Tearfund

Tearfund is a Christian charity determined to see an end to extreme poverty and injustice. Poverty destroys lives and is not God's plan for the world, but you can help change this. God calls us to love one another and wants us as churches and individuals to play our part in building his kingdom on earth.

From poverty to fullness of life

Our vision is to see people freed from poverty, living transformed lives and fulfilling their God-given potential. We believe 'life in all its fullness' is not just a distant dream but an achievable reality for every person around the world experiencing the overwhelming effects of extreme poverty.

By 2030, we want to see 250,000 churches around the world empowering their communities to lift themselves out of poverty. They'll do this by:

• breaking the cycle of poverty and hunger
• restoring broken relationships
• championing sustainable local businesses
• supporting people to challenge unjust systems, laws and attitudes

Local church, centre of change

We partner with local churches and organisations that have a crucial role to play in the places worst affected by poverty following Jesus where the need is the greatest. We inspire and equip churches and individuals to transform their communities, respond to disasters and influence people in power to lead us fairly. We call this approach 'Transforming Communities'.

We work through the local church in the world's poorest countries because they know their communities best. The local church is best placed to recognise challenges and release people's God-given potential to overcome them.

Transforming Communities is not about giving short-term aid. We train local churches to identify the resources they already have so that they can develop lasting solutions to the problem of poverty. This approach supports communities to rewrite their own stories and build a future filled with hope and opportunity.

Our impact

Over the past year, our local partners have:

• reached 1.6 million people through our emergency response
• reached 1.3 million people through our community development work
• mobilised 23,300 local churches

Rheka's story

Caption: Rheka and Shushanto in Bangladesh received training and finance support from Tearfund's Transforming Communities programme. Credit: Amit Rudro/Tearfund.

In Bangladesh, people like Rheka struggle to earn enough income to provide for their families. But thanks to Bible-based training and financial support from Tearfund, Rheka and her husband have been able to afford to pay for their children's studies by supplying water to homes, shops and factories.

'I think I would not be able to meet the family's food and clothing without this help and I would not be able to educate my son,' says Rheka. 'Now [our business] is helping to feed our family and to educate our children.'

Join us

Poverty destroys lives. This is not Gods plan for the world and you can help change this. You can play your part by giving, acting and praying to help release people from extreme poverty.