The international development charity has launched its Christmas Appeal and supporters are getting involved by taking part in carol concerts and other festive events.
Ripon’s Christian Aid Group is joining in with a stall at the Christmas Food and Gift Fair at Ripon Cathedral on 21-22 November 2025.
Stall organiser Dorothy Gray explained:
The Christmas Fair is organised by the Cathedral, with over 100 stalls including ours for Christian Aid offering preloved and donated goods for sale. There will be shoes, handbags, scarves and costume jewellery.
Purchases from the stall will help people with immediate needs – for instance, £3 could buy the mosquito net that protects a child from contracting malaria and £13 could buy the tarpaulin, ropes, hammer and pegs which make a shelter for a family who’ve fled their home.
The funding also supports people in the long term to develop sustainable incomes which increase their resilience to the many challenges they face.
We hope lots of people will come along and join us, as part of the lovely selection of Christmas gifts, food and drink in the beautiful setting of the cathedral. There will be a programme of music and a prize draw to add to the fun.
Tickets for the Christmas Food and Gift Fair, from 9.30 to 16.30 on 21-22 November, are available on the website at: https://riponcathedral.org.uk/events/christmas-food-gift-fair
This year’s Christmas Appeal for Christian Aid is focusing on the plight of the millions of people forced to flee their homes because of conflict, and the charity is sharing stories from communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa.
Millions of families, forced to flee the violence between multiple armed groups and government forces, now live in overcrowded, unsanitary, makeshift conditions with limited access to food, clean water and electricity. Vital infrastructure has been attacked, including hospitals, banks, schools and markets. The hospitals which remain open are overwhelmed and struggling to treat the wounded. With banks forced to shut for months at a time, those who can earn money are unable to access their pay, pushing their families into crisis.
Christian Aid has worked with local organisations in the DRC since the 1970s and is currently helping people in camps and villages who have had to leave their homes.
