Share Lent

The Share Lent campaign:
A call to action in a spirit of commitment and generosity

Development and Peace's Share Lent fundraising campaign is a tradition that goes back to the year the Organization was founded! The campaign focuses primarily on Canada's 6,000 Catholic parishes, 1,500 religious communities and 3,000 Catholic schools.
The purpose of the Share Lent campaign is three-fold:

1. to educate Canadians about international development;
2. to raise funds;
3. to renew the spirit of Lent.

This important annual fundraising activity is a key opportunity to pursue our education work. People are encouraged to make a concrete gesture of solidarity by financially supporting the efforts of our partners in the Global South to build a more just and equitable world.

The spirit of Share Lent
Inspired by our Christian faith, we see Share Lent as providing a special occasion to contribute to the work of justice and creation of the God of Life we believe in.

The Share Lent campaign starts on Ash Wednesday. On the fifth Sunday of Lent, a collection takes place in all of the parishes across Canada to support the work of Development and Peace.

In fact, Share Lent is our main fundraising activity. It enables us to reach thousands of Canadians every year. The Share Lent Campaign continues to be a unique expression of the identity of Development and Peace as the official international development organization of the Catholic Church in Canada.

Sharing in order to combat poverty and injustice
As Lent returns every year, we are called upon with a special sense of urgency to share our financial means and help those in need by giving to a charitable organization that seeks to build a world of justice.

There are many reasons why we should do so:

• For millions of people, our gifts make the difference between eating or going hungry, working or being unemployed, studying or having no future prospects, being free or being repressed, having health care or living in despair. Above all, they make the difference between dignity and humiliation, because Development and Peace helps people organize and empower themselves to ensure their own development.

• The poor need us. Who of us has not, all at some difficult time in our lives, experienced the joy and relief of receiving help from a family member, a friend or a community group? Imagine what that must feel like when you have nothing to your name!

• The sad fact is that poverty is on the rise in the world. We could go on and on with statistics on the hundreds of millions of people, living with no prospect of change and unable to meet the basic needs of their families, who are waiting for a glimmer of hope. But the real point is that they have not chosen their poverty, that they are victims of injustice, and most importantly, that the statistics tell us nothing of the human suffering that we can help alleviate.

• The overwhelming poverty of many of the world's peoples threatens the very sources of life. What is happening on the other side of the world affects us all.

All of these reasons are calls to act with generosity
and commitment.