Our series of Q&As with country directors continues with Karen Soerensen, Country Director for Jordan, Lebanon and Yemen since 2017. Originally from…

Redeemed Gospel Church Pipeline (RGCP) sits in the Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums in Nairobi where more than 500,000 people live in extremely poor…

Listening and learning are closely related. By listening to other people’s perspectives with open hearts and minds, we position ourselves to learn…

It’s a long bike ride of up to two hours for some members of Emmanuel Church, in the Bardia District of West Nepal. It is also very hot outside the…

Our series of Q&As with country directors continues with Emmanuel Murangira, who has worked for Tearfund in Rwanda since 2008. He shares his thoughts…

Helping communities to flourish is Ping’s* passion. But it is not easy when you live in a world where the voice of the church is largely restrained.…

‘We are a learning organisation, so we don’t run away from things,’ says Ruth Dul, the chief executive of the Christian Rural and Urban Development…

Across the world young people are rising up. They are demanding action on the environmental destruction, poverty and injustice that threaten their…

Our series of Q&As with country directors continues with Vincent Moyo, who has worked for Tearfund in Malawi since 2006. He shares his thoughts on…

Cynthia lives with her parents in the San Ramón neighbourhood of Siguatepeque, in Honduras. She is 22, works as a financial assistant and attends the…

The cover of the new Footsteps magazine is full of hope. It features nine young people from all corners of the globe and makes me curious to know the…

I have heard a lot of transformational stories, but none has been quite so engaging as Albert’s. We met Albert on a field visit to Good News Baptist…

Finding a job in Mali is not easy so, like many young people, Justin Traoré hoped to start a business of his own. However, starting a business…

Last year I was privileged to have visited Angola for two weeks. Travelling around the country made a deep impression on me and changed my view of…

When Costa heard his name announced at church one Sunday he didn’t know what to expect. He was asked to stay behind after the worship service at…

In recent years, climate change has meant Abebech* and her husband have faced some hard times. They are farmers in the village of Offa Esho Kebele in…

Afshin* is a farmer who lives in a small village in Afghanistan’s Central Highlands. There are 14 families in the village where his family and his…

Elda Valim lives in the resource-rich region around Cuiaba in Mato Grosso state, Northern Brazil. She grew up listening to her mother talking about…

Kadiatu Mansaray and her husband, Sarrah Mansaray, were known to community members as the couple who always argued with each other. They lived in the…

Ashraf has worked for Tearfund for more than ten years. He steps down next month to take up a role with the Pakistan Partner Initiative working with…

When my wife and I decided to get married, both of us were still students. So we had to find work that could put food on the table and a roof over…

Moises Frausino da Silva has faced many droughts in his lifetime and lived much of his life with a lack of water. He is a father of 11 children and…

A misdiagnosis can lead to serious problems. For example, if we visit the doctor with a headache and he or she gives us some painkillers but doesn’t…

Both Kandhi Gound and his wife, Rukman, have been living with disabilities since birth. They live with their son in a village in central India and…

When was the last time you saw someone with a disability on the cover of a magazine? Disability is all too often hidden away. Sadly, this is…

In Kenya, pastoralists’ communities live in some of the harshest environments and their livelihoods have been severely hit by recurring droughts.

Ignekalbo Gilbert is proud that many positive changes have taken place in his village since it started a church and community mobilisation process…

As a result of routine vaccination programmes, polio has been largely eradicated in most parts of the world. But polio is found in some places. It’s…

In part two of our Easter blog we hear from Tearfund employees around the world about how they celebrate this special time of year. The results are…

In order to paint a picture of what Easter means to different people around the world we asked a handful of Tearfund employees to share their…

Sport is an excellent way to reach young people, especially when they are discontented. Towards the end of 2018 the Foundation for Forgiveness and…

Mumtaz and Beenish are in their sixties. In fact, they are not quite sure of their exact ages. But they are sure about their love for their community…

In the Surkhet district of Nepal lies the village of Gadi. The village was one of the least developed in the area, so the community struggled to…

A group of women from Goma in DRC lived in a divided community. They suffered from poverty and marginalisation, and there was a climate of mistrust…

Fresh hope has sprung from an unexpected source in rural Cambodia – cricket farming. While following an exciting church and community initiative,…

Corozal is a village on the north coast of Honduras, located near the city of La Ceiba. It enjoys warm Caribbean weather, especially in summer...

