Dutch Lenten Campaign Foundation is the

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aid agency An aid agency, also known as development charity, is an organization dedicated to distributing aid. Many professional aid organisations exist, both within government, between governments as multilateral donors and as private voluntary organizati ...

for the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. In Dutch: “Stichting Bisschoppelijke Vastenaktie Nederland”. The foundation is supported by the local churches here and in developing countries. The organization campaigns in cooperation with private initiatives, especially during the

Advent Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus's birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Chri ...

period before

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and the

Lenten Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christian religious observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthe ...

period before

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

. The Dutch Bishops Lenten Campaign Foundation is an initiative of the Dutch bishops led by Cardinal Alfrink in 1961. Since 2011 she is also responsible for the Advent campaign. The Lenten Campaign is best known for the Lenten Campaign pockets. It is a small organization in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

that works with thousands of volunteers in

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es, villages and cities in the Netherlands. The scope of Lenten Campaign lies primarily in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

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Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

and

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and has a disposable

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of about 5 million euros (2012).

Campaigns

The Foundation performs various campaigns. Each campaign has its own theme. The supported projects are socio-economic in nature, on small scale, and focused on self-help. * Lenten Campaign asks to slow down, for another person, in the period between

carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...

and

. * Advent Campaign wants to bring light to those who live on the margins of society, in the period before

. The revenues of the campaigns of this

charity organisation A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a cha ...

support hundreds of projects in developing countries.

History

The Lenten campaign started in 1961, not in place of existing missionary activities, but was an additional fundraising activity for alleviating acute needs in dioceses in developing countries. More importantly, encouraging a spirit of detachment and sacrifice at a time of increasing prosperity and rising military spending. The execution was placed in the hands of the parishes. Workgroups spread the Lenten campaign pockets. The board of the Lenten selected each year the project applications received. From 1965 14 national aid agencies went together in the international umbrella organization

CIDSE CIDSE, which is short for "''Coopération Internationale pour le Développement et la Solidarité''" (French for "International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity"), is an international family of Catholic social justice organisations fro ...

, International Working Group for socio - economic development. The international Lenten Campaign had an eye for social and political injustices in places such as South America and the Philippines and supported the resistance against it. In 1995, the development organizations Lenten Campaign and Cebemo merged. The aim of the merger was a pooling of resources and increase the effectiveness and efficiency as well as cost savings.

Cordaid Cordaid is an internationally operating value-based emergency relief and development organization, mostly working in conflict-affected countries. It is one of the biggest international development organizations in the Netherlands, with a netwo ...

was formed in 1999 from a merger of two Catholic development organizations: Memisa Medicus Mundi ( 1925) and Mensen in nood (1914 ), and was simultaneously entered into with Bilance (an intensive cooperation organization between Lenten Campaign and Cebemo). The Lenten Campaign Foundation was co-founder of Cordaid. End of 2011, the campaigning partnership with Cordaid ended.
Dutch Lenten Campaign Foundation.

Sources

{{Reflist Catholic charities Catholic Church in the Netherlands Foundations based in the Netherlands International development agencies Religious service organizations