Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
18 December 2024
Post No. 383
The Week’s Contents
• Season of Light 2024-2025
• Festive Giving, Gifting and Lifting
• Community Value Chains, the CENFACS Community
… And much more!
• 2024 Year-end and 2025 Year-start Calendar
Projects/Campaigns/Festive Resources: State of Running
a) Year-round/Triple Value Initiatives: closed as of 23/12/2024
b) Community Value Chains: active and continuous
c) End-of-year Donation Campaign and Support: active until 31/12/2024
d) Festive Income Boost: active until 31/12/2024
e) Gifts of Peace: active until 31/01/2025
f) Season of Lights: active until 21/03/2025
g) Online Discussion on Volunteering in Winter: active until 05/01/2025
• Year-end 2024 Thank You Message
As 2024 draws to a close, CENFACS would like to take a moment to express its gratitude to all of its supporters and each and every one of you for your dedication and commitment to its noble and beautiful cause of poverty reduction.
Thank you to all of you who produced poverty reduction with us and made poverty reduction possible for those in need and for us in 2024.
Key Messages
• Season of Light 2024-2025
On 22 December 2024, we shall move from Autumn Fresh Start to the Season of Light. As a result, Autumn Fresh Start projects and programmes including campaign will end to signal the start of the Season of Light within CENFACS.
• • End of the Autumn Fresh Start Season and Campaign
The Autumn Season will officially end on 22 December 2024. The momentum we have built from the beginning and throughout Autumn Fresh Start Season continues to galvanise our poverty relief action and is taking our relief journey into the Season of Light, which starts the 21st of December 2024.
• • Start of the Season of Light within CENFACS
The Season of Light, which usually starts the 21st of December of each year and ends around 21 March in the New Year, runs through the Festive Season, which is between 01 December of the ending year (here 2024) and 31 January in the New Year (2025). The Gifts of Peace, which keep on giving, normally feature the Festive Season.
During the Season of Light, we light up a Blaze of Hope for people and communities suffering from the effects and impacts of destructive wars and natural disasters in Africa.
In the coming weeks and months of the Season of Light, our Blaze of Hope will be extended to those who are continuing to suffer from the lingering effects of other crises (such as the cost-of-living, hunger and security crises).
The Season of Light will come with the Lights Appeal or Campaign, which is a set of poverty reduction projects that features the Season of Light.
• • Two Themes, Two Seasons and Two Gifts
The theme for the Season of Light is Hope which we try to bring through a Blaze, while the theme for the Festive Season’s Reliefs is Peace. During the Festive Season, we try to reduce poverty as a lack of peace via the Gifts of Peace; whereas in the context of the Season of Light we work through Lights Appeals/Gifts to relieve poverty as a lack of hope. Those who feel themselves hopeless need some hope/lights. They need some belief to attain the wish or desire of poverty reduction, to persist, to build trust in resources and to share hopes.
Under the Main Development section of this post, there is more information about the Season of Light 2024/2025.
• Festive Giving, Gifting and Lifting
As part of the season of giving and gifting as well as of lifting poor and vulnerable people out of poverty, we are asking supporters to go extra miles in replying to these two fundraising appeals which are: Festive Gift Set and End-of-year Support. To ease the understanding of these appeals, let us briefly explain Festive Giving, Gifting and Lifting.
• • What Is Festive Giving? What Is Festive Gifting? What Is Festive Lifting?
Festive Giving is the act of sharing joy, love and generosity with those in need during the Festive Season.
Festive Gifting is the practice of giving presents or donations to those in need during the Festive Season.
Festive Lifting is the act of lifting the spirits of people in need through gestures of kindness and generosity during the Festive Season.
So, with Festive Giving, Gifting and Lifting; we can express love, appreciation, kindness and generosity towards those in need who are looking for brightness. We can do it through Festive Gift Set and End-of-year Support.
• • Festive Gift Set
Festive Gift Set is a collection of items curated and packaged together to celebrate festive occasion. These sets are thoroughly designed to bring joy and festivity to the recipients. They are made of carefully selected items that compliment each other and create a memorable difference and experience for the recipients.
