Empowering Communities
Andrew Sully has been working for Christian Aid full-time since May, covering the maternity leave of the Head of Christian Aid Wales, Mari McNeill, until next February.
Christian Aid is an extraordinary organisation in terms of the level of commitment I see from the staff and their desire to make a change for the better. Sometimes the Church in Wales can feel resistant to change whereas change feels like it’s a word written into the DNA of Christian Aid. We try to make the world better for the world’s poorest countries by empowering the communities we work with through adaptation, training and re-skilling those most affected by climate change.
![Andrew Sully [Christian Aid]](https://stdavids.contentfiles.net/media/images/Andrew_Sully.width-500.jpg)
In Wales we have a small team supporting individual and group fundraising efforts, promoting campaigns and actions, and enabling groups to worship through the provision of bilingual liturgical resources and speakers if requested. We are all fluent in the Welsh language. My role in particular is about working with church leaders and the media in Wales to raise the profile of Christian Aid’s work. I organised a north to south Wales cycling fundraiser in July which raised £5000 and even got Bishop Mary (Llandaff) to run the Cardiff half marathon at the beginning of October as a fundraising event.
Fundraising events like these, happening at a different time from Christian Aid Week, enable us in Wales to meet our annual targets which in turn increases the annual budget that we receive from the national organisation based in London. In addition we are encouraged by denominational appeals from partner churches, like that organised recently by the Presbyterian Church in Wales which raised an amazing £160 000 and the current appeals by the Union of Welsh Independents and the Baptist Union of Wales.
At the moment, we are exploring how best to resource groups in St Davids Diocese and throughout West Wales now that the Field Officer, Revd Tom Dafis, who was formerly supporting grassroots supporters from Carmarthen, has retired and not been replaced. Could the answer be in local hubs being set up of activists who can gather from time to time in the towns of the diocese and whom we can resource both through local events or through specific fundraising services and meetings? Let me know what you think and how we can continue to be the go-to charity in Wales for humanitarian aid and development.