Tools for Change
Spring planting starts in just six weeks! Help provide urgently needed tools, training and high-quality seeds to farmers in East Africa to help them in the fight against hunger.
Helen, the pastor of Cyale Good News Church of Africa, has seen the power of change in her community. Her congregation lives just outside of Makindu, Kenya. The community is struggling. For four years they have had little rain. Crops have failed.
Many of the men have left the community to go to the city to find work. The women and children struggle to coax crops to grow on their small plots of land.
Helen saw the difference Church-Based Community Transformation made in villages nearby. And she wanted to participate.
They have just completed their first year and are already seeing a difference. The tools, seeds and training you provide is essential for the community to thrive.
Donate Today
Your gift provides urgently needed tools and training farmers need to fight hunger.
- $90 Kitchen Garden for 3 families
- $150 Fruit Trees
- $320 Train a pastor
- $1000 start a VSL Group
Church-Based Community Transformation
Broken relationships are at the root of poverty. Reconciliation with God, ourselves, each other and creation is the starting point of living a life of joy and hope. Tearfund is working within communities of desperate poverty, walking alongside them, helping them transform their desperate poverty into a healthy community that provides food, water, education and health care to all families.
We do this by:
Investing in Leaders
Starting with the leadership of the church, our teams help them walk through the process of envisioning change. The team maps out the assets they already have, the needs within the community and then creates a plan of action.
Helen’s community is just completing their first year of implementing their plan.
Planting Trees
Working together, the congregation planted 50 fruit trees to prevent erosion and provide food for the most vulnerable in its community.
Modelling Change
They have set up a model farm using conservation agricultural methods. Many farmers are hesitant to change their ways. They know what works and the new methods are a mystery to them. But as they see the generous harvest on the model farm, they are curious. Slowly the farmers begin to adjust their practices to conserve the soil and water.
Financial Accountability
They’ve also started a Village Savings and Loans Group. Using the credit union model, villagers start their own banking system. With low interest on lows and secure savings, the community begins to invest in themselves.
Acts of Compassion
Helen’s congregation prioritizes care for their community. The whole community struggles with poverty but some members live in complete despair. Like Jehosophat. Older and alone, he lives in a very small brick house. Too poor to maintain it, the walls literally crumbled in a recent rainstorm. The church raised them money to buy tin for the roof and make bricks to repair the damage. Jehosophat is not a member of the church and he is overwhelmed by the kindness the church has shown. This is God’s love in action.
