WHAT EVENT OR PROJECT OR PROGRAMME OR CAMPAIGN THAT NEEDS SUPPORT ▼
We always have initiatives that need funding and/or other forms of support.
We would like to ask you to support the Gifts of Peace for this Winter Edition 2024/2025.
Bringing Peace to People This Festive Season for Only £5!
Please help meet basic life-sustaining needs of peace for those in most need.
Being in pressing needs of basic essentials of life could mean that you have no food, no education, no income, no sanitation, no health, no accommodation, no basic skills, no protection, no option and no capacity to function as human beings.
Since the world is still looking for ways to come to term with polycrises; it could also signify isolation, loneliness, hopelessness, helplessness, defencelessness and lack of economic activity for many people including those who are already living in extreme poverty.
Your Gift of Peace could symbolize a huge helpful difference to them, to those in pressing needs of survival and of coping with both poverty and pressure of all kinds. It could denote quietness or calm; freedom from war; absence of conflict, isolation, loneliness, hopelessness and helplessness over the festive time and beyond.
• What Is a Gift of Peace?
CENFACS’ Winter Gift of Peace to Africa is…
~ A Wintry Gift Appeal initiative to support people living in poverty in Africa
~ A festive life-sustaining support that helps to reduce poverty and bring sustainable peace
~ A festive life-giving and -changing gift to acknowledge and do something about poverty over the Festive period, which is also an occasion to trans-give and think of those who are not as fortunate as others, those who don’t have peace because of poverty, particularly the ones living in the developing regions of the world like Africa.
At this time of high costs of living and polycrises, many of them, who are already poor, desperately need help and support or put it in other words a Gift of Peace.
To understand the kind of Gifts of Peace we are talking about, one may need to have in mind a broad explanation of Peace. As the ‘un.org’ (1) puts it
“Peace is more than the absence of conflict; it is a catalyst for economic well-being, laying the foundation for societies to thrive for generation to come”.
From this perspective, a Gift of Peace is also about
~ resolving conflict to fuel economic prosperity
~ elevating human development index (i.e., life expectancy, education, per capita income, etc.) scores
~ supporting initiatives that promote economic literacy, entrepreneurship and inclusive economic participation
etc.
Supporting these initiatives and the people living in poverty in Africa through the Gifts of Peace during this Festive time make sense since measures of peace in Africa show that there is a need of peace there. One of these measures is given by the Institute for Economics and Peace (2), which argues that
“Sub-Saharan Africa recorded a fall in peacefulness on the 2024 Global Peace Index, with the average score in the region deteriorating by 0.89 per cent over the past year. Sub-Saharan Africa is the second least peaceful region behind the Middle East and North Africa, with three of the ten least peaceful countries in the world found in the region” (p. 20)
So, Sub-Saharan Africans in need require a Gift of Peace.
Unwrap the Gifts of Peace for those in need this Festive Season!
• Gifts of Peace as 12 Ways of Bringing and Meeting Wishes of Peace over Festive Time
In total, there are twelve selected Gifts of Peace to wish and donate over the Festive period: climate, change, freedom, security, technology, energy, recovery, democracy , investment, sanitation, nature and opportunity.
These selected Gifts highlight poverty issues that the majority of people in need in Africa face in their daily life.
We have briefly illustrated below what a donation of ‘for example £5‘ as gift can do for each of the twelve Gifts of Peace.
• What Your £5 as a Gift Can Do
1) £5 AS A CLIMATE-NEUTRAL GIFT…
Can foster a sense of peace by buying climate-neutral building and housing materials to protect and uplift the people in need against the adverse impacts of bad weather and support climate refugees with low-carbon humanitarian relief and life-saving items essential for their survival and security.
2) £5 AS A GIFT OF POSITIVE CHANGE…
Can transform people into what they are capable of becoming and be a long-lasting relief that assists in covering basic health costs for income poor people to use local rural medical clinic facilities and purchase medical drugs to change life into a healthy one.
3) £5 AS A GIFT OF ECONOMIC FREEDOM…
Can help entrepreneurship flourish which will reduce poverty and provide peace as poor people access resources and opportunities, while economic disparities and tensions related to resource competition get reduced.
4) £5 AS A SECURITY GIFT…
Can support poor defenceless, hopeless and internally displaced persons who have been subject to violence (including interpersonal violence and gang violence) and armed attacks, as well as it can help them safely return to their homes and rebuild their lives in the context of peace building and conflict resolution processes.
