Tearfund

Tearfund is a UK Christian relief and development agency, working with a global network of local churches to help eradicate poverty, transform lives and bring justice.

It is a founder member of the [http://en.micahnetwork.org/ Micah Network] and a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee.

Tearfund adheres to [http://www.tearfund.org/About+us/Our+standards+and+commitments.htm internationally recognised standards] .

History

May 1959 - May 1960 was designated [http://www.unac.org/en/news_events/un_days/international_years.asp World Refugee Year] by the United Nations, highlighting the needs of an estimated 40 million refugees aorund the world. Christians in Britain sent in spontaneous gifts to the Evangelical Alliance (EA) requesting their donations be used to help refugees. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P18.Monarch Books]

The Evangelical Refugee Fund was set up to administer the gifts. Tearfund was born out of this fund, and had its first official committee meeting in May 1968. At that time it was called The Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund Committee. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P17.Monarch Books.] George Hoffman headed up the fund. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P21.Monarch Books] Hoffman was awarded the Order of the British Empire (or "OBE") for his stewardship of Tearfund in its early years.

The first grant made by Tearfund was £250 towards flood relief in Argentina in October 1968. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P46.Monarch Books] In January 1969 Sir Cliff Richard did two fundraising concerts for Tearfund at London's Royal Albert Hall. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P29.Monarch Books] Today [http://www.tearfund.org/About+us/Well-known+friends/Sir+Cliff+Richard.htm Sir Cliff] is Tearfund's Vice President.

Tearfund was registered as a charity on 6 March, 1973. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P21.Monarch Books] In 1986 the word Tear ceased to stand for The Evangelical Alliance Relief and since then Tearfund has been a name in its own right. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P19.Monarch Books.] [http://www.tearcraft.org/tearcraft/public/home.jsf?contentPage=0&contentTab=0 Tearcraft] is the fair trade business wing of Tearfund, supporting artisans from poor communities and selling the crafts through the Tearcraft catalogue. Tearcraft, along with [http://www.traidcraft.co.uk/ Traidcraft] has brought about awareness about international trade and justice issues amongst UK Christians.

Similar, but independent, organisations have been founded in other countries. Tear Fund in Belgium was established in 1979. This has since been renamed Tearfund. Other Tear Funds have been established in the Netherlands, New Zealand, France, Switzerland and Australia (see below).

Tearfund produces resources for use in churches and small groups, to enable people in the UK to engage with some of the issues facing poor communities around the world. This year their [http://www.tearfund.org/Churches/Harvest+-+Step+up+to+the+plate/ harvest pack] focusses on securing food in Burkina Faso.

[http://www.livinggifts.org.uk/ Living Gifts] is a new scheme where people buy vouchers as presents. The recipient then chooses which area of Tearfund's work they wish their voucher to go towards.

Partnership

In the early days Tearfund worked primarily through overseas missionary agencies. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P83.Monarch Books] Gradually Tearfund shifted to establishing partnerships with indigenous Christian groups, such as the development wings of churches. [ [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P92.Monarch Books] Tearfund wanted to move from the model of western giver and developing world receiver to one that recognised the equality on both sides of the relationship [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P97/98.Monarch Books] By 2006 Tearfund was working with 297 partners, many of them church-based groups, in a total of 565 projects. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P164.Monarch Books]

[http://tilz.tearfund.org/Publications/About+Footsteps.htm Footsteps] magazine was first published in 1986. Footsteps shares good practice, information and ideas with grassroots groups involved in development. Each issue now has a print run of 50,000 and it is produced in 7 languages. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P108.Monarch Books] Capacity building and sustainable development are important strategies for Tearfund. On [http://tilz.tearfund.org/ Tearfund's International Learning Zone] , there is more than 8000 pages of practical information that Tearfund has collected over the last 18 years, on topics as diverse as recycling household rubbish to responding to earthquakes.

Tearfund first sent staff overseas in 1972 when nurses were sent to flood-struck Bangladesh to work with the Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowship. The nurses spent from 6 months to two years working in hospitals, clinics and feeding camps. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P62.Monarch Books] Nowadays people can spend from two weeks to four months working with Tearfund partners as part of a [http://youth.tearfund.org/transform/ Transform] team.

