Now that Share Lent 2024 is over, let’s relive the highlights of Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada’s annual fundraising campaign.
By Mayalène Lavigne-Martel, Campaigns Officer
It is with pride that we celebrate the closing of our Share Lent campaign. For us, Lent represents months of preparation to find a theme, slogan and testimonials that will highlight the incredible work of our partners in the Global South. It is also an opportunity to launch a new campaign that will mobilize thousands of people across Canada, inviting them to rally to our cause, to raise awareness of social justice issues and to give generously to the Share Lent collection. This year was no exception!
REAPING OUR RIGHTS – ALONGSIDE OUR PARTNERS
Under our overarching five-year theme, Create Hope, we chose Reaping our Rights as the theme for this year. We turned our attention to the small-scale peasant farmers who feed the world while caring for the Earth. We met three partners on three continents who are helping communities to become more resilient, practice agroecology, diversify their incomes or assert their rights in the face of land contamination.
If you have not had a chance to watch them, take a look at our three videos that show the impact of our partners’ projects on local communities:
RAISING AWARENESS AMONG CANADIANS
Through Share Lent, we showcase our work in the Global South to the Canadian population. To do this, we organize national webinars with our partners and training workshops across the country with our animation staff. This year, we were also lucky enough to welcome our partner Karno Batiran, executive director of PAYOPAYO in Indonesia, who toured British Columbia. By the way, did you know that the little girl on our poster and in our Mini-magazine is none other than Karno’s daughter?
Thank you for making our Resources page one of the most-visited parts of our website during Lent. Many of you read our weekly reflections for each Sunday of Lent. Families across the country followed our Solidarity Calendar, as did many of our D&P Schools. Others took part in our online Way of the Cross or listened to our first podcast about the campaign! Hundreds of students from dozens of schools, including 35 in Manitoba, also took part in a THINKfast.
Here are some of the notable results of this mobilization:
- 220 people attended the launch webinar with Eva Colque from Bolivia (Fundación NUNA) and Nnimmo Bassey from Nigeria (HOMEF).
- 1,000+ people participated at training workshops across Canada.
- 500+ people in B.C. met Karno Batiran during his solidarity tour. He participated in 18 events, including a nationwide webinar; interacted with two bishops and an MP; and visited two universities, seven parishes and farms/environmental groups.
- 93 people listened to our first Voices of Solidarity podcast about our campaign.
A CALL TO GENEROSITY
Share Lent is, first and foremost, Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada’s annual fundraising campaign. This year, our various initiatives have raised over $1.7 million so far! We are still in the early days of receiving the amounts collected by dioceses through their parish collections, so this figure will continue to rise in the months ahead.
The Share Year-Round monthly giving matching fund will continue until Pentecost, May 19, 2024. We are delighted to count on the support of 117 new monthly donors and 60 others who have increased their monthly gift. This represents over $44,000 a year in new revenue.
On behalf of our partners in the Global South, we would like to thank you warmly for your support and generosity!
Here’s a snapshot of some of this year’s Share Lent activities.
