Tearfund is one of the UK's leading relief and development charities. They are addressing a wide range of issues including HIV; water and sanitation; reducing the impact of disasters; economic injustice and climate change. Tearfund works in more than 60 countries and are committed to offering hope, providing a meaningful future and speaking out against injustice. Tearfund's ten-year vision is to see 50 million people released from material and spiritual poverty through a worldwide network of 100,000 local churches.

Defeating Disease
Tearfund combats the causes and symptoms of diseases that keep millions in poverty and result in the death of one child every three seconds. Working with local church partners, we focus particularly in the areas of HIV, malaria and water-borne diseases, like tuberculosis – the world's biggest killers.

The Alive Campaign: Current estimates suggest nearly 33 million people are living with HIV, a disease that devastates communities across the globe. The pandemic is deepening poverty in entire communities, with children usually hit hardest. The church has a key role to play, providing services to affected communities and influencing government decisions. By 2016, Tearfund aim to stop and reverse the impact of HIV where they work by supporting those affected, promoting access to health care and treatment, and tackling the stigma often associated with the disease.

Make Life Flow campaign: Nearly 10 million children under the age of five die each year, mostly from preventable illnesses such as those linked to diarrhoea and malaria. Together, unclean water and poor sanitation are the world's biggest killers of children. Providing safe sanitation could prevent 2.4 million deaths – that's a quarter of all child deaths in the developing world each year. As part of Tearfund's vision, we aim by 2015 to see 6 million people receive hygiene education, 3 million gain access to safe water and a decent toilet – and 2.5 billion benefit from better global policies. We want people to have water supply within 500 metres and sanitation within 50 metres of their home. Tearfund are calling on individuals, the church and governments to transform lives by making these simple basic necessities freely available for all.

Tackling Disaster
Local churches are often at the heart of the response to a disaster: their buildings used as emergency shelters or feeding centres, their people reaching out with generosity to friends and neighbours who've lost everything. That's why Tearfund invests in churches in vulnerable areas so that they are better equipped to cope when disaster strikes.
Tearfund's partners train church staff and make sure systems are in place to get access to essential equipment that will help people survive.

Sometimes, a situation calls for immediate aid, and when disaster strikes, Tearfund's partners respond. Areas like Myanmar, where Tearfund's church-linked partners are helping rebuild homes and offering spiritual and practical support to some of the 800,000 people left homeless by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. Tearfund are also currently working in Pakistan where hundreds of thousands of people have been devastated by the worst floods in the country's history. The death toll already stands at 1,600, with 20 million
people affected. Through its partners, Tearfund is responding - distributing emergency supplies to affected families. Tens of thousands of people are injured and homeless and floods are an ideal breeding ground for water-borne diseases such as cholera.

Tearfund makes sure they don't just tackle the fallout of disasters. They work on the bigger picture as well. That's why as well as responding when disaster strikes, Tearfund also help churches hold governments to account; to agree policies and fund activities that reduce the impact of disasters and save lives.

Economic justice and Fair Trade
Tearfund also recognise that hand-outs aren't always the answer; they provide crucial relief, but they have a short shelf-life. Hand-outs can put food in mouths and shelter over heads, but we also need to tackle poverty's underlying causes. So Tearfund are empowering poor communities long-term, by campaigning for trade justice which is key to releasing billions of people from poverty. Tearfund work at regional, national and international level, focusing particularly on the areas of governance, corruption, empowerment, trade justice and fair trade.

International trade is big business, but many products we buy in the UK have been produced overseas by people working for unfairly low wages, often in sub-standard conditions. Tearfund are making a practical difference by modelling how trade should be done. Tearfund trades under the name of Created (formally Tearcraft), which imports and sells craft goods made in developing countries by handicraft workers. Created provides jobs and a fair salary for craft-workers from some of the world's poorest communities, helping International trade is big business, but many products we buy in the UK have been produced overseas by people working for unfairly low wages, often in sub-standard conditions. Tearfund are making a practical difference by modelling how trade should be done. Tearfund trades under the name of Created (formally Tearcraft), which imports and sells craft goods made in developing countries by handicraft workers. Created provides jobs and a fair salary for craft-workers from some of the world's poorest communities, helping them create and market products of the highest standard. Created works with 19 producers in ten countries, including Bangladesh, Thailand and Peru. There will be some Created catalogues in the vestibule, please feel free to take one and place your order with Valerie Brown who is our Created Rep.

If you wish to know more about Tearfund and its work check out the notice board between the halls, or feel free to speak to me at any time.

Denise Smylie
Tearfund Church Rep