5) £5 AS A GIFT OF TECHNOLOGY…
Can help poor people to connect and use technology-based solutions to poverty by acquiring distance-operating and -working communications technologies (such as mobile phones and tablets), as well as accessing digital, ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) skills as an expression of sharing together basic but modern means of reducing poverty.
6) £5 AS A GIFT OF ENERGY TRANSITION…
Would provide peace to the energy poor to transition in a just, orderly and equitable manner from fossil fuel-based systems to renewable energy sources by meeting their needs of accessing sustainable energy for cooking and heating with the result of reducing deforestation and loss of natural land; while protecting bio-diversity, smoothing the way to energy transition and reducing resource conflicts.
7) £5 AS A GIFT OF NET ZERO RECOVERY…
Can offer a lifeline to the poor people to rebuild their homes, properties, infrastructures and livelihoods after natural, economic and health disasters, shocks and crises as well as restore life normality and bring hope for the future, while not adding to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
8) £5 AS A GIFT TO DEMOCRACY…
Cannot buy democracy, but £5 can ensure that the voices of the poor count by funding the costs of peaceful activities and social transformations towards democratic values and helping poor people to participate in the process of re-claiming their democratic and human rights and of dismantling structures of discrimination disadvantaging the poor to reduce poverty and to peacefully choose their way of life; while ensuring transparency and facilitating peaceful conflict resolution.
9) £5 AS A GIFT OF NOT-FOR-PROFIT INVESTMENT…
To not-for-profit invest with impact in the poor people’s income-generating ideas and activities, in doing so it is about acting as a friend and fool who can help them to develop and implement their poverty-relieving ideas and enterprising projects; while reducing competition for scarce resources, preventing conflicts and building trust in poverty reduction.
10) £5 AS A GIFFT OF SANITATION…
To provide access to clean water, to basic sanitary and hygienic products for the health, hygiene and sanitation of deprived and poor people in Africa so that they can protect themselves from the continuing spread, threats and risks of contamination of life-threatening diseases as well as related sanitary diseases like cholera, dysentery, and other water-borne diseases.
11) £5 AS A GIFT OF NATURE…
To positively transform poor people’s relationships with nature and reduce structural disadvantages and inequalities in accessing natural products and nature-based solutions to poverty and hardships, to help reduce waste of natural resource consumption and cut over consumption while saving on the use of natural resources and assets, like forest resources and wealth, endangered species of fauna, flora and funga.
12) £5 AS A GIFT OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY…
To address issues leading to conflicts and inequality, enhance social mobility, and provide purchasing power to the economically poor people to buy basic farming and gardening tools to produce crops and create basic economic wealth to reduce poverty since the overlapping crises (like the cost-of-living crisis, energy crisis, geo-economic crisis, etc.) have further impoverished many of them and their capacity to produce.
In every gift mentioned above, there is an element of peace and a touch/trace of poverty relief.
• Giving Has No Limits
Although we have given above an example of £5 as the amount of donation for each gift, there are no limits on the amount of donation that one can give. You can give as much as you can.
We know that many people including donors and funders have been affected by the lingering effects of the polycrises of recent years. However, for those donors and funders who can, this is an opportunity to go extra miles in their support in showing that the lingering effects of the polycrises will not stop our/their commitment to the relief of extreme poverty and provide peace to those who badly need it.
By providing a gift of peace of £5 (or more), this will help people in need to leave poverty and hardships behind and may be for ever, while enjoying the peace they have been waiting for so long.
A full 2024-2025 Gifts-of-peace Guide is available at CENFACS on request.
Remember, for every gift (donation) you give, we can together help unfortunate and needy people in Africa to change their lives to peaceful ones.
• How It Works: 3-Step Poverty Relief Gift
Three simple steps to make a Gift of Peace:
a) Choose your Gift of Peace
b) Donate
c) Give needy people a Peaceful, Healthy and Safe Festive Time.
We hope that you will be able to join us by considering this Wintry Gift Appeal to support deserving causes and pressing humanitarian needs of poverty relief in Africa.
You can still have a great Festive Season while voluntarily giving something to those who do not have.
We look forward to you becoming one of our Peace Supporters over the Festive Time.