Last year, my dad passed away in South Africa after a short illness. One of his favourite passages in the Bible was 1 Corinthians 13. This ‘chapter…

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) describes the act of cutting, destroying or removing some or all of the external parts of the female…

Until recently, the use of plastic bags was very common in Kenya. Whenever we went shopping, we knew our purchases would be wrapped nicely in…

Through learning and adaptation, an early church and community mobilisation (CCM) pilot has grown into a national phenomenon. Today it is mobilising…

When driving along the roads in southern Angola, you cannot miss them – hundreds of bags of charcoal and firewood being sold by women and sometimes…

From bees and honey to polluted rivers and solar power, from disaster prevention to self-help groups, and from the herders of East Africa to young…

Award-winning British chocolatier Will Torrent will be pleased to know that chocolate consumption around the world is on the rise. The latest figures…

In my last post I ended by saying that ‘remembering well’ was the last step in the Embrace approach to peacebuilding that Tearfund uses. It is this…

We have now talked about hospitality and moral imagination as ways of pursuing peace. Our third approach is one called embrace. This approach comes…

Recently I attended a global Christian conference in Latin America. Shared rooms for the conference cost 750 USD per person for four days. That works…

For Evelyn Letio, peacebuilding in South Sudan means restoring peace within communities and between family members. As a coordinator and co-founder…

In an extra contribution to our mini-series of reflections on Jubilee by young theologians, we hear from an artist about the importance of renewal in…

On 12 September, the sides at war in South Sudan signed a much-anticipated peace agreement. This is the latest effort to bring peace to the world’s…

The Global Forum on Church and Poverty inspired me to begin to see Nigeria in the light of Jubilee. This, in turn, prompted me to start to fully…

During our gathering of young theologians in July, our visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial deeply impacted us to reflect on the different aspects…

In July, ten young people joined a group of theologians and strategic thinkers from 18 different countries at a global forum in Kigali, Rwanda. They…

The tsunami in Sulawesi in Indonesia, Super Typhoon Mangkhut in the Philippines, Hurricane Florence in the USA, and the floods in Kerala, India, have…

In the last post I talked about hospitality as an approach that can contribute towards peace. The second approach that Tearfund uses in its…

In our series on peacebuilding, we have talked about the characteristics of a peacebuilder and concepts that are important for peacebuilders to think…

In the last of a short set of posts looking at concepts for peacebuilding, I want to talk about power and how power works within relationships. Power…

A young man in Bangladesh is raising up tomorrow’s leaders on a diet of homegrown food and business skills.

The 2015 earthquakes devastated communities across Nepal. As well as the sad loss of life, the quake destroyed infrastructure and livelihoods in many…

The American zookeeper Jack Hanna once said: ‘The world is the true classroom. The most rewarding and important type of learning is through…

The power of the church The quote in our title is from a pastor in Honduras, speaking after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. He points out that while others…

I peer into darkness. I’m trying to see who is in this hut and what is going on, but there’s lots of smoke obscuring my view. Gradually, I make out…

Life was hard for Sylvia’s family. Her husband had abandoned her and she had only one bag of maize to feed five people.

By 2020, UN Habitat predicts that 1.4 billion people could be living in slums. For me, this is the biggest challenge for urban ministry in our time.…

For United Mission to Nepal (UMN), gender justice has always been a priority. We believe that men and women are like two wheels of a cart. When we…

In my last post, I wrote about diversity and inclusion. In this piece I’m going to look at the idea of community – which is the place where diversity…

In the previous post on peacebuilding, we looked at the biblical understanding of peace and justice. This time, we are going to look at the ideas of…

In the previous post in our peacebuilding series, we looked at some of the characteristics of peacebuilders and how these are connected to the…

‘Death-dealing forces […] are shaking the world order and inflicting suffering on many.’ This alarming warning was highlighted in the Arusha Call to…

