The agency that helps in world development that I am going to analyse is called Christian Aid. Most poor countries are forced to make their main priority which is paying back heavy debts, while they earn less and less from a trade system that is loaded against them. So Christian Aid helps the poor and sick with their Training and supplies.
It was founded at the end of the second world war in 1945 by the formerly known British Churches Ecumenical Refugee Council. It was designed for helping the poor throughout the world. Christian Aid aims to serve all people whether or not they are Christians. They are supported and funded by Church donations, sponsored events, school donations, voluntary donations and government grants. Christian Aid also raises money by door-to-door envelope collection during Christian Aid week.
Christian Aid funds projects that help people regardless of their beliefs. Some of the work they fund is done through local Christian organisations, but it is for the benefit of all.
Christian Aid give their help by supplying food for people who are undernourished and who suffer from malnutrition. They try to “help the poor to help themselves”. What they mean is that they can teach them how to help themselves and others rather than being dependant upon others all the time. Jesus said “Give a man a fish and he can feed himself but teach a man to fish and he can feed his family”. They also provide health education, medical supplies and help with dealing with people in times of disaster. Most aid is given in the form of training and education. This is to teach people to encourage others in their village to help themselves and improve their lifestyle. Christian Aid prefers to fund local organisations in a place of need as they believe that this is how they can meet local needs. Therefor using a local labour force provides work in the area for the people helping to overcome poverty. There are many different types of aid given by Christian Aid, they are:
· Continued aid - This is for helping refugees as part of a relief programme. They supply food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless and medical care for the ill.
· Emergency aid - Emergency aid is given to help people in sudden need when homes are destroyed and people die during natural disasters.
· Aid in Britain - This is set out to help people in Britain understand the causes of poverty and the reasons why third world countries find it hard to change their situation.
Christian Aid helps people because they are motivated by their beliefs. Jesus said “ Love your neighbour as yourself”. This means that everyone on this earth is my neighbour there for I should treat them equally to myself and help them in times of need. Christian Aid do this because they try to do God’s work on earth.
Christian Aid operates because Christians believe that all on this earth is lent to the inhabitants for the brief duration of their lives. So because everything on this earth is God’s and Christians follow God’s son Jesus’ teachings then everything should be looked after so therefor they should help others. Christians are obligated to help others by Jesus’ teachings about wealth.
The Christian teaching is that wealth is a gift from God and so it is to be used the way God wants; not necessarily the way the individual wants. So money should be given to the Christian Aid to help others.
It is important to the people who run the Aid because they are helping to develop the world and help people, which is following their belief and doing God’s work. It is important to the people who benefit from the Aid because they know that there are people who care and with the help of Christian Aid can gain help to help themselves. It also gives these people dignity and self respect. Jesus said : ‘ I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; sick and you took care of me...When ever you did this for one of my family, you did it for me.’
Out of every pound Christian Aid receive, 75p is spent on tackling poverty on behalf of the poorest people in the world, 11p is spent on campaigning and education, to change the structures of inequality that keep people poor; 12p is spent on fund-raising; 2p is spent on administration.
Analyse and explain the work of one religious agency working for the world of development.
In today’s modern society there is so much suffering on the world that is unknown to a majority of people. Christian aid helps to relieve people of this suffering all round the world. There main aim is to help people to learn how to support themselves and live on there own two feet. In the poorest parts of the world only 9% of people have toilet facilities. 176 of 1,000 children die before they reach the age of just five years old.
British and Irish Churches started Christian aid just after World War II. As Britain had not been two badly affected by the war their main focus was on the people of Europe who had lost their homes. It was called Christian reconstruction in Europe. The name was soon changed when the world council of churches was founded in 1948 and the work became part of the British council of churches. It became know as The Department of Inter-Church Aid and Refugee Service. In 1949 the income was at a total of £29,000. The name of Christian aid was adopted in 1964.
In the fifties Christian aids main work was in refugees. In 1959 there total income was £483,000. In the sixties Christian Aid responded quickly to the growing food shortage in the world. There total income was £2,500,000. In the seventies they focused on there long time plans for getting people to be self-sufficient. There total income was almost £5.5 million. In the seventies they realised there self-sufficiency plans were not enough. The banks were charging to higher loan interest rates. There income was £28 million. In the eighties there was a campaign to make the big banks reduce or cancel the third world debt. Total income was over £31 million.
