Tearfund Accredited Speakers
General Q&A on Tearfund
How much does Tearfund spend on admin costs?
How does Tearfund select partners/ how do they monitor partners?
Is Tearfund a signatory of the Red Cross code of Conduct?
How does Tearfund work with the DEC?
How is Tearfund’s income regulated?
Why don’t you work in Country X?
What’s the point in helping poor people? Jesus said the poor will always be with us.
Does Tearfund evangelise?
What is CCMP/ integral mission?
Do Tearfund only help Christians?
If they are poor, why do they have so many children?
How much does Tearfund spend on admin costs?
For every pound you give, approximately 91 pence goes to our emergency, development and humanitarian work, as well as other elements of our charitable work such as campaigning and advocacy. Approximately eight pence is spent raising funds (which compares well with similar organisations) and less than one penny in every pound on costs of governance.
For further details please go to the About Us section of our website http://www.tearfund.org where you can download our Annual Report and Annual Review. If you do not have internet access and would like hard copies of these documents please get back to us again.
How does Tearfund select partners/ how do they monitor partners?
With regard to how we choose who to give money to, Tearfund has chosen a portfolio of the poorest countries and we are focusing our attention on these. They have been selected according to internationally recognised indicators of poverty. Within each of these countries we outwork a country strategy with partner organisations designed to make the best use of Tearfund and our partner's resources in responding to poverty and vulnerability needs. For example, in India we have agreed with our partners that we will focus primarily on the poorer states of Bihar and Orissa. Likewise in Brazil we will be focusing on arid regions in the North and North East. Partners are selected according to criteria, which includes sharing Tearfund’s Christian ethos, mission and values.
Our partners submit project proposals that are consistent with the country strategies, and these are assessed by our Country Representatives, each of whom has country level responsibility. The Country Representatives will be looking for good project design and strategic fit The Country Representatives approve grants up to a certain limit with larger funding grants requiring more senior management approval.
We require a narrative and a financial report from our partners every year or 6 months according to the size of the grant made. Annual reports are required for grants under £50,000. The reporting will include progress against objectives, impact with the poor and numbers of beneficiaries assisted. At the end of each year we also require audited accounts. Projects supported are also regularly monitored by the Country Representatives including on site visits. Periodic external evaluations are also carried out, ideally about every three years.
Is Tearfund a signatory of the Red Cross code of Conduct?
We are signatures of the Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which states that aid will be given impartially and will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint. Tearfund have agreed to uphold a number of quality standards, for more information please see our website: http://www.tearfund.org/en/about_us/how_we_work/tearfund_quality_standards/
How does Tearfund work with the DEC?
When the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) launches a national appeal, each member agency commits to working together and to do all they can as individual agencies to maximise the fundraising effort for the joint Appeal. This is called the Period of Joint Action and usually lasts for 2 weeks but can be extended.
Member Agencies are also allowed to send out appeal correspondence to their own supporters during a DEC appeal informing them of the appeal and requesting donations which should always include a clear option to support the DEC Appeal or the specific member eg Tearfund.
That is why Tearfund also wants to give their supporters the option to support their own appeal. Tearfund receives 5.6% of income raised via the DEC with the rest being divided between the other agencies. Some supporters will be happy with that, whereas others would want their entire gift to be administered through the local church and our relief workers.
How is Tearfund’s income regulated?
We believe in being open and accountable to our supporters. We want you to know where and how we spend your money and we want you to know what we're about, what we believe, and what our professional and spiritual values are.
Our accounts are available on our website at: http://www.tearfund.org/en/about_us/finances . All our spending is regulated by the Charity Commission who regulate all of Britain's charities.
Why don’t you work in Country X?
[For an up to date list of where Tearfund is working, please visit http://www.tearfund.org/About+us/WhereWeWork.htm]
Tearfund has chosen a portfolio of the poorest countries and we are currently focusing our attention on these. We are not currently working in ….. We do have to make some very hard decisions as to how to use the limited financial resources which are entrusted to us and trust you understand that it is not possible for us to support every country.
What’s the point in helping poor people? Jesus said the poor will always be with us.
A careful reading of Jesus’ statement, ‘The poor you will always have with you’, shows that he was not being ‘neutral’ or indifferent to poverty. The key point he makes in response to his anointing is that, without even realising it, Mary had pointed to the unique significance of his death. None of the disciples had taken in what Jesus had told them a number of times already about his death. They just could not understand that it was through his death and resurrection that salvation was to come. His death was actually the pivotal moment in the history of the world. It was a once and for all event that would remove his physical presence from them. It was totally inappropriate at this unique moment to berate Mary for marking this, even if she did not fully understand what she was doing. There would never be another opportunity to mark with love the most momentous death that was ever to occur.