This Festive Gift Set can be given for the remaining thirteen days of this year starting from today as those of the last legacy of the Year 2024 as the ‘Transitions’ Year at CENFACS.
To mark the end of our ‘Transitions’ Year and Campaign, we are appealing to you to support CENFACS’ year 2024 through a ‘Transitions’ (‘t’) Gift or Year 2024 Gift.
Such a gift will help to undertake five changes as follows:
a) Change in terms of skills as the beneficiaries of this gift will develop new skills and gain new perspectives, and grow to further reduce poverty (a gift of growth)
b) Change as those in need will become more adaptable, resilient and better equipped to handle future changes and uncertainties (a gift of adaptability)
c) Change as beneficiaries will generate new ideas and approaches to better address poverty and enhance sustainable development (a skill of creativity)
d) Change as members of the CENFACS Community will come together to support each other via change and build stronger bonds (a gift of building community)
e) Change through togetherness as CENFACS users will work together to navigate new challenges, foster a sense of unity (a sense of belonging) and collaboration against poverty and hardships (a gift of togetherness).
With the ‘T’ Gift plus the Gift of Light plus the Gift of Peace; the three of them give you a Gift Set of £5 or more. What do these gifts express?
• • • Expressions from the three gifts (of Transition, Light and Peace)
• • • • The Transition Gift represents the 12 Transition Project Episodes of the Year of Transitions Out of Poverty within CENFACS. It is a gift of transitioning out of poverty with the aim of providing meaningful support and resources that will empower those in need to improve their economic status and achieve long-term self-sufficiency. The gift will give both immediate relief and creative opportunities for long-term growth and self-reliance.
• • • • The Gift of Light is a form of lighting to peoples and communities without access to light. It symbolises hope, warmth and joy for the victims of multiple crises (i.e., the cost-of-living crisis, wars and natural disasters). It is also a donation programme that uses practical and meaningful means to meet the unique needs of transitioning from darkness to brightness, to guide or show way of reducing poverty.
• • • • The Gifts of Peace are initiatives to promote peace and conflict resolution in war-torn or conflict affected or disaster-stricken places, while providing aid and resources to those affected by changing climate, wars and conflicts while promoting stability in their communities. These gifts create long lasting relationships in a world without conflicts between humans as well as between humans and the nature (other living beings and things). At this time of the lingering effects of polycrises, the Gifts of Peace will enable to re-conquer the lost peace and get new form of peace from poverty induced by these effects. This is without forgetting the lack of peace brought by climate change events.
All these initiatives represent some great ways of helping to reduce poverty at this special time of the year. They give more opportunities to supporters to do something different for those in need.
By donating £5 or more for this Gift Set, you will help people in need to leave poverty and hardships behind them and may be for ever.
To donate and or enquire about this Gift Set, just contact CENFACS with or without your donation.
• • End-of-year Support and Appeal
End-of-year Support and Appeal are a great way to show appreciation and spread holiday sheer as 2024 is coming to an end. We would like to ask you to donate as a legacy towards CENFACS’ efforts to help reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development.
You can donate to support CENFACS’ anti-poverty mission and to help reduce poverty and hardships this festive season and in the New Year.
Your support can make helpful differences to CENFACS and to those in need, the people and communities that CENFACS serves.
• • • Two ways of responding to this appeal
1) Make a One-off Festive Donation of £5 or more this festive time…
as a way of helping poor people via CENFACS and / or support CENFACS’ work on poverty relief and sustainable development.
You can also support one of the CENFACS projects and programmes if you wish.
2) Make a Monthly Donation of £5 or £10 or £15 or more per month…
as a legacy for CENFACS’ work.
Please make a year-end contribution today to help us continue to deliver the work of CENFACS in the remaining days 2024 and beyond.
This Year-end Support is an inclusive relief sending a never-ending message from the giver that they are part of what we have achieved in 2024 and will do in the coming years.
To make a donation and or enquire about this End-of-year Ask or Support, just contact CENFACS with or without your donation.
