"To dignity. Ready. Go!" is the motto of this year's Lent campaign organised by Misereor. Under this motto, the Catholic aid organisation for development cooperation is inviting people to work together with Misereor project partners to uphold human dignity and make life more bearable for marginalised and disadvantaged people living near tea plantations in Sri Lanka. At the same time, the focus is likely to be on the current global political shifts. After all, the drastic cuts in development funding by the Trump administration in the USA also pose a massive threat to human dignity.
The Lent campaign, which asks for donations for Misereor's work between Ash Wednesday and Easter, also serves as an opportunity for self-reflection: What sustains me? How can I use Lent for personal conversion and commitment? What can we share?
Misereor will open its Lent campaign on Sunday, 9 March at 10 a.m. in the parish church of St. Antonius in Essen-Frohnhausen as part of a festive service. The event will be broadcast live on ARD television. During Lent, Misereor, which works with partner organisations in 83 countries in Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, will provide information about its project work and ask for donations. The fasting campaign is brought to life by groups in parishes, schools and organisations as well as through educational, lobbying and advocacy work and imaginative fundraising campaigns. Partners from Sri Lanka will be guests and provide information about their activities in favour of the highland Tamils throughout Germany. On 6 April, the 5th Sunday of Lent, donations will then be collected for Misereor's work in all Catholic parishes in Germany.
Hard work, cramped housing
With its Lent 2025 campaign, Misereor is focussing on the difficult situation of highland Tamils in Sri Lanka. They are an ethnic group made up of the descendants of labourers who were brought to Sri Lanka from India in the 19th and 20th centuries as part of British colonial rule, initially to harvest coffee and later tea. Many live in small, cramped dwellings on the plantations. The pay as tea pickers is poor, the working conditions are harsh and there are no opportunities to lead a self-determined life. There is also a lack of political participation, access to state social benefits is very difficult, and clean drinking water, healthcare and sanitary facilities are lacking in many places.
Acting together
Misereor Managing Director Andreas Frick summarises the spirit of the fasting campaign as follows: "In the many different campaigns and initiatives that are part of the Misereor fasting campaign, we allow ourselves to be touched by people's fates. We collect money and raise awareness, not only for the highland Tamils in Sri Lanka, but for many people in difficult situations all over the world." Fasting also means asking what is important in one's own life. "And in the fasting campaign, we find answers and act together. Against global injustice and the destruction of creation. With campaigns, donations and our political voice."
Evanjalina Sampathawaduge, Project Manager at Caritas Sri Lanka-SEDEC, a partner organisation of Misereor, thanked for the support of the work in favour of the highland Tamils. With various programmes, Caritas is committed to sustainably improving the living conditions around the tea plantations and opening up new prospects for the local people. For example, they are being encouraged to campaign more effectively for their own rights, to develop additional sources of income and to invest more in education and health.
Far beyond the borders of the diocese
Sebastian Neugebauer, Head of the World Church and Mission Department in the diocese of Essen, emphasises the special connection his diocese has with Tamils, who have been living in the Ruhr region in particular since the beginning of the civil war in Sri Lanka in the 1980s. For example, a large pilgrimage of Tamils to Kevelaer has been organised here regularly since the end of the 1980s. At the same time, they are active far beyond the borders of the diocese and Germany: "As part of the universal church, we also feel responsible for people in other parts of the world and are committed to global awareness in the sense that the people in our diocese see themselves as part of a common human family and therefore also take responsibility for greater global justice and the preservation of creation. " In line with this basic attitude, the diocese is committed to an ecologically fair lifestyle, for example, and enables young people to communicate and exchange ideas between peoples and cultures through the "Weltwärts" volunteer service.
