Week 2 Walk for Water Challenge over 2000 miles walked!!

Anne -Marie from Woolhampton parish

Week 2 completed and we are in March with a lovely week of sunshine and daffodils! Our amazing walkers taking part in CAFOD’s Walk for Water 10,000 steps a day for the 40 days of Lent have walked 2,750 miles this a roughly the distance from Portsmouth Cathedral to Cyprus. They have raised £12,714 so far which is fantastic but we need your support to help them reach their targets and hopefully £20,000!

Charles from St James & St William of York Reading

Charles from St James & St William of York in Reading wrote on his just giving page ” This challenge certainly isn’t proving easy … in terms of finding the extra time each day, the effort required, and the motivation needed.  But, whenever I feel disinclined to put on my boots and get out walking, I just call to mind that I volunteered to do this, and to do it for a pretty short period of time.  I am walking on behalf of the many people who have no option but to turn out day after day, all year round, whether they feel like it or not, to provide the most basic of needs for themselves and their families.  They don’t have the luxury of returning home for a cup of tea and a biscuit, or for a change of clothes and a rest. If they didn’t walk to fetch water, they and their loved ones would die.  So … come on, Charles … on your feet and just walk !”

Here are the just giving pages of some of those taking part so please do continue to support them and help them reach their goal of 400,000 steps = 200 miles !

Matt Bewers from St Thomas Jersey

Charles from St James & St William of York Reading

Helen Shepherd Head teacher at St Mary & St Michael Primary school in Guernsey

Jill from Our Lady of Lourdes New Milton

Ian from Sacred Heart Hook

Journey in faith group from Southampton

Confirmation group at Woolhampton parish

Mel and Jack from English Martyrs Reading

Teresa and Phil from Our Lady of Sorrows Fordingbridge

Moira from St Edward the Confessor Chandler’s Ford

Weronika from Waterlloville

Annie and Richard from Corpus Christi Bournemouth

Paul Draper from St Thomas More Twyford

Jim from St James & St William of York Reading

Yvonne Scott from St Joseph & St Margaret Clitherow Bracknell

Deacon Tony from St Bedes Basingstoke

Walkers from St Josephs & SS Thomas Havant

Southampton Parishes group

David from Our Lady Queen of Peace Earley

Janet from St Bedes Basingstoke

Sylvie from Portsmouth Cathedral

Judy from Sacred Heart Fareham

Judith from St Bedes Basingstoke

And myself and my husband!

Over 400 miles have been walked by Young People in Berkshire!

Confirmation candidates at Woolhampton parish and St Francis de Sales parish in Berkshire have walked over 400 miles so far and raised £920 for CAFOD’s Lent Appeal. They are taking part in the Walk for Water challenge to walk 10,000 steps every day for the 40 days of Lent. One of the enterprising youngsters created their own poster (pictured above) to encourage parishioners to donate to the just giving page. What an amazing group of young people to care for those in desperate need in our world. Thank you so much for taking part in our Walk for Water challenge!. You can donate to their just giving page by clicking here.

Abdella featured in the poster lives in the Afar region of Ethiopia and he has to walk for 10 hours each day to collect water you can read his story here.

Resources for your Lenten Journey

This Lent we have many opportunities for you to give, act and pray.

Pray

 Our online prayer resources will help you through Lent. Firstly, there is our Lenten calendar which features a scripture reading, short reflection, prayer, and action for each day throughout Lent. Every Friday at 11am we will have online stations of the cross please register here. We also have a power point of the stations of the cross for parishes, and one for  young people which  features quotes from Pope Francis new encyclical Fratelli Tutti. These can be downloaded and used in an online meeting or in church.

Act

Find out more about our work and the different challenges that communities face by joining our weekly webinars for example water and sanitation in Ethiopia, the challenge of water in South Sudan, Women’s rights in Gaza, and how livesimply helps Catholic communities care for our common home.  To register for these webinars please click here.  

Give

Please donate to our Lent appeal and help us to support communities around the world who are living poverty. Many more people (over 130 million) face hunger because of the impact of coronavirus and many still lack access to a clean nearby water supply so your support is desperately needed. Thank you so much.