• Community Value Chains, the CENFACS Community
CENFACS as a Community that Supports Its Members to Transition out of Poverty, which is the Closing Act of the 2024 Year, is being prepared and trended.
• • What Is CENFACS’ Community Value Chains (CVC)?
1) It is a community value control, inspirational and motivational project of year-end celebration introduced by CENFACS in 2009. The project is based on a basic idea of development which is as follows:
“What a member of our community best does which well works for them can have an underlying good value. If there is a good value, it is desirable to share such value so that other members of our community could be aware of it and build a sort of chains of beliefs and community spirit/principles within our support network”.
2) It is all about improving lives and outcomes of community members as well as enlivening capacities by sharing good practices, values, achievements and hopes about shared goals for the future; while learning from past mistakes.
In doing so, we can pull together as one community, strengthen our links and bonds, learn our differences and harness transformative changes we all want amongst us and beyond our self-interests.
3) It is finally about sharing and celebrating our wins or impact as a community.
To sum up, CENFACS’ CVC or the CENFACS Community is our voluntary local and non-profit making arm inside which all our projects and activities carried out in the UK are grouped and delivered; the other two domains being CENFACS International and CENFACS Fund for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development.
• • What Are Those Shared Values?
Good practices and good values do not need to be big or exceptional or even spectacular. They are the simple good little things we do every day, which may have worked for us and could work for others as well. These good little things could have a bigger impact on us as a community.
They could be life and work learning experiences, lifestyles, helpful differences, social responsibilities and principles that underpin them. At this time of the high costs of living, they could be all the little initiatives one has taken to care for each other in order to have access to economic means of copying and survival.
• • Sharing and Celebrating Our Wins or Impact via CVC 2024
CENFACS as a Community that Supports Its Members to Transition out of Poverty (or the Closing Act of the Transitions Year) will feature our Year-end Giving Campaign.
This celebratory theme for CVC’s 15th Celebration of CENFACS as a Community is and will be the Closing Act of the Transitions Year and Project. This celebration or end-of-year sharing will be open to those who would like to share hopes about shared goals for a better future.
• • The 15th Celebration of CENFACS Community as Way of Looking both Back and Forward
• • • Looking back on 2024
It will be about
~ how we mobilised support and resources to meet the community’s transition needs.
~ the work we carried out with the members of our community and Africa-based Sister Organisations via transitionary skills, styles and models to help reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development
~ how we approached crises and challenging situations to get the best outcomes for poverty reduction via transition skills, styles and models
~ how we used the fundamental principles of transition to work with users and project beneficiaries so that they could transition out of poverty
~ reflecting on beneficiaries’ journey out of poverty and how far they come to get valuable insights in terms of poverty reduction and sustainable development.
• • • Looking forward to 2025
It revolves around
~ making use of the findings from what we did not know and we now know about the needs and aspirations of the people in need making our community to build a better community
~ planning appropriate responses or new ways of working together with project beneficiaries in 2025 to meet unmet needs and demands
~ setting new realistic goals for 2025 and an action plan to achieve those goals.
For instance, we shall undertake planning for projects relating to land restoration and boosting drought resilience in Africa as well as poverty reduction projects linked to other aspects of desertification and drought. We shall as well develop projects of shared prosperity.
Regarding shared prosperity, the World Bank Group (1) argues that
“The pace of improvement in shared prosperity has slowed and (…) inequality remains high in Latin America, the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa” (p. 105)
In this respect, looking forward will be about thinking of the direction and shape that the evolution of the community needs and aspirations may take in 2025 and how we can effectively and efficiently work with our members in 2025 in terms of improved course of action in the New Year.
Briefly, the 15th Celebration of CENFACS Community will be a hybrid sharing of our transition work and knowledge on how the 2024 went on in everybody’s life in terms of the positive takeaways from it in order to build forward in 2025. In this hybrid sharing, the positive experience from the crises and shocks of 2024 will be welcome.
