Join CAFOD at Romero House SE1 7JB from 15th-25th June for a brand new art exhibition where an amazing group of seven young artists are going to be providing works, each in their own unique style, exploring the theme of 'Giving in Unity'.

There will be special viewing events with drinks, nibbles and the chance to meet some of the artists on the following dates:

Thursday 15th June, 17:00-20:00

Tuesday 20th June, 17:00-20:00

Sunday 25th June, 11:00-16:00

Entry to the exhibition is free but all the art on display will be available for purchase with the proceeds going to support CAFOD's work with some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable communities.

The project has been spear-headed by Luisa Rodriguez, a young Honduran artist, who has experience using her art for good when, in the wake of the devastating hurricanes that swept through Honduras in November 2020, she raised nearly £2,000 for CAFOD's emergency response work.

Luisa is joined by Bokani, Gabriel Chaim, Luisa Rodriguez, Magdalena Gluszack-Holeksa, Nick Macneil, Tim Patrick and Whitney Jade Halsted who have come together, in their own collective act of giving, to create this exhibition.

Giving in Unity

All CAFOD's work is made possible by of the generosity of our supporters, so giving is at the heart of everything that we do. Every family, every society, our whole world centres around reciprocal relationships of trust in giving and receiving. When one group starts taking more than they give, those bonds of trust are broken and, inevitably, it is the poorest that are made to suffer.

Salina is an organic farmer in Bangladesh who got trapped into a system of dependence by large seed corporations. When the seeds she had been made to buy turned out to be of poor quality, she had to buy chemical fertilisers from the same corporations to keep her crop alive, plunging her family into financial crisis and forcing them to borrow money and food just to survive. "I felt ashamed", Selina told us.

When whole communities are trapped into the same system, then, when a flood strikes and wipes out a harvest, there are no other crops for these communities to fall back on.

The system was broken precisely because a community built on reciprocal giving was replaced by large corporations taking everything, leaving small farmers with little to support themselves, let alone others in their community.

But thanks to organisations like CAFOD's partner UBINIG, Salina and other local farming families now have access to a seed centre where native seeds are stored for them to use and swap. The seeds do not require fertilisers and their variety ensures local biodiversity which is in turn good for the soil, preserving the fertility of the land for future generations.

Such a simple act of giving that has transformed a whole community and will continue to for generations.

This is what 'Giving in Unity' means to CAFOD. It means neighbour helping neighbour, whether they live next door or continents away. It means hope for a better world than the one of greed that we so often build for ourselves.