Christian Aids main aim is to make people live on there own 2 feet. They say that they cannot help people who cannot help themselves. The poor must be willing to learn if they are to become self-sufficient. They aim to help relieve the suffering by doing this.
With all the suffering around the world Charities like Christian aid are needed. They help thousands of people every year live a happier more peaceful life. They make sure children have a good education and can grow up knowing more about life than just pain and suffering. They give people in the third world countries a chance to live.
The agency I have chosen to analyse and explain about for my chosen religious agency is ‘Christian Aid.’ I have chosen them, because I believe overall that they do the correct thing to help the needy.
Christian aid is an agency of the churches in the UK and Ireland; Christian Aid works wherever the need is greatest, irrespective of religion. Christian Aid supports local organisations, which are best, placed to understand local needs, as well as giving help on the ground through 16 overseas offices.
Christian Aid believes in strengthening people to find their own solutions to the problems they face. It strives for a new world transformed by and end to poverty and campaigns to change the rules that keep people poor.
Christian Aid as stated above help many countries with their problems; one of these, which I will elaborate on, is to correct the problems arising from debt in third world countries. These problems arise when the third world countries borrow money to make their country a better place. However, the interest is so high that it is impossible to pay back the money borrowed. Therefore, a campaign has been made to cancel the debts of the world's poorest countries and as I will show, has had a huge impact. Across the world, millions of people are feeling the benefits right now. Nevertheless, many others are still waiting.
This campaign was helped when the eight richest industrial countries met in Germany to discuss the world debt problem, and consequently agreed to cancel some of the debt owed by other countries (40 in total). This involved the heavily countries in debt who, to get out of debt had to undergo major reforms in their country for six years before their debt was paid off.
The debt however, has not gone away. As well as continuing to work on debt through the Jubilee Debt Campaign, Christian Aid is supporting many campaign groups in indebted countries.
For example, in Ghana an organisation called SEND is helping people to find out more about their country's debt and how they can make sure any funds from debt cancellation are spent wisely.
Christian Aid's main focal point is now to rewrite the international rules and practices that govern the trading laws this enabling poverty to be reduced lifting the weight of debt repayments enabling poor countries to develop their industries and earn more from trade. Better trade makes it easier for countries to pay their debts and stop getting into debt in the first place. Therefore, Christian Aid is now working to persuade the big rich industrial countries not just to throw out their view of a satisfactory sum of money, but also to really try to think of a proper solution to the debt problem in the various countries that Christian Aid is helping.
A new report from Jubilee Research at the New Economics Foundation reveals that the debt cancellation programme is working, and is therefore a good campaign.
The report examines public spending in 10 African countries, which have benefited from debt cancellation. It shows to me that total spending on education in these countries had increased, therefore as a result of higher educated people, therefore any debt being paid of twice as quickly as before.
The story is similar with spending on health, which has risen by 70 per cent than what it was before without debt relief, and is now one third higher than when the country was spending money on debt repayments. Christian Aid also states that despite most people believing that the money is to fuel military schemes, it is not and that it is contributing to take countries out of debt and out of the ‘third - world’ category.
My analysis of Christian Aid’s work is that it is a very generous, good, and coherent campaign, my reasons for which are as follows. It is a very worthwhile scheme, because certain countries are benefiting from these schemes and it is very good to see debt cancellations, meaning that countries can get on with what is necessary to spend their money on, rather than paying back richer countries who do not particularly need the money. As stated above, even if Christian Aid only help a little bit with certain countries’ debt then as shown above, a significant increase in health and general economical benefits will arise. Christian Aid seems to be doing the right thing in means of world development. Maimonides’ eight-step ladder showing the best form of charity is to give a person/country exactly what it needs to carry on or to be self-dependant, and as stated by Christian Aid themselves they try to give people their own solutions to the problems. That is why debt cancellation has developed, because as well as the programme making people aware of their own countries debt, the cancellation helps education and therefore making the country self-sufficient as its ministry will benefit for the qualified people.
I believe that Christian Aid is one of the few charities that in my eyes do enough for the third world countries. St. Paul stated that ‘Christian churches should be generous in helping others, even if they themselves are poor.’ This I am sure is one of the many reason Christian Aid operates, because they are serving God by what they re doing. In addition, John 3. 17:18 describes that you must ‘put your faith into action. The rich must not ignore the poor.’ This should thereby encourage many people of the world to try to be like Christian Aid in the way that they help the world to be a better place. In this instance, by serving God you are getting rid of poverty and the derogatory affiliations that the term ‘Third –World’ carries with it.