We want our community ends 2024 on a positive note or sharing despite the ups and downs of this year, especially with the disturbance that the high costs of living has caused and is continuing to cause on many of us. We would like as well our community to start 2025 with hope and positive belief.
• • Share, Spread & Tweet the Message
To enable us to build value chains with you and others and to keep our support network alive and networked CENFACS, please spread the message to/pass it on around you.
If you feel that you need first to talk to us before responding to this invitation of end-of-year celebration/sharing, please let us know.
If you prefer to respond via e-mail, you are free to do so at facs@cenfacs.org.uk.
Whichever way or means you choose to enter this year-end sharing project, please reply by the 23rd of December 2024 so as to ease the end-of-year 2024 celebration/sharing and the start-of-year 2025 preparatory activities, projects and programmes.
For further details about this Closing Act of the Transition Year and Project as a ‘t’ Year, please contact CENFACS.
For the timeline of the themes that made the Community Value Chains so far, please also contact CENFACS.
As part of the closure of 2024 and preparation for 2025, we are as well doing an inventory of skills and are registering the talents and skills of the CENFACS Community.
If you have not yet registered your skills to CENFACS’ Skills Data Bank, this is the opportunity to do it over this festive period. Your skills registration will be essential to ensure that all the skills and skilled people making our community are included in any future plans to improve our community support.
To register or add your skills to the CENFACS Community’s Skills Register or Database, just contact CENFACS.
Extra Messages
• Income Generation Leads/Advice: Income Generators, Creators and Curators of the Month
• All Year Round Projects (or Triple Value Initiatives): 2024 Verdict
• Festive Structured Finance Activities or Micro-projects as Part of Financial Capacity and Capability Building Programme, and Impact Monitoring and Evaluation of Matching Organisation-Investor Programme
• Income Generation Leads/Advice: Income Generators, Creators and Curators of the Month
Our advisory service on leads to income generation is still on. Through this festive advice service, we are looking at and reviewing income generation plans or strategies for those who need a review. We are also trying to explore the different leads or avenues that those in need can use, depending on their personal circumstances; to find the appropriate means to generate little extra income.
In this income generation to reduce poverty, we are as well trying to enlist those who could be named as Income Generation Models or Income Generators, Creators and Curators of the Season. We are looking at their models or ways of generating little extra income. We are assessing whether or not their models of generating income are generalizable or duplicatable or just are exceptions to the general rule and to the CENFACS Community.
If anyone has managed to generate little extra income and finds that their way of doing it has an underlying good value that can be shared with the CENFACS CVC members, please do not hesitate to talk to CENFACS.
• All Year Round Projects (or Triple Value Initiatives): 2024 Verdict
The week is finally an occasion to remind the need to report on All-year Round Projects (or Triple Value Initiatives) which are: Play, Run and Vote projects for poverty relief and sustainable development.
As we are nearing the end of year 2024, it is now the time to report on our three All-year Round Projects – which are Play, Run and Vote.
We know that this year has been economically challenging for some of you to run some types of activities. However, for those who have managed to undertake and complete the above named projects, we would like them to share with us and others their experiences, stories and reports regarding these projects.
• • The Action-Results of 2024: Tell it!
You can feedback the outcomes or Action-Results of your…
… Run if you ran for poverty relief over the year 2024 (or organised a Run activity)
… Play if you played the CENFACS League for Poverty Relief
… Vote if you have already voted your 2024 African Poverty Relief and Development Manager.
We would be more than happier to hear your Action and Results to feature the State of Play, Run and Vote 2024, and conclude CENFACS 2024 Year as Year of Transition. Tell it!
• • What or Who We Want to Hear
We would like to hear from you about the Winner of CENFACS Virtual Trophy of the Year, that is one of the following Three Stars or Bests of the Year:
√ The Best African Country of 2024 which best reduced poverty
√ The Best African Global Games Runner of 2024
√ The Best African Poverty Relief and International Development Manager of 2024.
If you have not yet told us, have your say by 23 December 2024. The Verdict is yours.
