A blog from our Partner Christian Aid
Meet Vilia
For one special week in May, Christian Aid’s amazing supporters stand together with their global neighbours by getting out among their local neighbours. This Christian Aid Week volunteers across the country will be collecting door-to-door, hosting breakfasts, cake sales, quizzes and many other fun events as part of a week of fundraising and witness. Christian Aid Week is our busiest week of the year where thousands of volunteers donate their time and skills, to help support the work that we do around the world with people like Vilia, from Haiti.
Vilia’s life was turned upside down in 2010 when an enormous earthquake hit Haiti, destroying her home and killing her mother. In a moment, Vilia’s entire life changed. She left Port-au-Prince where she had been living and moved to Les Cayes, in the countryside, with her family. Vilia is an incredibly strong, hard working woman but life was very hard for her in the countryside as she was forced to live in a small, unsafe house with her children.
Christian Aid partner organisation, KORAL, visited the area that Vilia had moved to and recognised her need for a safe place to call home. With the support of Christian Aid, KORAL built Vilia a new house, a home that is strong enough to withstand natural disasters.
In 2016 Hurricane Mathew hit Haiti causing chaos, destroying homes and killing people in Vilia’s community. Vilia’s neighbours fled to her house as it was the only home left standing. She welcomed 54 people into her home that night saving many of their lives. Vilia stood together with her neighbours to keep them safe, as we at Christian Aid stand together with individuals and communities around the world every day. Vilia is a remarkable woman and we are proud that we were able to help her through the generosity of our supporters, many of whom donated during Christian Aid Week.
This Christian Aid Week we hope that you will support us by donating time or money so that we can continue to work with organisations like KORAL, to help people who still don’t have a safe space to call home. Look out for the Christian Aid Logo 13-19 May to find events and donation points in your local area.
If you would like to hear more about people like Vilia, or perhaps more about Christian Aid’s work around the world come and visit our venue Christian Aid Presents… at Greenbelt this year. We will be sharing stories of people on the move around the world and talking about how we can stand together to take action to support them.