Faith, hope and fears for the most vulnerable drive Archbishop's wife

But the grandeur of her current home, which has housed the Archbishop of York and his family for nearly 800 years, has not left the present lady of the manor detached from the harsh realities of the world outside.

For Margaret Sentamu has only to recall her formative years, growing up surrounded by poverty in eastern Africa, if she requires fresh motivation to push on with her work helping those in need around the region.

"I've been alongside families who've had to survive on less than 1 a week, or 50p a week," she says. "Poverty for me is not a theory – it's a practice. I've seen it being lived out by neighbours who were less fortunate. So that in a sense drives me to respond."

Mrs Sentamu holds a number of important roles, of course – high-flying businesswoman, leading charity patron and, most notably, wife of the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu. But she has succeeded in maintaining a fairly low profile since her husband was appointed to the second-highest post in the Church of England in 2005. While Britain's first black archbishop has invited both popularity and publicity with his willingness to speak out on issues of injustice, media appearances from his wife have been rare.

She has agreed to an interview today, however, because the subject matter is something close to her heart – the fight against poverty across the region and around the world. A deeply religious woman, it is clear her Christianity is a key driver in motivating her to speak.

"I feel passionate about (poverty) because it's very much at the heart of my Christian belief," she says. "Not everyone who comes from Africa or India feels the same. I think that's why I say my Christian motivation is slightly stronger than the cultural one. Culturally I have witnessed poverty – but there are other people who choose to walk by."

Walking by is not something Mrs Sentamu appears readily able to do. Since arriving from Uganda nearly 40 years ago with her husband, she has somehow found the time – alongside her professional life as an executive head-hunter – for extensive church and charity work.

Currently her focus is fixed on Acts 435, a new project organised by the Church which enables people to donate money directly to those in need, via the acts435.co.uk website. Struggling people – vetted by the Church – post their needs online, and generous donors make pledges of direct help. Following a successful pilot in Yorkshire, the scheme has been rolled out across the country.

Mrs Sentamu is also full of praise for the Yorkshire Post's Communities in Need appeal, which launched earlier this month in support of small-scale charities and community schemes fighting poverty across the region. With vast spending cuts looming, she believes the campaign could hardly have been more timely.

"The small charities are the ones that suffer when there are severe cuts," she says. "They're doing a great deal of work, and they're the ones which are going to go under because they haven't got the buffer and the infrastructure of the bigger charities."

Her criticism of the coalition's public spending policy is implicit.

"With the cuts being made so severely, it is the poor who get poorer and feel more and more squeezed," she says. "It's the old ladies who now, for example, won't be getting help to get washed and dressed in the morning so they can face the day, because their local council is cutting back on home help."

She accepts that charities and volunteer groups will have a greater role to play in supporting those in need, but sounds unimpressed by David Cameron's "Big Society" message which appears to demand more from these "third-sector" groups while simultaneously removing much of the funding which supports them.

"It is a key, key concern," she says. "We're hearing a lot about the Big Society – I've no idea what that means. My simple reading of it is that it's a huge decentralisation of the state function, rolling it out to grassroots, which sounds well and good. But if you roll it out to grassroots, you need to resource it, you need to equip it, and you need to monitor it.

"If you don't do that, then those who can will, and those who can't won't – they will fall by the wayside. Increasingly, those who are in need will be worse off. I do feel charities are facing a period of uncertainty in the times ahead."

Her charity work has left her in no doubt about the severity of the economic situation for thousands of people across the region.

"If you're on 150-a-week you have no leeway whatsoever," she says, "It's going to get worse with the economic squeeze biting. I've heard stories on the ground where we're operating in Hull and Middlesbrough. With the closure of factories and businesses, it's really having an impact on families.

"The local priest said that in the outer estates of Hull, a lot of houses are being repossessed again. We're back where we were in the 80s and 90s, when we had the last recession. I'm convinced the needs will just mushroom."

The Church, she says, will have an increasing role to play in supporting those hit hardest.

"I think this is where the Church comes into its own, and needs to be reminded of its mission to reach out to the needs of everyone," she says. "I think the Church will find there are more and more people knocking on its door. The Church not only has to open up its doors, but we have got to actively go out there. It may not be a natural place to turn to when you're in trouble. And a lot of people have a lot of pride, and don't want to appear to be receiving charity."

Is she shocked that in a country like Britain, now more than a decade into the 21st century, problems of poverty are still relatively widespread?

"Yes and no," she says. "Yes it is shocking that we live in the so-called developed world, and yet there's a lot of homelessness, fuel poverty, child poverty... It is shocking also that the gap between the poor and the rich is widening further and further.

"But part of me says no, I'm not surprised – because coming from a Christian perspective I know the human condition. We have a propensity and a preference to be more selfish and greedy and grabbing. This would come to me more naturally than to do the reverse."

Has she found the people of Yorkshire to be generous during her time here?

She flashes a wicked grin. "I think there are lots of jokes about Yorkshire people and Scottish people, so I won't go there!" she laughs. "No, all I know is that where we piloted this in Yorkshire, we discovered people were generous and do respond to need.

"What we've found more difficult is getting people to accept help.

People are proud – and you don't blame them. It's not easy to say 'things are really tough, I am desperate, I'm in need.' It takes a lot of courage to do that."

Yorkshire life, it seems, is suiting the Sentamus very well.

"We are enjoying it," she agrees. "We've been welcomed and made to feel at home. It's been a very positive and fruitful time."

And it must be nice having York Minster as her local church?

"The Archbishop has the whole patch as his local church!" she smiles. "It's the whole northern region, from Sellafield to Whitby, from Durham down to Southwell – and of course I get to accompany him whenever I can."

To find out more about Acts 435, or to make a direct donation, visit www.acts435.co.uk.

How to help our communities

You can donate to the Yorkshire Post's Communities in Need appeal in three easy ways. Every penny will be channelled towards community projects across the Yorkshire region.

ONLINE: Log onto www.justgiving.com/communitiesinneed Secure donations can be made at the website using credit or debit cards.

SEND A CHEQUE: Make cheques payable to the LCF Communities In Need Appeal, and send to: Leeds Community Foundation, 51a St Paul's Street, Leeds LS1 2TE. When sending in cheques, donors must include their contact details to enable the Yorkshire Communities Foundation to check if the donation is eligible for Gift Aid.

PAY IN AT THE BANK: Simply walk into any branch of the Yorkshire Bank and make a donation to the LCF Communities in Need appeal. Quote the following details: Account No 11479437, Sort Code 05-00-20.