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Dean of Belfast unveils ‘urban’ garden for Christian Aid Week

Wednesday May 6th 2026

Dean Stephen Forde and Rev Dr Liz Hughes launch Christian Aid Week 2026 with vertical demonstration garden at St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, on May 6.

The Dean of Belfast, the Very Rev Stephen Forde, unveiled a demonstration urban garden on the steps of St Anne’s Cathedral on Wednesday May 6 to raise awareness of Christian Aid Week and a food-growing project that’s tackling poverty and hunger in a crowded part of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Christian Aid Week runs from May 10-16, and you can call by the Cathedral any time from now until May 16 to get see the demonstration urban garden.

It consists of 40 repurposed milk containers growing a range of vegetables and herbs. The plants are fixed to a two-metre-high wooden cone and have been arranged vertically to maximise the amount of food that can be grown in the smallest of spaces.

Urban gardening is the focus of this year’s Christian Aid Week appeal, and the Dean saw the impact of the project himself when he visited Kenya with Christian Aid Ireland last September. 

Dean Stephen Forde visits Beacon of Hope project in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2025.

In Nairobi’s densely populated Dagoretti neighbourhood, almost 300,000 people live in one-room homes, often lacking basic services such as flush toilets and running water. With many people earning less than a dollar a day, parents often struggle to buy healthy food to feed their children. The Christian Aid supported project is helping a group of mothers in Dagoretti use their limited space to grow a steady supply of fresh produce that be cooked or sold to help generate a much-needed income.

One of the women the food-growing project is helping is Fridah Moraa, a mother-of-three who has been the sole breadwinner for her family since the death of her husband. With rent, water, school fees and medical bills to pay for, Fridah often struggled to feed her family healthy meals. But since joining Christian Aid’s project, Fridah is able to feed her children nutritious meals, as well as pay school fees and medical bills. 

Dean Forde said: “When I was in Nairobi last September, I saw for myself the difference Christian Aid is making in the lives of women like Fridah. In overcrowded conditions and in tiny urban spaces, the women supported by Christian Aid are using vertical gardens to transform the lives of their families and their communities.

“Here, hope grows green in cramped courtyards and on dusty rooftops. By planting seeds, lives are changing for good.”

Christian Aid Ireland’s Chief Executive Rosamond Bennett thanked Dean Forde for highlighting the charity’s work and supporting the Christian Aid Week appeal.

Fridah tending her urban farm in Dagoretti, Nairobi, Kenya. Credit: Christian Aid/David Macharia

She said: “Each year during Christian Aid Week, we rely on the support of church leaders like Dean Forde and congregations like his to raise the funds we need to enable us to help mothers like Fridah. It is thanks to their fundraising and generosity that Fridah is growing her way out of malnutrition and poverty and creating a more hopeful and prosperous future for her children.”

Christian Aid Week began in the 1950s and is thought to be the UK and Ireland’s longest-running fundraising campaign. Each year, tens of thousands of people across the UK and Ireland get involved in raising funds to support the charity’s work to reach people living in poverty and crisis across the world.

The demonstration urban garden will be exhibited inside the Cathedral from today until the end of Christian Aid Week. For more information or to donate, please visit caweek.ie

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