Following World War Two British and Irish church leaders met determined to do everything possible to help European refugees who had lost everything as a result of the War, they called themselves 'Christian reconstruction in Europe' with a purpose not to evangelise but alleviate the suffering of ordinary people whatever their faith. Janet Lacey became president in 1952, a very courageous and determined person who would not allow the faint hearted to get in the way of her aim to combat poverty across the world.
The work began to extend beyond Europe into the newly independent African and Asian nations where the Voluntary service overseas organisation was formed which was dedicated to sending skilled volunteers to work in the developing world by providing grants for Palestinian, Chinese, and Korean refugees. The organisation began to make the public aware of problems with poverty all over the world by organising the first Christian aid week in 1957 by famously building a replica of a refugee camp in the Church of St Martin in the fields London.
Since that first Christian aid week tens of millions of small red donation envelopes have been dropped through letterboxes in the U.K. In 1964 the organisation changed its name to Christian aid and by the end of the 1960s its annual income exceeded £2.5 million. Throughout the 1960s world food shortages increased and Christian aid began to look more closely at the causes of poverty and began campaigning and challenging the British government on aid and trade policies in 1969. In the 1970s severe famines in Pakistan, Sudan and Ethiopia prompted a huge rise in public support for aid but Christian aid began to think beyond emergency relief and look to solutions rather than hand outs, understanding that poverty was caused by political and economic decisions as much as natural disasters. So human rights was added to the agenda for justice most notably in Uganda after Idi Amin, in Nicaragua and Cambodia.
The 1980's saw huge changes after large scale events like Live aid which made the public more aware than ever about poverty and famine in the world and for the first time government funding was made available to Christian aid. By 1989 its annual income had risen to £28 million of which £6 million was raised during Christian aid week. The money was much needed with global economic recession impacting on many countries. Lebanon, Mozambique and Ethiopia received particular help whilst Christian aid helped form the Southern African coalition which pressured the British government to help end Apartheid in South Africa.
In the 1990's Christian aid were not afraid to be politically involved and continued to highlight complex global issues and worked hard through the "Banking on the poor" campaign to highlight awareness of the need to cancel third world debt and revealed the culpability of the International monetary fund and the World Trade organisation in perpetuating extreme poverty. At the end of the millennium as part of the 2000 Jubilee coalition campaign $100 dollars was secured from world leaders for debt relief. Christian aid helped to establish the Fair trade foundation and the enormously popular Supermarket campaign which demanded decent labour standards across the world. It still continued to respond to humanitarian crises in Rwanda, the middle east and worked in the Balkans conflict in Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
The early years of the new millennium brought different challenges posed by climate change, the war on terror and increasing natural disasters with 50% of the world’s population living on under $2 a day. In 2007 Christian aids annual income exceeded £86.5 million and worked with over 650 overseas partners in around 50 countries. In 2013 Christian aid enabled the IF campaign to end world hunger. A rally in Hyde park London attracted 45,000 people and lobbying at the G 8 summit led to a $4.1 billion pledge to tackle world hunger by world leaders. Christian aid continues to highlight injustice. Some multinational companies have more income than entire countries. War, drought, persecution, oppression, disease and malnutrition means that life expectancy in some countries is as low as 35 and infant mortality is high. There is still much work for Christian aid to do to ensure dignity, freedom and hope for all people across the world