4 CANDLELIGHTNEWS ISSUE 6 – 2012/13

cafod.org.uk/candlelightCAFOD, Romero House, 55 Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7JB

Tel: 020 7095 5348 Fax: 020 7274 9630 Email: candlelight@cafod.org.uk

ISSUE 6 – 2012/13

Thank you for reading this edition of Candlelight News, giving you a taste of the difference Candlelight Funds

make around the world because of your support. We hope you’ve enjoyed it.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue or your Candlelight Fund and, as ever, please get in touch if you’d like to

share your memories or story with the other families remembering someone special through a fund.

You can contact me on 020 7095 5348 or by emailing candlelight@cafod.org.uk. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you and God bless,

Susanna Candlelight Funds Team

Read how these brave young volunteers in Nicaragua are being trained to protect their local communities.

Since 2006 your Candlelight Funds have, together, raised more than half a million pounds to support life-saving and life-changing work with some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. Thank you so much.

CAFOD is the official overseas development and relief agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and a member of Caritas International. Registered charity no: 285776

Printed on 100% recycled paper. Photos: Annie Bungeroth, Nick Harrop, Linda Ulonska, Purple Flame Media

FOR THE FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF THOSE COMMEMORATED BY CANDLELIGHT FUNDS

To Joan – my twin sister by Brenda Hughes

Looking back I can see

How, down the years, you’ve companioned me

From conception’s dawning long ago

To present age’s autumn glow.

Within the womb’s secluded place

We, growing, shared that secret place.

When, bursting forth our lives to live,

In companioning me your love did give.

In past and present forever there

Companioning me with love, with care.

I thank my God, and for you give praise

A precious blessing from my earliest days.

Our lives are now changed, never again to be the same

But we will always say your name

You’ve gone to God and He is near

When we speak to you I believe you’ll hear

As we pray for you in Heaven above

We’ll be comforted and still sense your selfless love

Freed from sadness and all pain

With our Risen Lord you now truly live again.

A sister’s tributeBrenda Hughes sent us this lovely poem about her beloved twin sister, Joan, who is remembered with a Candlelight Fund. She wrote it a number of years ago and then updated it to read as a tribute to Joan at her funeral Mass.

We produce enough food to feed the world – but a billion people don’t

have enough to eat. The way that food is grown, sold and shared out is not working for the world’s poorest

people. But we have the power to change this.

Are you hungry for change? Then join our campaign, calling on the Prime Minister to take action for a fairer food system. Please email him today at cafod.org.uk/hungry.

R40379

Faith in the FutureBeth from the Legacy and Candlelight Funds team was able to visit our work in Nicaragua, featured on page 3, with two supporters in the spring of 2012. We have put together a 9 minute DVD, Faith in the Future, about their visit and the difference donations and legacies make around the world. To request your free copy, please call Beth on 020 7095 5353.

Where your money goes

Expenditure 2011/12

■ International Development (45%)

■

Disaster Relief (33%)

■

Development education (5%)

■

Advocacy and campaigning (6%)

■

Generating funds & governance (11%)

23%

12%

DVD running time: 9 minutes

Faith in the Future Marjorie’s legacy of life and hope

116 mm30 mm

Joan

Brenda

If this is the first time you’ve come across Candlelight Funds and you would like to know more about remembering someone special in this way, please get in touch. We’d be honoured to help you build a lasting tribute to your loved one.

Touching thousands of livesHere are just a few of the many people you’ve helped in 2012. On their behalf: thank you for your help and friendship.

Niger: responding to the food crisis

The failed 2011 harvest in Niger has left more than a million children under the age of five threatened by severe malnutrition. We’ve responded quickly to try to prevent catastrophe. Our partner, CADEV-Niger, is running eleven nutrition centres offering life-saving treatment.

One of the children they’ve helped is 17-month-old twin Hassana. Her mother, Haoua, struggles to get enough food for her family and told us, “I didn’t have enough milk for both of my babies”. But thanks to the centre’s help and your support, Hassana is doing much better.