• Festive Structured Finance Activities or Micro-projects as Part of Financial Capacity and Capability Building Programme, and Impact Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning of Matching Organisation-Investor Programme
During this month, we have been run the above-mentioned programmes.
Regarding Festive Structured Finance Activities or Micro-projects as part of Financial Capacity and Capability Building Programme, they are closed and will be re-run in the New Year.
Concerning Matching Organisation-Investment Programme, we are now conducting Impact Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (IMEL) after the last episode. This IMEL is on matching maths and statistics for both Africa-based Sister Organisation and Not-for-profit Investor. Those who may be interested in this IMEL, they can let CENFACS know.
For those potential not-for-profit investors who still need some guidance for impact to find investee organisation and Africa-based Sister Charitable Organisation looking for an investor, they can contact CENFACS to book an appointment for a match/fit test in the New Year.
Equally, for those households who still need support regarding their financial capacity and capability building problems, they can also communicate CENFACS with their queries or enquiries to book an appointment in/for the New Year.
Message in French (Message en français)
• Calendrier de Fin d’Année 2024 et de Début d’Année 2025
Projets/Campagnes/Ressources Festifs: État des Lieux
a) Toute l’année/Initiatives à triple valeur: fermé à partir du 23/12/2024
b) Chaînes de valeur communautaires: actives et continues
c) Campagne de dons de fin d’année et soutien: active jusqu’au 31/12/2024
d) Augmentation des revenus festifs: active jusqu’au 31/12/2024
e) Dons de la Paix: active jusqu’au 31/01/2025
f) Saison des Lumières: active jusqu’au 21/03/2025
g) Discussion en ligne sur le bénévolat en hiver: active jusqu’au 05/01/2025
• Remerciement de fin d’année 2024
Alors que l’année 2024 touche à sa fin, le CENFACS souhaite prendre un moment pour exprimer sa gratitude à tous/toutes ses sympathisant(e)s et à chacun(e) d’entre vous pour votre dévouement et votre engagement envers notre noble et belle cause de réduction de la pauvreté.
Merci à tous (toutes) ceux (celles) d’entre vous qui ont produit la réduction de la pauvreté avec nous et qui ont rendu la réduction de la pauvreté possible pour ceux ou celles qui en avaient besoin et pour nous en 2024.
Main Development
• Season of Light 2024-2025
The Lights Season at CENFACS kicks off with the theme of Hope as said above. We are going to deliver this Hope with projects and programmes adapted to the context of crises like the cost-of-living crisis. We are going to add to them projects relating to land restoration and boosting drought resilience in Africa as well as poverty reduction projects linked to other aspects of desertification and drought. Hope will also be provided by other initiatives like projects of shared prosperity, as mentioned above.
The following items make the contents of our Season of Light 2024-2025:
∝ What will shape the Season of Light?
∝ Two themes to bear in mind this Festive and Lights Time: Peace and Hope
∝ The Gift of Light that Keeps on Giving this Winter
Let us look at these contents.
• • What Will Shape the Season of Light?
The 2024-2025 Season of Light will be about working on the matters listed below:
a) Initiatives featuring the season of light like light (or energy) and energy transition projects, particularly these initiatives will be about finding finance to fund energy transition and a new development model to continue to reduce poverty
b) Projects relating to land restoration and boosting drought resilience in Africa to echo the messages and outcomes from COP16 held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (2); projects such as healthy soils, resilient crops, nutritious food, sustainable land management and land degradation neutrality will be developed
c) Projects of shared prosperity with the poor which will consider two measures: the Global Prosperity Gap and the number of African economies with high inequality.
The 2024-2025 Season of Light will be the case of harnessing transformational and structural changes in the context of increasing uncertainty and climate change so that those who are living in poverty can find the means, paces and spaces they need to navigate out of it.
Besides that, we shall carry on with the financial empowerment programme of our users to reduce financial poverty and mitigate the lingering effects of previous and current crises with some of the initiatives (like Financial Capacity and Capability Campaign).
Finally, we shall continue to develop household-focused and area-focused programmes to support poor and vulnerable households so that they can build their assets to overcome intergenerational poverty.