The residents of communities around the Tejipió River in north-east Brazil suffer from regular floods. The factors that cause such floods are well…

Edmond was a well-educated, up-and-coming pastor in his denomination. But when he was selected to serve in Nassian, a village in the north of Ivory…

1968 was an important year. A human being orbited the moon for the first time. The civil rights activist and pastor Martin Luther King was…

Prisons in Bolivia are very overcrowded – but not only with adults. The country’s laws state that children under six years old can stay in their…

Come nightfall, the residents of Madzangina lived in complete darkness. The village, in a remote part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has…

We all produce rubbish. Usually we don’t think about it. We just throw it away. But 2 billion people don’t have their waste collected and the world…

For many people in East Africa, the current drought is the worst in living memory. Pastoralists have been hit particularly hard by this drought,…

Claudia* was 14 years old and at school when, suddenly, she saw a group of uniformed armed men pass the window. After a few minutes of insults and…

How do you start to bring together survivors of genocide with those who perpetrated the violence? Even for the most sensitive and diplomatic of…

‘It was decided because I was the eldest girl, I would not go to school like my brothers,’ says Birungi. ‘Instead I should stay at home to look after…

My community of Santa Catarina Pinula in Guatemala City has been greatly affected by the spread of urban neighbourhoods. This growth has clearly…

One of Tearfund’s corporate priority areas is church and community transformation. This means churches that improve the holistic well-being of their…

In Brazil, children go to prison from the age of 12. Tragically, most of them are back in prison within a month of being released. After many years…

The church occupies a unique place in the humanitarian and development sector. At its best, it is able to bring a combination of benefits to…

When prisoners are released at the end of their sentence, starting a new life outside the prison gates can be incredibly challenging. Many…

In my garden at home we have a mulberry tree. It is about 25 feet high with multiple branches going into the ground, yet when it bears fruit we only…

I must admit, I was quite tired. That is after spending five hours on the road in a minibus from Nairobi to Kericho in Kenya. I then had a few…

There is a high incidence of burns in East Africa due to the need to cook on charcoal fires and use kerosene for lighting. Knowledge of first aid for…

In our last blog, we looked at the way Christians are transformed through their relationship with God to become more like Jesus. In this post, we’re…

In the last post, we looked at peacebuilding as an essential part of God’s mission and using scripture to help us participate in that mission. This…

All of Tearfund’s work is rooted in our Theology of Mission, in which we find our understanding of our call, as Christians to follow Jesus and…

Hannah Swithinbank introduces a new series of blogs around the theme of peacebuilding and reconciliation, and recommends eight books to help you…

Programme Effectiveness Training recently took place at the Tearfund Central American office, covering Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The idea…

Just having a good idea and motivation is no guarantee of success. Here are a seven of the most common reasons why businesses can fail:

Disasters affect nearly all aspects of life, but particularly livelihoods. Sometimes the damage done to people’s ability to earn an income is a…

Moeletsi Mbeki says in his excellent book, Architects of poverty: why African capitalism needs changing, that in a society where entrepreneurship is…

Everyone deserves the opportunity to earn a livelihood, provide for their family and support their communities. Jobs and economic opportunities are a…

Life for Regatu and her family in a village near the city of Adama, in Central Ethiopia, was once comfortable when her husband used to work in a…

What is advocacy? Advocacy is about influencing people and public policies to bring about change. It involves influencing those in power to act more…

After a screen was found and an old projector repaired, our partners in Uganda were delighted to share a short film with a packed Owii Church and…

Youth unemployment is a huge problem in Nigeria. Half of the country’s population is under the age of 30, and the public sector cannot absorb the…

A new report* has revealed the importance of faith for people displaced by conflict. It also shows how humanitarian organisations could build on…

When Betty invested her self-help group loan in a solar panel she did more than just connect her village to electricity — she connected them to each…

Would a football tournament organised by refugees and local youths in a high-tension zone in Lebanon achieve its goals of acceptance and forgiveness?…

In Afghanistan, women and girls often have few opportunities to work or develop a livelihood. Self-help groups bring together local women who meet on…

This is a personal story of how a Tearfund Nigeria team member, who took part in a recent Transforming Masculinities training course in Jos, Nigeria,…

I have a number of things to do in my job at Tearfund, but one activity that I particularly enjoy is spending time with my colleagues and our…

Religious or spiritual leaders are often the first people individuals turn to in times of personal crisis. They can bring wisdom, healing and…

Natural disasters are predicted to rise and cause more suffering in vulnerable communities, but that’s exactly where the church can help.

