Thousands upon thousands of people on the road. Desperate, hungry people fleeing their homes, their life’s possessions bundled into pots and sacks. Children crying.
It is a scene from the Democratic Republic of Congo in November 2008, but equally it could be a scene from Europe in May 1945 – the humanitarian disaster that led to the founding of Christian Aid.
German refugees at the end of WWII. Pic: Getty/ Horace Abrahams
In those dark days at the end of the second world war, British and Irish church leaders got together, determined to do something about the emerging refugee crisis.
More than 40 million people – Jews from the liberated concentration camps, ethnic Germans, eastern Europeans – were on the move in what was the biggest displacement of people the world had ever seen.
The church leaders’ response was the creation of an organisation that moved swiftly to offer humanitarian assistance to European refugees who had lost everything.
The long fight
It is the sort of assistance that Christian Aid (as we were renamed in 1964) has been providing ever since. From Vietnam and Lebanon, to Kosovo and Gaza, we have been there to deliver aid to ordinary people, no matter what their faith.
But our experience has also told us that our response to conflict needs to be much wider than the delivery of humanitarian assistance, however important that may be.
In the Middle East, for instance, we have partners such as the Parents’ Circle who are striving to build bridges between Palestinians and Israelis.
At the same time, we have been speaking out against the continuing Israeli blockade of Gaza – a blockade that is strangling the economy of this Palestinian territory and denying its people proper access to food, water and basic healthcare.
Lasting peace
We are also speaking out on the current crisis in the DRC, urging the UK government to use its influence to help secure peace again in the African Great Lakes region.
For Christian Aid, the return of peace is not the end of our involvement in a country, but is often only the beginning. In countries torn apart by war but now at peace such as Angola and Sierra Leone, we are helping to rebuild communities, rehabilitate former child soldiers and create hope for a better future.
One thing is certain. When peace finally returns to the eastern DRC, Christian Aid partners will still be there, helping families to rebuild their lives again.