The Parish of St. Joseph's Birtley and our schools (St. Joseph's Infants, St Joseph's Juniors and St. Benet's) are all committed to raising money for CAFOD for this year's Harvest Fast Day.   The schools will be doing various things to raise both money and awareness, such as non-uniform days, letters to world leaders and assemblies on what we can do to make our world better for everyone.

This year, we are taking on CAFOD's Go Green Challenge.  Through this challenge we are inviting donations to support people around the world who are fighting poverty caused by climate change, as well as taking part in an action which is making a difference to the climate crisis.

Ivanilde and her community live in Porto Seguro, a small area of the Amazon rainforest bordered on all sides by cattle pasture. Ivanilde has the legal right to live and work on the land and the responsibility to carry out sustainable fruit and nut harvesting.  Unfortunately, seasonal burning of land around Porto Seguro can cause terrible damage. Climate change is making very dry seasons more common and so this increases the fire risk for people like Ivanilde.

Did you know?  £7 pays for legal support for a year to protect a family from illegal landgrabbers.  £40 can help a forest farming family recover and replant after a fire.  £218 will equip an indigenous fire brigade.

Usually we hand out CAFOD envelopes, in which people can put cash donations.  However, this year we have set up a JustGiving page to make things easier, more covid-friendly and it also allows for the very important gift aid option.  Every single penny counts, so thank you in advance for your donation.

The donation amount can be altered by typing in the box.  So if you wanted to give £2, just delete the numbers in the amount box and put "2" instead.