Patricia Conteh was a Projects Officer for Tearfund in Sierra Leone when the Ebola virus hit the country in 2014. Here, she shares her memories of…

Educational films can be a great way to inform local communities about risks from potential natural disasters and health care issues. They are…

There are some Christians who believe that seeking medical help shows a lack of faith in God. Some Christians wrongly think they should throw away…

My name is Mama Eve* and I live in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I live in an area where many women and babies often die at birth…

For most of her life Mrs Thembani Masilela hadn’t given much thought to chickens. As a woman who grew up in rural areas she was brought up to ensure…

Rio de Janeiro is South America’s third largest urban area but perhaps its most recognisable. The Christ the Redeemer statue that watches over the…

‘Christians are a disease’. It is hard to believe that this small group of believers in Nepal had such a bad reputation. Pastor Kancha Bahadur* and…

In rural areas, the main water sources are normally groundwater borewells or surface water, rivers and lakes. However, an often overlooked, easily…

Many people have difficulty remembering the schedule for childhood immunisation. This means that children often miss some or all of a series of…

Keeping mosquitoes out of your home is one of the most important ways of protecting your family from malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. Here…

Jeremiah 29:11 raises the question of whether people have a “hope and a future”. This is what God promises. This is also the crux of the review of…

As Tearfund embarks on an exciting vision to upscale its involvement in Church and Community Transformation, Sas Conradie reflects on a rocky start…

Keiron Forbes has earned the name ‘Chickenologist’ from travelling around the world helping people to start chicken projects, solving problems with…

Young footballers at Club Deportivo wear kits that say ‘Jesus is Lord’ on the back. Photo: Club Deportivo Young people and adolescents from…

Grace, a 28-year-old woman from Nimba county in north-central Liberia, was living in a very abusive relationship with a 30-year-old male from Gbahn.…

Tearfund’s approach to self-help groups (SHGs) – where women come together and save small amounts of money over time – places a consistent emphasis…

I met Bura last year, towards the end of September, in a small village called Ngiri, about eight hours drive from Bunia in Orientale province of the…

Do you ever get angry and then feel embarrassed? I do. I remember driving with four church and community transformation (CCT) facilitators through…

In our last post we explored how art can be used to create a safe place for anxious and traumatised children. In the second part of this mini-series…

Creating art and talking about it can help children heal from difficult experiences. Activities can include drawing, painting, modelling, collage and…

Children with disabilities are among the most at risk of being placed in orphanages. Many parents do not know how to cope with a disabled child, and…

God created us with a heart, eyes, ears, mouth, hands and feet. ZOE (Zimbabwe Orphans through Extended Hands) staff use these inspiring ideas below…

How would you feel if I told you that God hates Christmas? Or that he is annoyed by Advent, Lent and Easter? What if I told you that prayer meetings…

At Tearfund Learn, our favourite thing is to hear stories from Footsteps readers...

The ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’ Campaign runs from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against…

On World Toilet Day we want to celebrate the life of one remarkable woman who dared to believe that she could make a difference. When Anita Narre…

Lucie Woolley, Tearfund's Advocacy Learning and Research Officer The church effect Local churches are not about the buildings, but about the people…

In May 2016, Sandrine Umukunzi attended Uganda Gathering. The conference focused on how the church can respond to the challenges of gender-based…

By Eunice Aguti Otim In May 2016, Eunice Aguti attended Uganda Gathering. The conference focused on how the church can respond to the challenges of…

By Etotu Daniel In May 2016, Etotu Daniel attended Uganda Gathering. The conference focused on how the church can respond to the challenges of…

How long would it take you to get to hospital, and how would you get there? According to a 2014 report, the average distance from home to an Accident…

So right now, having read this title, you may be asking yourself two questions: 1) Was there life before the WHS? and 2) What on earth is the WHS?…