So, when Jesus, having defended Mary, says ‘The poor you will always have with you’ he is not saying that we will always have a choice of either lavishing our love on Jesus’ physical body or on poor people. In fact he is saying the exact opposite. The time was soon coming when his physical body would be no longer with them and they would be left with the poor only. What he is saying actually is, ‘My physical body will soon be gone and you will not be able to lavish your love on it, but the poor will always be with you and you can lavish your love on them whenever you like.’ Given what we know of Jesus’ teaching about the poor it makes so much more sense to understand the statement recorded by Mark in this way: ‘The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.’ [Mark 14:7]. Jesus has left us the poor as his legacy. We cannot lavish our love on his physical body any more but we can do what he wants us to do - lavish our love on the physical bodies of the poor. Obviously, if this is what Jesus wants of us then poverty is an offence to him.
That he wants us to do this is crystal clear from other parts of the gospels. A brief look at just a few of many passages will suffice to prove this point;
i). Matthew 6:1-2. Here Jesus assumes that his disciples, the people of the kingdom, will give to the needy. It is not a case of ‘if’ but ‘when’ you give to the needy. His concern is with ‘how’ we do it.
ii). Luke 4:18. The poor were very much in focus in the ministry of Jesus. He says that his bringing good news to them in particular was a proof that he was the Messiah. At the very least ‘good news’ to the poor must include an affirmation that their case for justice is sound if it is to be ‘good news’ at all. [Matthew 11;5; Luke 7:22].
iii).Luke 12:32-33. Jesus teaches that selling our possessions and giving the money to the poor is a sure sign that we belong to his kingdom.
iv). Matthew 19:16-29 [Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:18-30]: Jesus does not say to the rich young ruler, “Sell what you have and give me the money” but “Sell what you have and give the money to the poor”.
Mark14:7 should indeed give us pause for thought. Jesus expects us to use our wealth to bless the poor and in so doing fulfils Old Testament teaching. To quote Deuteronomy 15:11 in full: ‘There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be open-handed towards your poor brothers and towards the poor and needy in your land.’ This command makes no sense at all unless poverty is an offence to God.
Does Tearfund evangelise?
Tearfund is a professional relief and development aid agency and we give aid in disaster situations impartially, with no conditions attached. To do otherwise would certainly contravene the Red Cross Code of Conduct of which we, and most of the UK’s large aid agencies, are signatories. We are not involved in giving relief to the needy so that we can evangelise, but because it is our Christian calling to give relief. We certainly believe that coercive proselytism, and any conditionality of aid is always wrong. To imply that “I will give you this bread if you sign up to my religion” is not how Christ behaved when he stood with people who were marginalized and suffering.
Tearfund chooses to work with Christian partners in long term development because we believe that poor people are not just stomachs to be fed; they are social and spiritual beings too. Therefore we fully support our church partners around the world who seek to meet those spiritual and social needs in their communities, as one would expect churches everywhere to be doing.
An independent evaluation was recently carried out into how the Disasters Emergency Committee, of which Tearfund is a member, spent money given to the Southern Africa Food Crisis Appeal in 2002. In the evaluation report, one of Tearfund’s partners was singled out for praise for the pastoral care it provided for people living with HIV/AIDS who were particularly badly affected by the food crisis. The evaluation team noted, “pastoral care is indeed a fitting part of long-term support to the affected”.
This belief in the need for ‘holistic’ ministry by churches sees Tearfund in the UK exercising our calling to encourage churches to fulfill their responsibility to poor people through our funding of relief and development. We partner with churches whom we fully expect to be doing what churches do - praying, preaching and teaching in their local communities. However, we must stress again, we would not be happy for conditionality or favouritism or anything other than community-wide benefits to result from the development programmes we support.
What is CCMP/ integral mission?
Church and community mobilisation involves mobilising a local church to act as a facilitator in mobilising the whole community to address their own needs.
This approach is different from the ‘church mobilisation’ approach because once the local church is mobilised, it becomes a facilitator rather than the provider. The local church seeks to envision and empower community members to identify and respond to their own needs, rather than meeting those needs for them. The local church therefore workswithrather thanforthe community. The community is in control. The local church can provide ongoing support to the community, and the community may call upon Christian organisations for technical support where necessary.
The term Integral Mission originated in south America. Integral comes from the Spanish word ‘integrale’ which describes a type of whole wheat bread – bread with nothing taken out. We help people with material as well as spiritual needs, not just physical beings with stomachs to be fed. So we aim to meet their material and spiritual means through whole-life transformation.
Do Tearfund only help Christians?
With the exception of complex disaster situations, Tearfund does not own or manage any projects of our own, but we work through local partners who are well placed to identify those in the community, regardless of their belief, who are most in need. We are signatures of the Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which states that aid will be given impartially.
Why do poor people appear to have so many children/ does Tearfund promote family planning?
The responsible use of family planning within marriage is an important aid to being able to make effective decisions about the future. We recognise that some will prefer 'natural' methods while others will use modern contraceptives. Tearfund recognises that cultural attitudes to contraceptives differ widely across the world and affirms that the choice of method must be culturally appropriate. Family planning is best provided in the context of education about healthcare and also about those moral values which celebrate life and human relationships rather than destroying them. Wherever possible, educational materials should stress that sexual activity is a celebration of the faithful and permanent relationship between one man and one woman.