News : Prayer
Tragedy strikes Peah’s family – 1 Jul 2011
Tragedy has struck the family of Peah, the young boy featured in Tearfund Ireland’s autumn 2008 film (view film here). Over the past few year’s Peah life has been transformed after being fostered into this loving family. Now he has lost his foster father.
In the frantic traffic of Phnom Penh, Cambodia his foster father came off his motorbike on his way to collect Peah from school. He suffered what appeared to be minor injuries and got back on his bike and went home. Later that evening he started vomiting blood. His family rushed him to hospital but tragically he died in the hospital four hours later.
Peah and all his family are in a state of shock and grieving his loss. Tearfund and our local partner Little Conquerors are also sad at the loss of this wonderful man. We will continue to support this family Please pray for the family during this difficult time.
Rescued from the streets
Peah was abandoned on the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia when he was only 6 years old. Fortunately Chendai, who works with Tearfund’s partner Little Conquerors found him. We were were able to place him with a loving foster family who raised him as their own son. Little Conqueror’s supports foster families by providing social work assistance, helping to pay school fees and helping the parents establish small business to sustain themselves.
Give to our Forgotten Children Fund today
- €22 per month can support two children in foster families
- €86 can pay for school fees and books for four families for one year
- €125 can pay for a social worker who places children in a foster family
Download a Standing Order Form to give regularly
Give online here
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Churches unite to pray for Zimbabwe - 25 May – 20 May 2011
Peace, reconciliation, healing and revival will be the focuses of the National Day of Prayer on Wednesday 25 May. The day is also a public holiday to mark Africa Day, the day in May 1963 when the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union, was formed.
The prayer event will involve the country’s three major umbrella church bodies: the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference. Tearfund is also supporting the venture, which desires to see reconciliation between people of various ethnic, religious, political and social outlooks.
Denouncing violence
The day seeks the restoration of social justice, physical health, spiritual wellbeing and economic recovery of Zimbabwe’s people. There’ll also be prayers for the revival of the church and transformation of the nation through a commitment to God, to each other and to the nation for economic, agricultural and industrial revival.
Church leaders will use the prayer gathering to make a public declaration denouncing any form of violence, victimisation, hate speeches, or polarisation of any kind. A spokesman for the Christian Fellowship of Zimbabwe, said, ‘Zimbabwe is going through a period of trials and tribulations. We are convinced that Zimbabwe shall never be the same again but this can only be so when people join hands and pray for their nation.’
Join in prayer with Zimbabweans
Join our prayer group on Thurs 26th May, 6 – 7.30 pm at the Tearfund Office on O’Connell Street. If you are interested contact us 01 878 3200 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Learn more of Tearfund’s work in Zimbabwe here and give today
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Setting the captive free – Karishma’s story – 11 Apr 2011
It’s estimated that 575,000 children are trapped in sex trafficking in India. Tearfund’s local partner Freedom Firm is battling to stamp our sex trafficking. While the laws in India against sex trafficking are strong they are rarely applied. Freedom Firm investigates brothels suspected of soliciting minor girls, works with the police to raid these brothels, prosecutes the brothel keepers and helps to restore the girls. The work is dangerous and often disheartening but they are seeing successes. Without the intervention of Tearfund’s local partner Freedom Firm, Karishma would still be in captivity.
Help us bring freedom. Give today
Karishma, a young girl age thirteen was discovered in a brothel by a Freedom Firm undercover investigator. She was ‘for sale’ for 70 rupees (€1.20).
Freedom Firm reported it to the police and requested that they intervene. But when they raided the brothel Karishma had been moved. She was no-where to be found. Freedom Firm investigators searched for her over the next five months with no success. Then a local informant gave a tip off that she had been taken to the Sadar Bazaar, a red-light district in the city of Kolhapur. However it’s a massive slum with thousands of people. It seemed she might never be found.
Then the miracle happened. After days of searching, equipped with only scant information and an old photograph of Karishma, an informant was found who recognized her from the photo. The investigators were led to a brothel on the edge of town. The building was raided and Karishma was found, traumatized but alive.
That was over four years ago.
The brothel keeper was arrested but after a long trial was unjustly acquitted despite the overwhelming evidence. It has been discouraging for the team but an appeal has been made. It is hoped that the brothel keeper may still be convicted but bringing justice requires perseverance.
Karishma now lives at a Freedom Firm aftercare home. The scars of her past are deep and recovery from her awful experience takes time. With six other rescued girls she is experiencing emotional healing through counselling and prayer. She is learning to look after herself and receiving a basic education and skills training to set up her own small craft business. Finally she is experiencing the goodness of life.
She is free at last.
Will you help us to bring freedom? Only €22 per month can pay for an undercover investigator to raid a brothel & set a girl free.
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Haiti: One Year On – 3 Jan 2011
It’s one year since a massive earthquake devastated the Caribbean island of Haiti on 12 January, 2010. Tearfund’s partners and Disaster Management Team continue to work tirelessly to bring hope and rebuild lives.
Thanks to the incredible generosity of supporters across Ireland more than €160,000 was raised. With these funds, Tearfund provided thousands of emergency kits to families with plastic tarpaulin for shelter, plus food, cooking utensils and hygiene kits. And we’ve put in place long-term programmes to help people rebuild their lives – working alongside local churches and partner organisations to rebuild schools and homes, provide small grants for businesses to be re-established, and provide trauma counselling and spiritual support to people at a very low ebb.
To mark the one-year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti we have created a short film and prayers to use in church service or community group.
