CUMBRIA charity supporters have raised more than £1,000 with a Burundi-style coffee stall as part of a national appeal.

Appleby Christian Aid Group organised a display, with coffee and music from Burundi, at The Cloisters, outside St Lawrence’s CofE Church, as part of Christian Aid Week 2024.

Money raised during Christian Aid Week will help the organisation’s partners empower vulnerable communities to find practical and sustainable ways out of poverty.

Christian Aid has been working in Burundi since 1995 when it first offered humanitarian assistance to people surviving the civil conflict. Now, alongside local partners, the organisation helps establish Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs).

These community-led groups mean people can save and borrow money, making small businesses possible, offering reliable and diverse incomes so families can eat regularly, get medicine when they need it, and build safer homes.

Organiser, Sue McGuinness said: "We have a group of 12 churches and we got together to highlight the good work of Christian Aid, as well as collecting donations for the charity’s work in places like Burundi.

"Volunteers from Churches Together Appleby, which includes St Lawrence’s, Sands Methodist Church, and Our Lady of Appleby RC Church, gave out balloons and coffee, which was kindly given to us by John Farrer and Co.

"We danced to Burundian music and welcomed in passersby, to sit awhile with us in the Cloisters benches and hear more about the amazing work of Christian Aid and particularly of Burundi - we converted quite a few to Farrer’s Burundian Coffee too.

"We raised more than £1,000 via collecting buckets as well as digital envelopes and other donations. It was a great day."