To smooth the process of supporting these projects, CENFACS is ready to post to you and or to any other potential supporters the project proposals or any information pack about them for consideration to support. Likewise, CENFACS is ready to talk to you or to potential funders about them if wanting us to do so.
• Ways of Supporting the Gifts of Peace
For those who may be interested in supporting this appeal, they should not hesitate. CENFACS is inviting them to come forward with their support.
They can donate, pledge and make a gift declaration to support.
• • Making a donation
You can make a donation of £5 or more to support any of the Gifts of Peace.
• • Making a pledge
You can make a pledge of £5 or any amount more than £5 to support one of the Gifts of Peace.
• • Making a gift aid declaration
You can make a gift aid declaration to support any of the Gifts of Peace.
All donations, pledges and gift aid declarations MUST be made payable to CENFACS (the Centre for Francophone African Development).
To avoid fundraising frauds and scams, CENFACS would like to ask to all potential funders and donors to contact us prior to making any donations, pledges and gift aid declarations.
• How to donate
You can donate
*Over phone
*Via email
*Through text
*By filling the contact form on this site.
CENFACS and the potential beneficiaries of these Gifts of Peace would be delighted if you could be one of our/their Peace Supporters.
Please DONATE, PLEDGE AND MAKE A GIFT AID DECLARATION for £5 or any amount more than £5 as a way of supporting this festive project. CENFACS will accept on behalf of the beneficiaries your support given.
CENFACS welcomes any enquiries and or queries this Festive Ask.
Please do not wait to donate as the needs are pressing and urgent NOW.
We look forward to your support to make helpful difference to those in pressing needs of peace, survival and coping with both poverty and pressure of all kinds this festive time.
Thank you for your generosity.
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(1) https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/economics-of-peace-interplay-between-stability-conflict-resolution-global-prosperity# (accessed in December 20240
(2) Institute for Economics and Peace. Global Peace Index 2024. Measuring Peace in a Complex World, Sydney, June 2024. Available from: http://visionhumanity.org/resources (accessed in December 2024)
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How
you can further support CENFACS ▼
You can help by
● Sending a one-off voluntary giving ● Sending a yearly contribution to CENFACS ● Providing a legacy or donation ● Sponsoring a particular project, need, cause or programme ● Promoting particular events or publications or even activities
You can as well support with No Direct Cash Donations
Those who would like to support CENFACS by using other means than directly giving cash, they can consider the following.
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Give unwanted goods and items to CENFACS charity e-store (details about this way of supporting are given below)
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Sign up for a Gift Aid declaration
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Nominate CENFACS for a donation at charity fundraising and donation events
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Select CENFACS as your preferred charity for donation from advertising revenue
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Choose CENFACS as a donation recipient of some of the profits raised from online shopping
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Donate your unwanted and unused points and cashback to CENFACS as your chosen charity from your loyalty shopping rewards or good cause gift cards
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Name CENFACS as your favourite deserving cause from click online option “donate cashback to charities”
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Donate any unwanted excess points of your loyalty card from apps
The above is just the few examples of helping that one can think of to support CENFACS without they have to directly give cash.
Supporting by Donating Unwanted Goods and Products for CENFACS Charity e-Store ▼
You can donate unwanted and unneeded light and easily movable goods and products to CENFACS’ Charity e-Store to support good and deserving causes of poverty reduction.
After donating products or goods, these will be converted into cash to support good causes or our work. The cash converted can also be used to support CENFACS‘ work.
When thinking of donation, please ensure that your donation does not bear high costs for us to handle, otherwise the impact you want to create through your giving will be reduced or nullified.
Items to donate include:
Mobile phones, IT accessories, laptops, digital and communication devises, art and design objects, children gadgets and toys, and miscellaneous.
Notes for goods and products donors (Products Acceptance Policy):
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- We do not take electrical equipment and devises
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- Items donated need to be functioning, not requiring fixing, repair or testing prior to use
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- Products given must have environmentally-friendly contents and be sustainable
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- We do not accept heavy items such as books, metals and a heavy bag of clothing
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- We do not take items requiring large storage capacity as we are not a profit making organisation
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- We do not refund or give back the products donated as we expect products givers or donors to act in good faith and in the interest of poverty alleviation
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- We do not take stolen properties or items in dispute
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- We can arrange for collection if you live locally
Help us to convert your unwanted goods or products into cash to help reduce poverty.
To donate or enquire about your products donation, please contact CENFACS.
Thank you for your support!
