22nd February 2015

CAFOD: FAST DAY APPEAL
Do you remember the floods here in Britain last year? The pictures on the news of people carrying their belongings from their homes: Sandbags in the street; homes flooded with water and villages submerged.

For many of us, that was when the reality of Extreme Weather really hit home. No matter how advanced or rich a country we are, no matter how powerful we are, or our economy grows, we remain at the mercy of the environment. FACT!!

We love to talk about the weather. We love to watch documentaries on extreme weather.
BUT for the poorest people in the world such weather is not interesting or fascinating. It is NOT a rare event. It doesn’t effect a relatively small number. The weather is something that preoccupies them, for one reason only. It is a matter of LIFE or DEATH! We are familiar with the effects of drought in the developing world and how it affects millions upon millions. But the opposite: too much rain is just as deadly.

58-year-old Keyin Nu lives in a small village in Myanmar. A huge storm hit her village. At 6.00pm - 400 people lived in her village.
By 6.00am - only 200 people were left!
In the space of 12 hours, she remained but lost everything!!
Her possessions, her home, her bed, her business … and her 3 children Gone! Her whole life and everything she’d worked for; everything important gone!
The work of CAFOD, through your generous support has given some hope. Her children who died tragically are of course irreplaceable. But, shelter and some chickens provided hope and a new beginning.
But, in the months following the disaster, the community’s farmland was flooded and their crops and wells contaminated with salt water, because the storm destroyed all the natural barriers.
The villagers needed a new wall to protect their crops, but how could they as they needed to spend all their time working to get food, clothes and shelter. CAFOD were able to help by building a new barrier and providing the possibility of a long term future.
When we are flooded, there is insurance and local government help. We don’t die of starvation, lack of shelter, clean water and diseases that inevitably come. Climate Change is real. We worry about it. In many countries they don’t worry. At best their lives like Kyin Nu are ruined or worse – as they do in thousands upon thousands they just die!

Please support CAFOD’S LENTEN CAMPAIGN