supported setting up 3 health clinics in this area (such
as that pictured here) and helped to train local people to become health workers. These
health workers now travel for miles around to the many different communities. They work
with those who are in need of health care and use both modern medicine and old ways of
healing. The health workers also teach the communities how to look after themselves
properly and stay healthy.
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Childrens Guide,
