Christian Aid is a UK based charity that is supported and funded by Christian churches throughout the UK. It started after the second World War and was called Christian Reconstruction in Europe. Being set up to help with post war welfare, and to help in the settlement of the post war refugees.
Christian Aid
They became part of the British Council of Churches who went on to become the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland in 1949. This changed in 1964 to Christian Aid.
During the 1970's they started to develop their work and their projects, by this time they now had 100 long term projects in 40 countries across the world. Most of these projects were to do with helping reconstruct the lives and homes of the local people after wars.
In the 80's they started work on highlighting the banks and the high interest loans they were giving during the recession. They also started campaigning to shed light on the plight of the rainforests, global development, poverty and the Ethiopian famine. To this day they also work with the trade justice movement, this movement publicizes unjust trade rules and works to get them changed.
Christian Aid's vision is "an end to poverty" and their work focuses on eradicating poverty and making the world fair and just for all. Christian Aid work mainly in the Americas (Latin America and the Caribbean), Africa, Asia and the Middle East, working against issues such as conflict, poverty, rights and justice, climate change, HIV and trade. Christian Aid's values are;
With their vision and their values Christian Aid aims to change rules and systems that keep people poor, to help work globally for profound change that eradicates the cause of poverty and to fight for equality, dignity and freedom for all, regardless of faith or nationality. Today they work with over 650 overseas partners in around 70 countries, and all their work can be summed up in their statement "we believe in life before death". Some of the many countries they work in today are Afghanistan, Brazil, Haiti, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
For the tax year 2007-2008 their annual income was £86.5 million, of this money 75% was from public donations in the UK and Ireland, £9.8 million was from legacies and £3.3 million was from major donors. Major donors are people who give more than £1000 in one go, the most substantial major donation they received was from one person who donated £1 million in one go. They also received money from corporate sponsors, for example Ecotrisity donate £15 for every person who switches over to them. Christian Aid also received £17.6 million from governments, although this amount is restricted to be no more than 30% of their overall budget, to prevent conflict between the charity and the governments.
Christian Aid's expenditure for the same year was £82.49 million. Of this money 19% was spent on fundraising with the rest being spent on charitable activities. With 41% of their grants going to Africa, 39% going to Asia and the middle east, 17% going to the Americas (Latin America and the Caribbean) and the remaining 3% going to the UK, Ireland and other countries.
Christian Aid has many ways to raise money, the most famous being their door-to-door campaign, this happens on the second week of May each year. Volunteers for Christian Aid go around door-to-door collecting money on behalf of the organisation, this campaign actually makes up around 20% of their annual funding and is known as "Christian Aid Week". They also run several events throughout the year from runs, cycling and quizzes, as well as challenge events such as trekking and abseiling. www.christianaid.org.uk