However some people think that you must “love your neighbour” and your neighbour is the one who lives in your country. Also they believe that if someone is suffering they must help them even if others in other countries may be suffering more. Those in our own countries are easier to help and therefore more can be done as the money available goes further and people are more willing to help those who are closer to them as they are more easily accessible. Also some Christians believe that God has given the authority in the government and therefore if you were to disrespect the government’s ideas on poverty, you were disrespecting Gods ideas. Therefore if the government believed in helping those who are in our countries, people must obey this and help those in their own countries first.
In conclusion, I believe that we should look after those who are the poorest and those who are in most need of our help, no matter where they are living, rather than helping those who just live nearer us. We should help those are without the five basic needs and living in absolute poverty, before helping those who are simply in relative poverty.
Christians feel they are responsible to help the poor and share their own belongings with those who are less fortunate. Christians support the poor by giving money to aid agencies such as Cafod, who work on their behalf, in poor countries to bring relief, aid and support for the people. Christians may give directly to the charity money or they may do fundraisers to collect together money from lots of people and then give this on to the charity. Cafod works within the UK, Africa, Asia and South America and aims to “promote human development and social justice in witness to Christian faith and Gospel values.” They raise funds from the Catholic community in the UK so they can try to promote long-term development and also respond to emergencies such as war, famine, or natural disasters. In Africa, Cafod’s main aims are to increase awareness of HIV and AIDS, help people provide for their own basic needs, to promote peace and to make links between countries so the valuable lessons learned in one country can be put to use in others. They are putting these aims to action through the use of the UK’s money to fund teaching in Africa to help people become more self-reliant.
Cafod’s current project is to encourage UK Christians to “live simply, so others can live”. This is a realistic goal that has been set by Cafod to encourage Christians to give up some of their luxuries so others can have the basic necessities. This is something Christians can quite easily do, without giving up their normal lives but they can simply give money alongside. The money that is raised by people giving up their luxuries is spent in poor countries to give these people the 5 basic needs: food, water, work, health and education. Cafod ensures the work they do is sustainable and therefore they do not use highly complicated technology but instead may install basic technology like water pumps which are easy to work and simple to fix so the people become more self-reliant. It is not helpful for Christians to simply give the countries their money because what they really need is their time and skills. However this is not practical for many people and this is where Cafod comes in and works on behalf of these people using their money but giving their time to put the money into use.
Also Christians support the poor by raising awareness of the poverty. Christians campaign to challenge the cause of poverty and draw people’s attention to the poverty some people live in day in day out. This encourages people to get involved in charity work as they learn how many people are suffering and that is does not take much to make a big difference. Christians do this as it causes other people to give money and time to support the poor, but also because it educates others into the suffering others endure.
