Cafod
Questions and answers on campaigning with CAFOD
How do you choose what to campaign on? We campaign on the issues which matter, so that we can create significant and lasting change in the lives of the world’s poorest people. When laws or policies stand in the way of justice, and where the poor communities that we work with are already speaking out – that’s where we choose to campaign. Vitally, we also choose issues which are on the public agenda. That means politicians are ready to listen to us. And with the support of campaigners like you, we can challenge unfair policies and create a more just world. We want to hear from you too about what you care about and think that we should be taking action on. Does campaigning really make a difference? Aren’t we better concentrating on grassroots change where individuals can feel the impact straight away? Campaigning requires patience and determination. Campaigns can take years to bear fruit and seem to make agonisingly slow progress. But when a campaign is successful, the consequences are far-reaching and long-lasting, benefiting many more individuals than an organisation like CAFOD could help directly. For example, the Jubilee 2000 campaign succeeded in cancelling US$110 billion worth of debt owed by poor countries. This freed up more money for health and education than 2,000 years of CAFOD fundraising could! Find out about more successes> For CAFOD, campaigning goes hand-in-hand with funding long-term development projects which provide immediate benefits. It is not that one or the other is needed, both are vital. There are so many agencies and so many campaigns! Why don’t you all just work together? There are times when we can be stronger by working together, and then we work in coalition with other agencies. For example, in 2005, over a hundred organisations worked together on MAKE POVERTY HISTORY because we knew that was the best way that we could get our voices heard. We remain part of coalitions on specific issues
How do you choose what to campaign on? We campaign on the issues which matter, so that we can create significant and lasting change in the lives of the world’s poorest people. When laws or policies stand in the way of justice, and where the poor communities that we work with are already speaking out – that’s where we choose to campaign. Vitally, we also choose issues which are on the public agenda. That means politicians are ready to listen to us. And with the support of campaigners like you, we can challenge unfair policies and create a more just world. We want to hear from you too about what you care about and think that we should be taking action on. Does campaigning really make a difference? Aren’t we better concentrating on grassroots change where individuals can feel the impact straight away? Campaigning requires patience and determination. Campaigns can take years to bear fruit and seem to make agonisingly slow progress. But when a campaign is successful, the consequences are far-reaching and long-lasting, benefiting many more individuals than an organisation like CAFOD could help directly. For example, the Jubilee 2000 campaign succeeded in cancelling US$110 billion worth of debt owed by poor countries. This freed up more money for health and education than 2,000 years of CAFOD fundraising could! Find out about more successes> For CAFOD, campaigning goes hand-in-hand with funding long-term development projects which provide immediate benefits. It is not that one or the other is needed, both are vital. There are so many agencies and so many campaigns! Why don’t you all just work together? There are times when we can be stronger by working together, and then we work in coalition with other agencies. For example, in 2005, over a hundred organisations worked together on MAKE POVERTY HISTORY because we knew that was the best way that we could get our voices heard. We remain part of coalitions on specific issues