Shouting into a megaphone, urging passers-by to take action on climate change in central Oxford on a busy Saturday in October made it obvious Amy Merone is passionate about social justice.
 

Amy had secured Oxford East MP Andrew Smith along with other local dignitaries and activists for a peaceful campaigning event outside St Michael in the Northgate, as part of an international call for action on poverty and climate change.
As Christian Aid’s regional campaigns and media co-ordinator, Amy covers Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, liaising with volunteers including many from churches in our Diocese. A journalism graduate, Amy decided a career chasing gritty, sensational news stories wasn’t for her and felt strongly she wanted to make a difference.  After university she spent six months volunteering in Kenya and South Africa before moving to Manchester, where she completed a campaigns internship with Oxfam, as well as volunteering for an HIV charity, providing community support for a woman with HIV.

But it was a year’s VSO placement in Nigeria that really inspired her.. She says: ‘I was placed in an HIV clinic, working with a Catholic organisation, the Daughters of Charity. I was living and working with nuns, delivering peer education programmes, training young people to teach other young people about HIV and sexual health and running a community resource centre.  ‘I have never found it possible to separate my work from my life and I have always wanted to do something where I could put my faith into action, fighting inequality,’ she says.

She moved to Oxford to work for an HIV charity, but a year later saw an advert for the Christian Aid job and felt strongly that was where she was supposed to be.
‘I am constantly amazed by the way that local communities support Christian Aid. Every year during Christian Aid Week our organisers and collectors work tirelessly to raise money for the work of Christian Aid around the world. Many of our organisers have been volunteering for years and are so committed to the cause.’  Amy grew up in a Methodist family in Southport. ‘Growing up I don’t think I consciously thought about my faith. Going to church was a bit like going to school. As I got older I fell away from everything other than the Sunday service and at university, although I had some Christian friends, I didn’t go to church.

‘I always retained a core belief in God, but never felt I had a comfortable way of expressing it. When I went to Nigeria, suddenly faith was everywhere. I was very close to the sisters and enjoyed chatting to them about their beliefs and thinking more about my own faith.’  She described one particularly poignant experience, when she became friends with a young woman called Faith who travelled hundreds of kilometres to the clinic for HIV treatment. Amy says: ‘Faith came to us very late in terms of how far the virus had progressed in her body. Although she couldn’t speak a lot of English, we became friends. I was not with her for long before she died and I remember her looking up, beyond the ceiling.  It was as though she was looking at something we couldn’t see. I have always believed that she was going to be with God. I may have questioned everything else about my beliefs, but I have never questioned that. Faith has had a big impact on my life. Her memory pushes me on.’

When she moved to Oxford, Amy thought deeply about her own faith and tried several churches, but still didn’t find one she felt was right for her. Then a Christian Aid event was held at the Quaker Meeting House in St Giles, with Bishop John in April last year.  ‘I got chatting to the warden and started asking questions. It seems like a cliché but it all started to make sense in terms of what I believe. Quakers focus on there being something of God in everyone, and on putting your faith into action,’ she says.
‘I felt an immediate sense of peace.  Until then I’d constantly been thinking about my beliefs and the right way of expressing them. I’m still very new to Quakerism and there is a lot that I have only just started to learn about.  I’ve often worried about other people and their reactions to my faith, but I’m trying not to worry so much about what other people think and instead recognise that what’s most important is my own personal relationship with God.’

to find out more about Christian Aid and ways to get involved visitwww.christianaid.org.uk or call 01865 246618. for more information about the other charities Amy supports see:www.cityofsanctuary.org andwww.refugeeresource.org.