NZ Freephone CWS launches Operation Refugee 2023
Christian World Service invites people to sign up for this year’s Operation Refugee, the annual fundraiser to provide practical help to people who have fled their homes and communities.
This year participants will have 12 hours to do one of three challenges: Food for Life, a Winter Walk or a Shelter Challenge. Participants choose their challenge, and then encourage friends and family to sponsor them or make a donation to refugees.
Participants are encouraged to do their 12-hour challenge on June 20, World Refugee Day, though it can be completed at another time that suits.
“We want this year’s Operation Refugee to be an opportunity for people living in Aotearoa to come together and stand with people who have fled their homes and countries in fear for their lives. By focusing together, we want to create more support for refugees in the places where they are now living,” says Murray Overton, National Director.
CWS aims to raise $73,000 to provide food, education and medical care to people from Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria and Ukraine.
Last year, the United Nations Refugee Agency calculated that 103 million people have been forcibly displaced around the globe. Over 70% of these people live in neighbouring countries. New Zealand Immigration reported that 989 were resettled in the year ending 28 February 2023.
Refugees are people who have fled war, conflict and persecution and crossed an international border in search of safety. Displaced people have stayed within their home country.
Worship resources for Refugee Sunday on June 25 in the Methodist and Presbyterian calendar and July 2 for Anglicans will be available later this month.
“Refugee Sunday is an important time to pray for refugees and think further about how we as individuals and faith communities can share a warm welcome to the stranger as Jesus taught. It is work that our partners in the Middle East, Pakistan, Poland and Nicaragua do every day,” Murray adds.
Sign up for a challenge or find more information at: operationrefugee.nz or call 0800 74 73 72,
or donate to Operation Refugee.
May 3, 2023
