Christian Aid/Cymorth Cristnogol works with churches, communities, schools, youth organisations and individuals in Wales to fight international inequality and overcome poverty in 50 countries around the world.
We support local Christian Aid committees – particularly in the run-up to their biggest annual fundraising efforts in Christian Aid Week each May. We preach or speak about Christian Aid’s work to groups, in schools and in churches. We recruit and support campaigners, Christian Aid teachers and other volunteers. And we organise events and host visitors to Wales from Christian Aid’s overseas partner organisations.
Lingua franca
Christian Aid has always strived to ensure a Welsh identity and a rootedness in Wales. This is reflected in the fact that it works, as far as possible, as a bilingual organisation. Christian Aid believes this is the right thing to do and the only way to be relevant to the whole of Wales. In the 2001 census 21% of the population said that they spoke Welsh, and that number is growing. In much of the rural north and west, Welsh is still the first language of most people.
Welsh is taught as a first or second language to most pupils between the ages of 5 and 16. Welsh-medium schools are to be found throughout Wales and their number increases year on year. This growth is reflected in the wide range of worship, educational and campaigning resources produced by Christian Aid in the Welsh language.
Organic growth
The good relationship that Christian Aid enjoys with the churches in Wales owes much to the sense that it is a cause that has grown from within local churches and communities, rather than being planted from the outside.
The separate Welsh Church bodies – the Church in Wales, the Presbyterian Church of Wales, the Baptist Union of Wales and the Union of Welsh Independents - are represented on the Christian Aid National Committee for Wales.
The committee also includes representatives of the United Reformed Church, the Methodist Church in Wales, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Quakers and the Salvation Army.
In addition, Christian Aid works within CYTUN (Churches Together in Wales) and there are links with some of the new and emerging churches.
New possibilities
In 1999 the National Assembly for Wales was set up - a devolved administration with a wide range of executive responsibilities for implementing domestic policy in Wales. Christian Aid engages with the assembly through the Wales Overseas Agencies Group (WOAG) and the All Party Group on International Development (APGID).
The Government of Wales Act 2006 has given the assembly new powers and opened up the possibility of Welsh funding for international work to tackle poverty. The assembly is also formulating its own policy to address climate change issues in Wales.