The Bishop of Ely, Dr Anthony Russell, will tomorrow (Wednesday 21 January) launch this year’s Diocesan Lent Appeal at St Barnabas Church, Huntingdon, in support of Challenging Poverty – a new initiative of the Church Urban Fund (CUF).

The Church Urban Fund aims to tackle poverty and injustice wherever it is found in this country. In this region it has supported projects in East Barnwell, Arbury and Romsey Town in Cambridge, a homeless project in Wisbech and St Barnabas Community Centre on the Oxmoor estate, where the launch is taking place.

Parishes in the diocese are being asked to support the Church Urban Fund’s Challenging Poverty campaign, which will help bring lasting change to people living in the poorest neighbourhoods in our region.

Most visitors to Ely Diocese see only the famous university and idyllic rural scenery of Cambridgeshire and north west Norfolk. Yet within these areas of relative wealth and beauty, there are pockets of multiple deprivation where people living in rural and urban communities face poverty and marginalisation.

• In the year 2004-2005, 13% of families in East Cambridgeshire were accepted as homeless by local authorities, compared with 7.8% across England.
• Teenage pregnancies and health inequalities among children are prevalent in areas of social deprivation within Huntingdon, Cambridge and the Northern Fens.
• 3,000 farm workers in the Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire region have lost their jobs in the last 5 years.