The Christmas Bowl’s 60th Year!

The Christmas Bowl is a program of act for peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia.

Prayer for the Christmas Bowl

The Christmas Bowl’s History

• The first Christmas Bowl:

1949

• 1949: ₤1,808

• 2007: $2.3 ,MillionRev. Frank Byatt

The Christmas Bowl Today

• The bowl has grown to meet new challenges

• Funds raised help reduce poverty, protect refugees, prevent conflicts and empower communities

The Christmas Bowl Helps Reduce Extreme Poverty in Zimbabwe

• Woman & children had to

walk 7kms for water

• Locals trained on tank

construction, water

conservation & hygiene

• Help build a sense of

community

“Each day I come to school, I am happy to be able to drink clean water from the tank, and I seem to get less sick”.

– local school boy

The Christmas Bowl helps Prevent & Resolve Conflicts in Sudan

• 40 years of ongoing conflict

• 250,000 people killed, 2.4 million

people displaced

• Poverty-conflict cycle continues as

youth become influenced by

antisocial behaviour

• A gift of $25 can provide a

professional psychological session

for a Sudanese person

“We remember visiting a community centre back in 2006 and meeting a woman who was so traumatised by her experiences that she could not speak. It is through support, counselling

and companionship that she found the strength to speak again. These are the stories of hope which drive us to continue working with the conflict-affected people in Darfur.”

- Katherine Gicuku Ireri, Nyala Field Coordinator

The Christmas Bowl helps Protect Refugees

• The TBBC provides vital services for more than 140,000 Burmese refugees

• It costs $74 to provide food for a month to a family of four living in a refugee

camp.

The challenge of feeding Burma’s refugees will continue well into 2009 and food prices are set to increase.

The Christmas Bowl Empowers Communities

• 40% of Timor Leste’s

population live below the

poverty line

• act for peace helps provide

training to empower these

communities

• $135 can provide training for

a group of 40 farming

families in one district

The income Moses has received from the kiosk has allowed him to pay back his loans, continue his studies in teaching at the National University of East Timor and

assist his large family.

How Can I Help?

• Give to the Christmas

Bowl each year

• Become an act for

peace Regular Giver &

help people year round

• Visit our website for

more information:

www.actforpeace.org.au

The Christmas Bowl

A PRAYER FOR PEACE & UNITY

God, you have made us of one blood, your common people,and sent Jesus to restore us by the shedding of his blood; help us, by your Spirit, to recover our common humanityso that your world may be renewed in peace.Bring your peace to this world, a peace we cannot make ourselves.

Awaken the consciousness of all peoples and their leaders,raise up those who can speak and act for peace,and show us new ways in which hatred can be left behind,wounds can be healed, and unity restored.We pray in the name of Jesus who is our peace. Amen.