Download resources here Haiti Anniversary Powerpoint
Murielle is still grieving. She lost her husband in the earthquake. Tearfund partner Aclam provided emergency shelter and food to Murielle, and they also gave her a €80 grant so she could set up a small business. She sells cosmetics and other small household items in the front porch of her home. The profit she makes means she can still send her children to school. But she is finding a way through her pain – and that is because Tearfund is there for her. She has a lifeline in the form of Aclam’s church volunteer François – who drops in on her at least twice a week, to chat with her, and encourage her in her faith.
In addition to counselling and business grants and all the other ways in which Tearfund’s five partner organisations are reaching out to families, Tearfund has sent in a relief team of trained and experienced specialists. An Irish team will be visiting Haiti in November 2011 to provide training to local health professionals. If you are a health professional and are interested in joining us then learn more here.
Tearfund are also building 500 new homes across a hillside area that suffered 90% destruction in the earthquake. The new homes have strong foundations, and are built to withstand future disasters such as another earthquake or a hurricane. So this is part of Tearfund’s policy to protect disaster-prone areas by building back better.
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World AIDS Day: Church in China – 1 Dec 2010
World AIDS Day: December 1st
More than two million souls live in the Chinese city of Baoshan which lies in the province of Yunnan near to the border with Myanmar (Burma). This proximity inevitably brings a movement of people between the two countries. The nearness of the infamous Golden Triangle also means a flourishing drugs trade.
Because drugs can be bought easily and cheaply, there’s a human cost in terms of addicts and the transmission of HIV. Latest statistics show there are more than 2,000 people living with HIV in Baoshan.
Through the work of Tearfund partner Cedar Fund, the local church is addressing these issues. A network of churches is working with local government health and social services to transform the lives of people affected by HIV.
Cedar Fund is training pastors in HIV prevention and drug awareness, while also helping them to understand that the church has a role to meet the physical needs of people as well as spiritual ones.
Rehab
Pastor Xu Chenyun took part in our partner’s training. He said, ‘I started to see the role of the church and that we shouldn’t only focus on what’s happening inside the church itself.
‘Instead we should have knowledge of what’s happening in society and meet the needs with the power of our Lord.’
Pastor Xu has shared his learning, and with church colleagues has built a team to work on HIV prevention and raising awareness. Visiting a drug rehab centre inspired him to get involved in setting one up himself and he now divides his time between it and the church. He’s one of a new generation of church leaders being equipped to meet the pressing social needs of the urban poor and to be a tangible sign of hope where all too often there is none.
- Give thanks for the work of the local church in Yunnan as it meets the needs of people living with HIV and drug addicts.
- Pray that more of the city’s 40 churches develop a wider community awareness and become involved in ministering to the physical and spiritual needs of the people around them.
- Pray for those affected by drug usage and that greater awareness leads to fewer lives lost to addiction.
Pakistan floods update - three months on – 22 Oct 2010
It’s nearly three months since the worst flooding in living memory struck Pakistan, killing 1,700 people and affecting 20 million others. As the waters slowly recede, we report on Tearfund’s progress to help survivors recover.
Janat’s story
Janat recently returned to her village which the flood waters forced her to flee. It was a grim homecoming. Her home was destroyed, her crops obliterated and her life was effectively ruined by the raging river Indus which left the community under four feet of water. Along with others from this Sindh province village, the 55-year-old labourer fled to the relative safety of a raised embankment to stay in a government school.Back in her village of Mohammad Khan Joyo, Janat is relying on Tearfund partner SSEWA-Pak. Staff provided the plastic sheeting under which she sleeps. They also gave her food, cooking utensils, cutlery, plates and hygiene kits. It will take many more months until her house is rebuilt.
Mosquito threat
Bashira is a widow who has a three-year-old son in need of ongoing medical support. Since the floods, she has suffered food shortages but that’s eased thanks to supplies from our partner. Mosquito nets are also proving valuable to Bashira and her son.
The floods in Mohammad Khan Joyo did not discriminate between rich and poor. Akhtar Ali, 30, used to farm two acres of cotton, sugar cane and rice but all were destroyed by the floods. His five-room house was taken too and all possessions were lost as Akhtar’s family had no time to save anything during the desperate 4am rush to safety. He too has been assisted by SSEWA-Pak.
Basic essentials from SSEWA-Pak represent the only outside help Janat, Bashira, Akhtar and their fellow villagers have received. No aid has been forthcoming from the Pakistani government.
Rob Schofield, Tearfund’s acting Disaster Management Director, who met villagers being helped, said; ‘People were very happy to receive the goods from SSEWA-Pak but it’s clear that they face long term challenges to restore their lives.’
Vulnerable
With many people losing their homes and now sleeping out in the open, there is a widespread sense of vulnerability. Large parts of the Sindh country side are still flooded. There are other problems too. Handpumps to access water no longer work and the road into the community is still cut-off by the water.
SSEWA-Pak, which has provided emergency aid to more than 25,000 people from the north to south of Pakistan, will be helping communities like this get back on their feet but this will take time due to the widespread damage to lives and livelihoods. Other partners, such as the Adult Basic Education Society (ABES) are also assisting the post-flood recovery effort.
Trauma help
ABES has set up transition centres in six Punjab villages offering free check-ups, medicines, nutritional supplements, psycho-social support and ways of purifying water.
Staff are working with children, teaching them about hygiene, and offering play and other learning activities to those who have been left traumatised by the flooding. The Association of Humanitarian Development (AHD) has also distributed 2,000 kits of food, cooking goods, shelter materials and hygiene kits in Thatta district of Sindh.
Another partner, the Diocese of Hyderabad, is distributing food to flood affected people in their target villages and also repairing school buildings that were damaged due to flooding.
You can continue to support the ongoing rehabiliation and recovery work in Pakistan by donating here.
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Pakistan, Emergencies -
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