Living Water Lent Appeal launches

25/02/09

The Bishop of London today launched the Diocese’s 2009 Lent Appeal at St Gabriel’s Primary School, Pimlico. The Bishop met with primary school children to talk to them about the daily struggle many in Angola and Mozambique face to find and transport clean, fresh water.

After the success of the 2008 appeal, 'Education for All', which raised over £95,000 to fund the building of three primary schools in each of the partner dioceses: Angola; Lebombo (Southern Mozambique) and Niassa (Northern Mozambique), this year’s appeal encourages churchgoers across London to contribute to water projects in Angola and Mozambique.

The Bishop of London, Dr Richard Chartres said:

"The 2009 Lent Appeal provides an opportunity to reconfirm the commitment we have made as a Diocese to actively support the Millennium Development Goal of increasing access to safe drinking water.

"We have excellent partnerships with the church in Africa through the work of the Angola London Mozambique Association (ALMA). I would urge everyone in the Diocese to use their Lenten journeys to consider our increasing use of water here and to give the precious gift of clean and safe drinking water."

Through ALMA, which links the Diocese of London with Anglican Churches in Angola and Mozambique, the Lent Appeal is aimed at supporting the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

ALMA spokesperson Sheenagh Burrell said:

"Access to clean water is a vital step in poverty reduction and raising life expectancy. Lent provides an opportunity for us to give thanks for the water we so often take for granted, to reflect on our own consumption, and to commit to making changes so that others too will have this basic necessity of life."

Visit www.london.anglican.org/LentAppeal for more information.