It's important to change the way we live (10 Aug 2007)

Meet Liz Russell, 17, and a student at St Mary's College, Middlesbrough. When she's not watching films starring Johnny Depp or practising to pass her driving test, Liz (left in the picture) runs a CAFOD group at her college and recently volunteered at Springboard, the Diocese of Middlesbrough's annual youth event (for more on that, click here). We caught up with Liz before she went on holiday. 
 
You just helped out at Springboard. What did you do?
 
I volunteered to help run the 'Wall of Solidarity', which we invited people to think of and write on the board songs of solidarity, the things they couldn't live without, and a pledge for the future. I got help from in my friend Lisa from college and we worked with Regina from the CAFOD HQ.

Have you done this kind of stuff before?

Yeah, since I was about eight - with my parents at first, and then with school.

The Drop the Debt campaign really struck me as something we could do that was directly helping - that we should try and help people who can't really help the situation they find themselves in. It's not their fault. We've done some of the Unearth Justice stuff too; our gold chain petition was pretty good and good fun.

Have you got involved in livesimply and how have you found it?

Yes, I have. It's really important to think about and change the way we live and how our lifestyles affect poorer people. 

I think young people already know about lots of these issues and want to do something. I like that it has a church aspect to it. I've been trying to change my lifestyle since livesimply started, and I try to do environmentally friendly things like turn off lights, and buy clothes from charity shops too.

How's that going?

It's difficult - the clothes aren't that cool!

Tell us about the group you started.

It's at school - it's got 8 or 10 people in it, they're people that were interested, and the chaplain helped out a bit too. We used the Action Pack, and kickstarted it with the gold chain petition.

Have you got anything to add?

I went to a livesimply Mass on Lindisfarne and Bishop Arnold said something that I can still remember: "We think we're getting more sophisticated, but really we're just getting more complicated," - which I think means that we need to simplify our lives and not be so all-consuming.  We forget about the important things in life.

Want to start a CAFOD Youth Group?  There are lots of resources to help you here