Send Soap
As a parish we have supported Christian Aid for many years. Their work continues in spite of the pandemic.
Put soap* at the top of your list to save lives, urges Christian Aid
* Not literally buy them soap! As online shopping continues its meteoric rise, Christian Aid this year has expanded its digital gift selection to include a Charity Gift https://charity-gifts.christianaid.org.uk enabling supporters to help train more women to make soap for £15 or provide clean water for £30. It doesn’t sound like much, does it? But it makes a big difference to the communities.
The humble bar of soap has morphed into a key tool in the global fight against coronavirus and Christian Aid is urging the public to put it at the top of their list.
Christian Aid has provided soap for almost 250,000 people worldwide since the outbreak began and CEO Amanda Khozi Mukwashi is appealing to the public also to buy the traditional gift of soap for the world’s most vulnerable people.
Refugees living in crowded camps are particularly vulnerable to disease. Since April 2020 Christian Aid partner organisations in Bangladesh have provided over 40,000 bars of soap for Rohingya families and the local host community.
In Ethiopia, where coronavirus is an additional threat to lives on top of the climate crisis and the locust swarms of 2020, Christian Aid partners are training women to make soap from the drought resistant aloe vera plant. The soap not only protects the women’s own families but provides a vital source of income.
Ms Mukwashi said: “This has been a year when we in the UK have experienced vulnerability in a way we haven’t for many generations and have been given an insight into what it is like to not be able to fully protect our loved ones from outside forces.
“But we have tools at our disposal. We can wash our hands with soap and water and this year we are appealing to the public to help put those critical tools in the hands of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”
NHS Consultant Dr Paul Grime of St Thomas’ Hospital, London, who travelled with Christian Aid to rural Ethiopia said: “We mustn’t underestimate the importance of soap and water. These may seem like basic and simple resources to us, but they can make a huge difference to those who don’t have them. Making them available gives people the chance to protect themselves and their loved ones, control the spread of the virus and other infections in their communities and avoid the devastating impact that infections like coronavirus have on the poorest members of our global community.”