Bishop Crean with the Lent 2020 Parish resources Caoimhe de Barra
Over the coming days and weeks, the faces of two women will adorn the walls and tables of homes in parishes all over Ireland. Standing alongside their young children, Angela and Madris are like all other mothers in the world who want to provide futures for their children. But these two mothers have remarkable stories to tell.
As the faces of Trócaire’s 2020 Lenten Appeal, Angela and Madris continue to overcome enormous odds to protect their children from two deadly threats.
In Honduras, a logging company is destroying the land and polluting the rivers on which Angela and her family depend. Her children Jocsan and Nicole cough from the dirty air, while baby Helen’s skin is infected from the toxic water. Angela’s life has been threatened for standing-up for her community’s right to defend their land and water supply.
“We want to protect the water and the air,” she told us. “I have never considered giving up. I want a better life for my children.”
Over 10,000km away, in a dusty farm in eastern Kenya, Madris surveys the brown fields and prays that one day they will turn green. After two seasons of failed rains, farmers such as Madris are struggling to grow any food to feed their families. Like many more like her, Madris often goes hungry so as her children can eat.
Rains
The climate in eastern Kenya – as with many more regions across the developing world – is becoming hotter and drier. The old predictable rains are gone, leaving farmers unsure of when and what to plant.
Trócaire is working with the local Catholic parish to support families such as Madris’s. Thanks to the generous support of people in Ireland, Madris has received chickens as well as tools and training to support her through the long droughts. Working with the parish, Trócaire has also established a savings and loan group, which provides support to women such as Madris.
Over the next six weeks, Catholics across Ireland will reflect on the Lenten message. In our communities and our homes, we will gather for prayer, penance and almsgiving. The stories of Angela and Madris will feature strongly in our thoughts as we think of the millions of people across the world who struggle for daily survival, facing hunger and the threat of violence as they try to provide for their families.
Trócaire’s Lenten Appeal is the vehicle through which Catholics in Ireland express their support for their fellow brothers and sisters overseas. As Ireland’s largest fundraising campaign, it is testament to the enormous generosity of parishes across the island.
Testament
It is also testament to the incredible footprint of hope that the Catholic Church in Ireland leaves in some of the poorest places on Earth. The Lenten Appeal allows Trócaire to bring aid and support to approximately three million people each year. That is three million people whose lives have been touched, changed and in many cases saved by the compassion of Catholics in Ireland.
We are incredibly grateful to people all over Ireland who contribute to Trócaire during Lent, or indeed throughout the year. As our Chairperson, Bishop William Crean, recently noted while writing in these pages, the mission of Trócaire – to support the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world – is the embodiment of the mission of the Church.
Trócaire belongs to the Faithful community of Ireland. Our teams across the world work incredibly hard – often in the most difficult of circumstances – to ensure your support is put to work in the most effective way possible.
As an agency of the Catholic Church, Trócaire is at all times guided by Catholic Social Teaching and all of our work is fully compliant with the values and teachings of the Catholic Church.
It is sometimes easy to forget that there is more love and compassion in this world than there is hate and indifference”
In this fast-paced and digital age in which we live, we are constantly reminded of the division and conflict that exists in this world. It is sometimes easy to forget that there is more love and compassion in this world than there is hate and indifference.
Throughout the Lenten season, parishes the length and breadth of Ireland will prove this by doing what they can to ease the burden of strangers thousands of miles away who they will never meet. There is no greater example of our Faith in action.
Caoimhe de Barra is Trócaire CEO. To support Trócaire this Lent, or to download Lent parish resources, visit trocaire.org