This is the second of a two-part series on Fernando and Nury, a couple working with children at risk in north-east Brazil. You can read the first…

This is the first of a two-part series on Fernando and Nury, a couple working with children at risk in north-east Brazil. Fernando is just good with…

Saturday 30 April is International Jazz Day 2016 – and we have a great video about jazz and Jesus to share with you. A key aspect of jazz is…

How can we challenge ‘Faith’ teaching? This is the final part of a five-part series by Hannah Swithinbank on how we can engage with prosperity…

Why is ‘Faith’ teaching appealing to people? This is the fourth of a five-part series by Hannah Swithinbank on how we can engage with prosperity…

What does it mean to be blessed by God? This is the third of a five-part series by Hannah Swithinbank on how we can engage with prosperity theology.…

What does ‘Faith’ theology say about suffering? This is the second of a five-part series by Hannah Swithinbank on how we can engage with prosperity…

What is ‘Faith’ theology? This is the first of a five-part series by Hannah Swithinbank on how we can engage with prosperity theology. I often get…

This is part 3 of David Westlake’s reflections on sustaining the Christian distinctiveness of Christian organisations. You can read part 2 here.…

This is part 2 of David Westlake’s reflections on sustaining the Christian distinctiveness of Christian organisations. You can read part 1 here.…

I have been thinking a lot recently about keeping Christ at the centre of our organisations. So many organisations find that they are ‘less…

The Eco-bishops are a group of Anglican bishops from around the world who are speaking out together about climate change. At Tearfund we had the…

'Let me tell you a story...' That little sentence holds such promise for me. Will I be intrigued, enriched or amused? Will my imagination be set…

Our guest writer Sheryl Haw, from the Micah Network, shares her perspective on the Sustainable Development Goals. On 25 September 2015, more than 200…

In my job I have the privilege of working with lots of wonderful people. Sometimes it feels as if everyone is working very hard under difficult…

In the USA, January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Let’s keep this huge area of global injustice in our minds as we…

In 1992, Reverend Canon Professor Gideon B. Byamugisha became the first African religious leader openly to declare his HIV-positive status. At…

This guest post first appeared on David Westlake’s blog in 2014. It is a timely reminder to us to consider our patterns of consumption during the…

Imagine a country where no one shakes hands, where there are no football matches or concerts, and where you must have your temperature taken and wash…

Thursday 10 December 2015 is Human Rights Day. This day marks the anniversary of the United Nations Assembly adopting the Universal Declaration of…

International Volunteer Day is on 5 December. We believe in the value of volunteering, whether as individuals, with our families or in church groups,…

Today, World AIDS Day, we celebrate the work of a Tearfund partner in Honduras. Norman Molina explores the way churches are radically changing their…

David Westlake wrote this post a few years ago. As we are in the middle of the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign, it is…

The community in which Igreja Batista Coqueiral (Coqueiral Baptist Church) is situated has a river running through it. Once, the river used to be…

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, a day focused on raising awareness of the fact that women around the…

Jesus never asked us to serve the poor. He asked us to do something far more radical: he commanded us to seek his kingdom. It is impossible to seek…

Where do you go to find inspiration? What helps you to break through when you feel like you are stuck? How do you discover new ideas to use in your…

I live and work in a community called Manenberg on the outskirts of Cape Town. Manenberg is quite well known – though usually for all the wrong…

As we host this blog, we want to make it as easy as possible for you to find material and resources that will be helpful to you. One of the ways that…

At Tearfund, we think carefully about the work we do and the way that we do it. In addition to our Quality Standards and commitments to various…

The book of James contains a challenging message:

On a visit to the UK about 18 months ago, a local pastor gave my wife and I the book Time to Think. While Rachel read and raved about it almost…

In 2013 I wrote about an encounter in Thailand with a sex worker while I was at a conference for pioneer missionaries. It went like this:

This is an amazing achievement. It still leaves 1.1 billion below the $1.25 per day definition of extreme poverty,* but it shows what can be done. It…

Human beings seem to love a plan. In fact, the more educated, rich and powerful human beings get, the more we love a plan. And we especially love a…