To realise the above mentioned projects, it requires Hope and Support.
• • Two Themes to Bear in Mind This Festive and Lights Time: Peace and Hope
The theme of Hope is the overall theme of the Season of Lights, while the theme of Peace will be dominant over the festive celebrations period.
• • • The theme of Hope
The theme of Hope is made of notes or pieces of land restoration, drought resilience and readiness, energy transition and shared prosperity. This Wintry season, we shall bring a glimmer of hope through these notes or pieces, while making sure that the poor people own the process and have equity in poverty reduction. Hope will help beneficiaries as follows:
~ to actively cope with everyday challenges and find the appropriate relief and comfort they need
~ to reframe negative situations or events in a positive portrait or mood
~ to cultivate positive engagements, experiences and emotions in life
~ to keep momentum towards a better future
~ to enhance early warning systems
~ to develop resilience initiatives and strategies
~ to engage in a proactive behaviour.
• • • The theme of Peace
The Gifts of Peace are included in the Season of Light. Peace is the festive theme we choose to spread the joy of Season’s Reliefs to those in need. We try to help their wishes and dreams of poverty relief become true through the Gifts of Peace that put a smile on poor people’s faces and lips with relief notes while hoping they will rediscover freedom from disturbance and disorder caused by crises and other painful events of 2024.
• • The Gift of Light That Keeps on Giving This Winter
What is the Gift of Light? It is as explained below.
• • • A gift of light for every person in need everywhere!
The Lights Season is the season during which we try to bring light or shine light to impoverished lives in the darkness. We try to bring clarity, brightness to people who need to see clearly and accurately about their life. It is about helping them see the light of relief so that they can see the world in a new relieved light or version.
• • • A gift of light that ignites and sparks the life of those in need!
This is why we have the Lights project at CENFACS; projects which enable us to bring lights to those in need and which identify the poverty reduction gaps in human systems and support those areas of these systems which do not receive support. Like the last Winter, this Winter 2024-2025, our Lights projects will focus on two parts or two waves of action:
1) post-coronavirus, post-war, post-economic crisis and post-natural disaster developments
2) current and emerging armed conflicts and environmental catastrophes as well as new waves of threats.
However, in these developments and waves, we shall take into account the changing contexts in Africa where there could be scaling down or changing types of crises (for example, the imperialist rivalries between the French and Russians in Africa with their impacts on poverty reduction, threat to international trade due to the current conflict in the Middle East and its implications for poverty reduction in Africa). To mention other crises where the work of poverty reduction could be needed, we can speak about hunger crisis and debt crisis which are still stubborn issues for many low income countries in Africa.
• • • A gift of light that helps people to navigate their own way out poverty with pride!
The Gift of Light is about helping people to help themselves. By using the light, they can find their own way out poverty and hardships, out of darkness instead of CENFACS telling them what do. They can act with self-esteem and self-respect. In this respect, the Gift of Light is a blessing of empowerment.
• • • A Blaze of Hope for post-life following crises (e.g., the cost-of-living crisis), armed conflicts and natural disasters
When there are environmental disasters and armed conflicts, there are pledges and commitments to end the effects of wars and disasters. For various reasons, some of these pledges do not always materialise. The post-war and post-disaster developments are sometimes left without support even until the conflicts and disasters return and or strike again.
The same situation can happen if the pledges – made at the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) (3), which took place in Baku (Azerbaijan) to help channel “at least” $300 billion a year into developing countries by 2035 to support their efforts to deal with climate change – do not materialise in concrete actions.
As we cannot wait the return or repeat of the same wars and disasters; our first Blaze of Hope will go this Winter to the unfinished business of previous destructions and disruptions brought by crises (e.g., the coronavirus and the cost-of-living crisis), wars and natural disasters.
• • • • Examples of areas where a Blaze of Hope may be needed
Our Blaze of Hope will go to the following areas of African countries
~ that experienced overlapping crises that have slowed or stalled poverty reduction
~ not recovered from the poverty increase caused by the coronavirus pandemic
~ with slow, weak or lack of economic growth to enable poverty reduction to happen
~ with high inequalities that prevent poverty reduction to materialise.
