|PIC1|Christian Aid Week launched 14 May with support from actor Kris Marshall, star of Murder City (ITV), My Family (BBC1) and Brit film success Love Actually. Having just returned from a week in Bolivia visiting projects funded by Christian Aid, Marshall will be encouraging members of the public to give their time, money and support to raise millions of pounds for developing countries.

While visiting Christian Aid partner Centro de Investigación y Promoción del Campesinado (CIPCA) in Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, Marshall witnessed the concept “You add, we multiply,” Christian Aid Week’s slogan, which embraces the idea that together we can make a big difference and that even the smallest donation can grow and achieve real change.

He visited the village of Santa Ana where two and half years ago the community was given 20 ewes and one ram. The villagers have now bred more than 250 sheep and have returned the original sheep to CIPCA to be passed to another community. The sale of meat and sheep at market has provided the villagers with a new form of income, allowing them to send their kids to school, improve their diet and buy everyday essentials.

|TOP|Kris Marshall said: “’You add, we multiply’ is a great idea. Sheep are a valuable commodity and just by giving enough money to buy one this Christian Aid Week people can really change lives for a very poor family. My mum bought me a ram, Mr Gruff, last Christmas and having seen this project for myself I can now see how amazing it is. The best ideas are always simple and this is one of them. If every person in the UK gave just a quid, that’s over 50 million quid. Christian Aid works in more than 50 countries and a million quid goes a long way in Bolivia.”

Marshall also saw how cattle ranchers are chopping down vast swathes of the Amazon rainforest in the quest to find new grazing areas, driving indigenous farmers off their land.

In San Borja one such rancher has even built over a cemetery containing the bodies of more than 300 relatives of local villagers. Christian Aid is helping these farmers to contest land rights through CIPCA who provides them with legal support.

|AD|Marshall said: “I was very impressed with CIPCA’s work with indigenous communities. They’re giving a voice to people who wouldn’t be able to represent themselves. It doesn’t seem right that logging and cattle ranching clears thousands of square km a year in Bolivia and is taking away people’s land and livelihoods.”

In addition, actor Damian Lewis signed up several months ago to a new role as a Christian Aid trade justice ambassador. Lewis claims that he has always been “interested in trade justice,” and was “appalled by the stories in Bolivia.”

The actor travelled with Christian Aid to Bolivia, to investigate the forced privatisation of essential services, including the water supply. In 1997, the World Bank made privatisation a condition of its loan to the Bolivian government – a condition which Christian Aid believes is wrong.

To make a donation to help poor communities grow their way out of poverty simply visit www.caweek.org or call 08080 006006.

Christian Aid Week first started in 1957. Last year it raised £14.8 million and around 300,000 volunteers took part in the UK’s biggest door-to-door collection using the famous red envelope.