Paul Calvert spoke with Christian Aid

Imogen Tate

Christian Aid is an international development charity working with people of all faiths and none in around 50 countries, to eradicate poverty. For more than 60 years Christian Aid has fought poverty, strengthened the poor, and turned hope into action. Paul Calvert spoke with Imogen Tate to find out more.

Paul: Imogen, what is Christian Aid?

Imogen: Christian Aid is a charity that works all around the world. It's been going since just after World War II. We work through partners in around 45 different countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and these partners do a vast array of different work through local people, so that maybe education, agriculture, different projects with water: whatever it might be that that local community might need, they would come to Christian Aid and we would help them do what they need to do.

Paul: What are some of the projects that you specifically do?

Imogen: Some of the projects that I have seen: I went to Cambodia with Christian Aid in 2010 and I saw a project out there that's working with street children, so it's giving them life skills for the future and also working with their families to give them a tool to actually sell some of the products that they might be making, in Phnom Penh, which is the capital of Cambodia. Then out in the rural areas it's doing agricultural programmes. It might be savings groups run by women. It's an absolutely vast array of different things that we are doing.

Paul: Is this changing people's lives?

Imogen: Absolutely, it really does make a massive difference. Christian Aid's in it for the long run, so it's not a case of just going in there and giving people money or doing a small project; it's there to really see it through to the end and actually give these partners the ability to lift people out of poverty, give them the tools to actually do it themselves rather than just giving handouts.

Paul: Its encouraging people to get out of poverty themselves, which is very important, isn't it?

Imogen: Absolutely, that is what is going to last. Christian Aid also works in challenging the structures and systems that keep people poor, so this might be through campaigns here in the UK. We were part of the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign this year and that was really tackling some of the issues that are actually enabling hunger to exist in our world today. Believe it or not, there is enough food for everybody but not everybody has enough food, so it's looking at things like tax, aid, transparency, those kinds of issues and land rights.

Paul: What sort of people give to Christian Aid? Is it Christians in this country?

Imogen: Yes, so the majority of our fundraising happens here in the UK. Christian Aid has a number of different regional officers who actually enable people all around the country to do fundraising. Our biggest thing is Christian Aid Week where people will go house to house within their own communities putting envelopes through the doors and really raising awareness of what we do and that creates a vast sum of money. The fundraising activities range from schools all the way up until pensioners who might be having coffee mornings.

Paul: What was it like for you meeting some of those people who are receiving some of the aid and support from Christian Aid?

Imogen: It was really life-changing. I think once you meet the people and see the difference it is making to an individual's life, it brings it all to life and it's something that you won't ever forget. They're really grateful for what's going on here in the UK, really humble people out in Cambodia, so it was really brilliant to meet them.

Paul: Did it become more personal to you?

Imogen: Yes, absolutely. I mean once you've met just a couple of people whose lives have been changed, that memory sticks with you for ever and it's something that really keeps you going through those tough days that it might be hard to do some of the fundraising. That's what keeps you going.

Paul: And why do you do what you do?

Imogen: It's probably a decision I made when I was a teenager. I went out to Venezuela for a month and did a project there with a school and I thought: this is something that is what I want to be doing with my life. Then I went on to university to study international development and that pieced together the whole thing. Then I was lucky enough to do an internship with Christian Aid and, yeah, it's something that I've always felt I've had a calling for.

Paul: What sort of poverty is there around the world? Are people actually just living on a dollar a day?

Imogen: Yes, absolutely: it really does happen. One of the biggest things that Christian Aid is noticing is it's not just poor countries any more: its poor communities. So in places like India, Brazil, places like that, the inequality that exists within those countries is absolutely phenomenal and there are lots of people still living on less than a dollar a day and they're really going from day to day from hand to mouth in what they're doing.

Paul: Is it difficult to get out of poverty?

Imogen: It can be, yeah. I mean if you think about it, if you've literally got a dollar a day to survive on, there's nothing for you to invest in: it might be hard to send your children to school because, whether it be school fees or whether you need your children to be working for you just to survive, then that cycle continues and it is hard for people to get out of poverty. Sometimes they just need that little push, that little bit of investment and that little bit of belief behind them to do something that they're quite capable of doing themselves but just need the resources to do it.

Paul: Do families go through a cycle of poverty?

Imogen: They can do, yeah. Often it can go from generation to generation.

Paul: And why are you involved in Christian Aid?

Imogen: I have known Christian Aid since I was young; I used to go collecting with my mum house to house in Christian Aid Week. Their vision is to see poverty over: not just to eradicate it a little bit, just to completely wipe it out. They're really outspoken, really challenge what's going on and they really understand the way in which poverty exists within the world and how it needs to be rooted out through the systems and structures, but at the same time working with the people that live in poverty right now.

Paul: How can people get involved in Christian Aid?

Imogen: There are so many different ways in which people could get involved. Our big three are to give, act and pray. So obviously to do the projects that we're doing around the world it's really vital that we have the funds to be able to do it and there's a vast way in which people can get involved, whether it be committed giving, Christian Aid Week, fundraising through their church: we've got various events like quiz aid or other things throughout the year. We also do partnerships as well, so these are EU match-funded and a community can connect with another community around the world and raise a specific amount of money for that partner. There's also stuff for young people and children as well that they can get involved with.

Paul: What's your prayer for poor people all around the world?

Imogen: Just really that they'll be able to have a voice. A lot of the time poor people don't have that platform to really tell people about their experiences and often they can get sidelined and just really that people will see poor people as just people and not a problem.