Seven Days to Make a Difference

'When I wake up, I have a lot of worries. Sometimes I don't have food,' says Fridah Moraa, who faces a gruelling daily struggle to feed her family in the face of urban poverty. This Christian Aid Week 2026 — running from 10 to 16 May — Christian Aid is shining a light on the devastating reality of urban poverty in Kenya.

Fridah lives in a corrugated shelter in the sprawling, yet densely packed informal settlement of Dagoretti, Nairobi, with her 13-year-old twins, Eliud and Abiud, her daughter, and young grandson, Quillan. There is no running water and only shared toilet facilities. Fridah lost her husband unexpectedly after an accident in February last year and her income now supports the rest of the family.

Dagoretti is a busy, noisy environment with a hectic rhythm that's dictated by the pace of residents who are forced to precariously live day to day. With secure jobs hard to find, and most people earning less than a dollar a day, buying food to feed your children is a constant struggle. With rent, water, school and medicine to pay for too, some days there just isn't enough money for a meal. Here, aching hunger compounds relentless stress.

Day-to-day life for Fridah can be precarious. She wakes every morning worrying about how to feed her family. 'But I can't give up,' Fridah says, 'my children need to go to school. They need to eat.'

Fridah has been trying to develop a stable income by selling vegetables, making a two-hour round trip to buy wholesale produce six days a week. Some days she doesn't sell enough of the wholesale produce at her market stall. On these days she goes without food, so the children can eat.

Imarisha Kilimo

Recently Fridah has seized the opportunity offered by a project called Imarisha Kilimo — Swahili for 'Strengthen Agriculture'. Run by Christian Aid's partner Beacon of Hope, this project trains women like Fridah in urban farming.

Families learn how to grow vegetables in small spaces, using cone gardens, a form of vertical planting. They learn to conserve rainwater, make organic compost, and use dehydrators to preserve food.

Now, tucked at the end of a concrete alley, Fridah tends her lush urban farm, full of kale, tomatoes and other vegetables. Her children and grandson eat fresh vegetables, and she sells her produce at market. For Fridah, this has been transformative.

Beacon of Hope offers Dagoretti's residents the opportunity to train as urban farmers. With skills sessions, seeds, tools and space-efficient plots to grow produce near their homes, parents like Fridah are turning the tide on urban poverty. Participants are learning to manage pests, produce compost, cultivate seeds, and take their own produce to market.

Faithful Action

Christian Aid Week is one of the biggest acts of Christian witness across the UK and Ireland. It is an incredibly powerful moment that brings faith and action together to help families survive poverty and violence and to support communities to rebuild after crisis.

Mari Tutesigensi, Head of Christian Aid Cymru, says: 'Christian Aid Week comes just days after the Senedd Elections and it also coincides with the A Million Acts of Hope Week of Action. It's an important moment for us in Wales to share with our communities and new elected representatives about the hope we have and the call to stand together with our most marginalised global neighbours, of all faiths and none, for justice and end to poverty. Churches and schools around Wales are gearing up to fundraise in all kinds of ways — from coffee mornings and craft stalls to hiking and biking for the 70k in May challenge. As a Christian Aid Cymru team, we want to say a huge thank you for every action, every prayer, and every act of hope.'

This Christian Aid Week there are seven days to make a difference. Churches can support the appeal in a number of ways:

• £50 could fund the solar dryer that turns fresh produce into valuable long-life products.
• £120 could help fund the mobile kiosk that means an urban farmer can easily take their goods to market.
• £750 could pay for 20 aspiring urban farmers to receive the training, tools and support to establish vegetable gardens that end their family's poverty.

Find out more and download resources at caw.christianaid.org.uk.