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Actor Nick Hoult has been visiting Nairobi to see first hand the work of Christian Aid
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Nick Hoult helps Christian Aid fight against poverty

By Victoria Corbett
May 13, 2010

Riding high on the success of recent movies Clash of the Titans and A Single Man, Nicholas Hoult’s next project could not have been more different.

Inspired by mum Glenys’ fundraising for Christian Aid Week when he was growing up, Nick went to Kenya to find out how the charity is changing the lives of thousands of people living in poverty.

Nick, 21, from Wokingham, wanted to raise awareness of the charity’s water and sanitation projects as part of Christian Aid Week this week.

He said of his trip to Nairobi: “I have been very lucky to have a good upbringing in Wokingham and fortunate enough to have water and all those things.

“This seemed like a good opportunity to do something good that hopefully will make a difference.”

His trip began at the Kariabangi Primary School, where children put on a play about water conservation.

Nick said: “They rehearsed for two weeks and did a great job. It was good to see the kids having fun and enjoying it.

“I asked what their next play was and they said it was about AIDS prevention, and I thought for primary school children that was quite serious stuff so it brought me back down to earth.”

Next stop was the Matopeni slum, Swahili for ‘in the mud’. It is home to 2,000 people living in 300 homes, where residents have no access to clean water and have to negotiate large open sewers every day.

Nick said: “You can’t begin to imagine what it is like with the smell and how cramped and crowded it is. But no one is sitting around complaining, they just get on with it.

“It knocks you off your feet when you realise how little things like sanitation and clean water are taken for granted in our lives.”

At the slum Nick met Catherine Kithuku and her family of nine, who shared one room.

Catherine, who has lived in the slum all her life, said: “One of the challenges is that we don’t have toilets. There is no water and when it comes, it is dirty. And children are the ones who are most affected.

“Most of all, I pray for clean water. Without it, we get sick.”

The following day Nick got to see first-hand how a Christian Aid project is working to provide a better quality of life.

In Kiambiu, Christian Aid has been working with partner organisation Maji na Ufanisi, which is Swahili for ‘water and development’.

Nick met community workers, who showed him the shower and toilet blocks provided by Maji which are shared by the 60,000 people living in the area.

The blocks have reduced the level of disease in the area and given people privacy and dignity.

Nick said: “People pay to use them and that pays for the upkeep and people have jobs there, so it is building an economy around it as well.”

Maji also organises clean-up days, which Nick rolled up his sleeves to take part in, helping to clean out sewage works.

During the clean-up Nick met former gang member Humphrey Oduor, who was once one of the most wanted men in Kenya.

He has since turned his life around and is helping to educate children about AIDS and encouraging people to clean up their community.

During his five-day trip Nick had a chance to get to know members of the community by dancing, which he admitted to being “terrible” at, and having a kickabout with football fans.

And never mind Nick’s Hollywood co-stars, all these youngsters wanted to know was whether he knew young football star Theo Walcott.

Nick, who will be heading to Australia later this month to start shooting the fourth Mad Max movie Fury Road, said: “I met great people making the best of the situation. They are very open, kind and loving but it is heartbreaking in many ways to see the living conditions.

“If anyone has any spare cash, and I know no-one is rolling around in money at the moment, but just a few spare quid to Christian Aid will go to the right place and people are really appreciating it. It makes a huge difference.”

To donate visit www.caweek.org or call 08080 006 006.

editorial@reading-epost.co.uk

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I fear PCWatch is over-simplifying if he feels that efforts to fight poverty in the developing world are inadequate largely due to the inability of Christians. There are a whole raft of issues causing this and the fact that Christians have been on the case, however imperfectly, longer than most is not evidence that their efforts are by their nature worse than others'.

Of course corrupt governments make poverty worse and Christians would have no trouble in agreeing with that! I'm not a Catholic and am neither equipped nor inclined to try and defend its wealth.

I'm sure there are plenty of UN, Oxfam etc. workers who are both atheists and capable development workers etc., my point was that I am not aware that there are locally-based groups of atheists in developing countries acting as foci for combatting poverty. This suggests that atheism does not give the same movitation as Christianity to alleviate poverty.

Dermot Yuille, Reading
15/05/2010 at 21:32

Dermot Yuille says there are “plenty of churches in the developing world fighting poverty”. Maybe so but on the evidence they are not making a very good job of it as they have been there since before the turn of the last century. Poverty gets worse when their governments corruptly buy guns and not bread.

I was always brought up to believe Jesus was a simple common man but look at the wealth and gratuitous gaudy glitz of the Christian Church who have pillaged the poor for centuries to make the churches some of the materialistically rich organisation on the planet. You could almost end world poverty overnight if the Pope gave away a few billions of the Vatican’s wealth. Now there’s a thought.

I am afraid atheists are not a group or religion so they aren’t measurable in their activity in this field. I would like to know how many of the much more effective UN and Oxfam workers are atheists or of no religion? Thousands I would suspect. You don’t have to be a Christian to help your fellow man.

PCWatch, Reading
14/05/2010 at 15:25

Like PCWatch, I am not a Christian Aid supporter. But I wonder if he has any evidence for his bitter sarcasm about them - it doesn't match the approach described on their website, cunningly concealed at christianaid.org.uk?

Or is s/he just embittered that there are plenty of churches in the developing world which are fighting global poverty, whether or not in partnership with developed world NGOs, but precious few groups of local atheists doing so?

Dermot Yuille, Reading
14/05/2010 at 13:06

Trouble with Christian charities in the third world is that they have and always want their pound of bible thumping evangelical preaching attached. A bowl of rice for a lesson on the New Testament - Hallelujah! We have seen what the evil morality of the Catholic Church has inflicted on the peoples of Nigeria and the like with their dogma of not proscribing contraceptives in controlling HIV Aids.

If I give to these overseas charities I make sure it is non denominationally religious. This actor boy Nick Hoult of third rate movie fame, should channel his work through non Christian organizations then he could be sure that his work and aid efforts will have no religious strings attached.