This year marks my first anniversary as an employee of Christian Aid. The year has been a learning period for me and I thank the good Lord for bringing me thus far. As we move towards the end of this year I take a pause and use the opportunity of this write up to reflect a bit on my work at Christian Aid (CA).

It’s been a wonderful experience to be part of the Christian Aid family.  I have been blessed with a great team who contributed immensely to my settling in smoothly. With an ambitious but achievable aim to bring an end to poverty around the world by tackling its root causes, one of the key pillars of our work which we couldn’t do without is our partnerships.

Therefore the experience in CA has brought me into contact with about 12 cherished partner organisations with whom I have interacted, learnt from and worked with. My day to day work at CA involves a constant look at our work in relation to the output of our partners. As a result, whether I’m looking at budgets, personnel, reports or the effects of our work, my outlook on these is inextricably linked to our partners’ work. It therefore serves as a constant reminder of the value of our partners’ contribution to how we navigate to our destiny (end poverty).

Inevitably there are challenges with the work in CA and these are sometimes related to key expectations of the various partnerships (from our side and from partners), inadequacy of funds, limited number of staff to drive the work we do, to mention but a few.
However, my team and I are motivated and keep striving to do the best.
We are encouraged by the fact that the work that is being done with our partners is achieving some change, no matter how little, to the lives of people at different levels.
We are encouraged by the fact that, target groups at different levels have the capacity to build on whatever little we are able to achieve with them and able to address their own issues.

Story by Madam Joyce Ashun, Country Manager of Christian Aid