Responding to and preparing for diaster

In 1988 Tearfund started running some of its own projects overseas. In 1994 Tearfund set up a Disaster Response Unit, now called the Disaster Management Team. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P65,66.Monarch Books] The first disaster responded to was the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. By 2006-2007, Tearfund had teams working in Burundi, the Democartic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Liberia, Darfur, Indonesia, Pakistan and Kenya, caring for people affected by conflicts and natural disasters. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P68.Monarch Books] As well as sending in operational teams, Tearfund funds local chruches and other Christian organisations around the world to carry out relief work. In 2006 - 2007 it provided £9 million to partner groups working in emergencies. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P73.Monarch Books] Tearfund also works to reduce the vulnerability of poor communities to disaster.

In 2001 Tearfund started lobbying the UK government to put more emphasis on its own emergency-aid policy on helping vulnerable communities to reduce the risk posed by disasters. In 2005 Tearfund published a report called "Learn the Lessons" calling for aid spending to move from 'bandaging wounds' to 'preventing injuries'. The government's Department for International Development incorporated this into its policy and lauched the policy at Tearfund's headquarters in March 2006. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P77.Monarch Books]

Tearfund responded immediately to the [http://www.tearfund.org/News/Asia/ tsunami] which struck south Asia on boxing day 2004, providing relief in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. Work continues and to date more than £27 million has been spent. Work has included the distribution of relief packs, trauma counselling, building houses and enabling people to start up small businesses.

Campaigning

Tearfund, like many other NGOs, gets involved in campaigning - particularly to change things that they see as being causes of poverty. In the 1990s Tearfund began researching various [http://www.tearfund.org/Campaigning/] issues, in order to explain the issues to Tearfund's supporters. In 1997 Global Action Network became Tearfund's first full-scale programme of equipping supporters to campaign on poverty issues from a Biblical basis. Its first action was to get behind the [http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/?lid=282 Jubilee 2000] campaign to cancel unpayable debt. [Mike Hollow.A future and a hope.2008.1st edition.P183.Monarch Books]

Tearfund was heavily involved in [http://www.tearfund.org/News/Press+release+archive/May+2005/2.5+million+call+on+Blair+to+Make+Poverty+History.htm Make Poverty History] in 2005, the biggest ever [http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/ anti-poverty movement] . Many Tearfund staff, volunteers and supporters took part in the [http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/2005/index.shtml march round Edinburgh] in July 2005.

Today campaigning supporters receive a regular magazine and action emails.

One of the major campaigning issues which Tearfund is tackling is that of [http://www.tearfund.org/Campaigning/Climate+change+and+disasters/ climate change] both encouraging people in the UK to lower their carbon emissions and calling on governments to help their people adapt to a changing climate. Reducing the spread of HIV and improving access to ARVs and other medication is another major Tearfund campaign. The 2008 campaign is called [http://www.tearfund.org/NR/exeres/1BAD0B1A-6EA1-4854-8462-FFD98DA538A4,frameless.htm?NRMODE=Published Alive] .

Tearfund wants to engage people in issues of justice from an early age and has a range of resources and services tailored to [http://youth.tearfund.org/ young people] .

Tearfund is a member organisation of several coalitions, including:
* The European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad).
* The Jubilee Debt Campaign
* The Make Poverty History campaign
* The Stop AIDS Campaign
* The Stop climate chaos campaign
* The Trade Justice Movement

TEAR Australia

The Australian Tear Fund was established in 1971. This has since been renamed TEAR Australia. In 1994, TEAR Australia was the first organization to launch a charity gift catalogue, called "Arguably, the World's Most Useful Gift Catalogue". The way in which the catalogue functions is that people are encouraged to apply funds that they would usually spend on birthday or Christmas gifts and the like, to items such as goats, wells, school supplies or small business loans for people in poor communities in developing countries. The gift-giver receives a card to give the recipient of the gift which states that the goat or well has been provided in their name.

TEAR Australia uses the acronym Transformation, Empowerment, Advocacy and Relief. The organization is heavily involved in developing educational materials designed to help Australian Christians respond to the needs of the world's poor. It is a member of the Micah Network, an international alliance of Christian relief and development non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

TEAR Fund New Zealand

See Tear Fund NZ

References

External links

In various countries

* [http://www.tearfund.org Tearfund (UK)]
* [http://www.tearfund.ie Tearfund Ireland]
* [http://www.tear.org.au TEAR Australia]
* [http://www.tearfund.be/ Tearfund in Belgium]
* [http://www.tearfund.nl/ TEAR Fund in the Netherlands]
* [http://www.tearfund.org.nz TEAR Fund New Zealand]

About Tearfund

* [http://www.tearfund.org/About+us/Mission+beliefs+and+values.htm Tearfund's Mission, Beliefs and Values]
* [http://www.tearcraft.org Tearcraft online shop]