• • • A Blaze of Hope for the eruption of any crises, armed conflicts and natural disasters
We always advocate for preventive development and we do not seek for destructive events to happen. However, our preparedness and readiness should make us to assemble as quickly as possible advocacy tools should any effects and impacts erupt from new waves of crisis, wars and natural disasters in Africa.
So, our second wave of intervention or Blaze of Hope will go this Wintry season to erupted effects of unexpected crises, armed conflicts and natural disasters in the areas of our interest in Africa.
With these two waves of action over this Wintry Season, we hope to enlighten the lives of those in pressing and emergent need.
• • • • Examples of areas where a Blaze of Hope may be needed
For this December 2024, we have initially selected or identified six areas of priority that may need lighting a Blaze of Hope, which are as follows:
a) Areas of countries severely affected by food insecurity or the socio-economic impacts of high food prices like in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinee, Congo, Madagascar, Mali and Senegal
b) Areas of vulnerable countries hit by or prone to torrential rains and cyclones that could cause enormous food insecurity such as in Chad, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo
c) Areas of countries devastated by other types of weather extremes (such as prolonged and severe drought, extreme temperature, etc.) like Burundi, Madagascar, Congo and countries of the Horn of Africa
d) Areas of countries that are the victims of a high level of persisting civil insecurity such as in in Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Mali
e) Areas of countries where innocent people are the victims of unfamiliar forms of civil insecurity (e.g. interpersonal violence, gang violence and insecurity due to the presence of private military company personnel) and forced displacement/refugee influx like in Congo, Mali and Burkina Faso
f) Areas of countries with neo-sovereignist or putschist States (in countries where there were putsch like in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger and Mali).
The above selection is an initial one, which may change depending how and where humanitarian events will unfold in Africa. The selection will help to start our Light advocacy and campaign.
The countries listed in this selection are also mentioned in the Crop Prospects and Food Situation of the Food and Agriculture Organisations of the United Nations (4). None of the above-mentioned countries is experiencing a single issue. Many of them can be subject to multiple issues. For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo is experiencing conflict in its north-eastern provinces, torrential rains in other parts the country and high food prices.
Also, our priority areas can change depending on the events in Africa. For example, if there is eruption of unpredicted or unplanned events (such as natural disasters, natural resource crises, environmental incidents, large scale involuntary migration, health crisis, international trade crisis, etc.), our Blaze of Hope will go to the victims of these erupted events.
For those who can support Light project, we can count on them to move forward this advocacy or campaign. And we would like to thank them in advance.
For any queries or enquiries regarding the Season of Light, please do not hesitate to contact CENFACS.
_________
• References
(1) World Bank Group. 2024. Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024: Pathways Out of the Polycrisis. Washington, DC: World Bank. doi. 1596/978-1-4648-2123-3 (accessed in December 2024)
(2) https://unccd.int/cop16 (accessed in December 2024)
(3) https://www.carbonbrief.org/cop29-key-outcomes-agreed-at-the-un-climate-talks-in-baku/ (accessed in December 2024)
(4) FAO. 2024. Perspectivas de cosechas y situatión alimentaria. Informe mundial trianual, no. 3, noviembre de 2024. Roma. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd3168es (accessed in December 2024)
_________
• Help CENFACS Keep the Poverty Relief Work Going This Year
We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis. Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work, which is currently offered as a free service.
One could also consider a recurring donation to CENFACS in the future.
Additionally, we would like to inform you that planned gifting is always an option for giving at CENFACS. Likewise, CENFACS accepts matching gifts from companies running a gift-matching programme.
Donate to support CENFACS!
FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ NOBLE AND BEAUTIFUL CAUSES OF POVERTY REDUCTION.
JUST GO TO: Support Causes – (cenfacs.org.uk)
Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.
Thank you as well to those who made or make comments about our weekly posts.
We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support until the end of 2024 and beyond.
With many thanks.