“I’m so happy about what I’ve received. My child is doing well,” said Haoua. “Please continue to help us... especially in these changing times.”

Nicaragua: preparing for emergencies

Nicaragua’s vulnerability to earthquakes and hurricanes means isolated rural communities are often cut off by swollen rivers and landslides. But many villages are now better prepared – thanks to you.

Our partner, the John XXIII Social Action Institute, trains and equips brave volunteers known as “brigadistas” to protect their community during natural disasters. In the village of El Rincon brigadistas monitor weather reports, organise evacuations and rescue and give first aid to people who are trapped or injured. Although young, the team take their responsibilities seriously.

Gregorio González lost seven neighbours and his home in a hurricane. “Back then we weren’t prepared but thankfully today we have the brigade”, he told us. “Maybe if it had existed then, those deaths could have been prevented.”

“I am touched that people in the UK can feel compassion for poor people in Cambodia... without this support, I’m not sure how my children would have survived”Sophea and her children have been given a second chance – thanks to you.

CAFOD has been working with Maryknoll Ministries in Cambodia for over 10 years to improve the quality of life for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Maryknoll’s original aim was to enable HIV positive people living in poverty to die with dignity and feel cared for. Thankfully, the increased availability of antiretroviral therapy means AIDS is no longer the death sentence it used to be. Maryknoll now focuses on giving people confidence, skills and opportunities to live life to the full, without being dependent on aid.

Three years after her husband died Kong Sophea began to feel ill. “I started suffering from pains in my stomach. It got so bad that I had to give up my job as a farmer,” she told us. “One of my husband’s relatives told me I should have an HIV test. Looking back, I think he probably knew why my husband died.”

At the time antiretroviral (ARVs) therapy was not available, so Sophea was only able to receive treatment for opportunistic infections.

Maryknoll, supported by CAFOD, paid her medical bills and gave her money to buy food for her family.

As her condition worsened, Maryknoll arranged for Sophea to receive newly available ARVs. “I began to feel better immediately,” she said. “I gained weight and my strength returned.”

Life is still difficult for Sophea but, thanks to your support, she can look to the future. Keen to work and be independent again, Sophea attended some job training organised by Maryknoll and has set up a small recycling business, collecting cardboard, plastic bottles and tin cans from the streets. “Our diet depends on how much scrap I collect,” she told us. “Sometimes we eat three meals a day, sometimes we survive on rice.”

“ When I was seriously ill, Maryknoll saved my life. I will never be able to repay that debt. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity.”

Living positively: Sophea’s story

Anthony’s and Angela’s nephews with some of the many people helped by our partner in Cambodia.

Our Candlelight Fund is a source of great joy to us. Both sets

of our parents were wonderful and loving people and gave us many gifts – including our faith. Their deaths, between 1983 and 2007, were a cause of great sadness, although they are now safe in God’s hands. Our fund commemorates them and also honours the memory of two much loved aunts.

We decided that we wanted to make a small corner of the world a better place in tribute to our relatives and heard about Candlelight Funds, which were exactly what we wanted. Beth and Susanna from the Candlelight Funds team told us about projects we could support and one in particular stood out for us.

One of CAFOD’s partners in Cambodia, Maryknoll Ministries, helps people living with HIV and AIDS and their families, including children who’ve been orphaned, infected or affected in other ways

by HIV. When we read the story of one young boy whose life had been transformed by Maryknoll we knew that supporting this work was the right way to pay tribute to our parents and aunts.

Being able to watch our fund grow and hearing how the programme is developing and helping other families is brilliant. Two of our nephews visited Cambodia recently and CAFOD arranged for them to visit Maryknoll. They were so impressed by what they saw and by the moving stories told by people who have benefited from the treatment, support and love supplied by the staff and volunteers.

We are delighted to be associated with this project in memory of our relatives and to be part of the Candlelight family.

Anthony, Angela and Katie

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Our family’s fund to help families in Cambodia