By Carl Worthington In March this year I had the privilege of visiting villages in Paratawada, India. Each of these remote rural communities are served in different capacities through TEAR Fund NZ and their partner EFICOR. A large part of their vision is to provide water to the impoverished local people through water harvesting techniques. It was very hot the day we visited the [...]

It’s somewhat unsettling to be reminded that the luxury’s we enjoy every day are often the result of appalling working conditions.  The latest reminder of this is Apple’s problems with its factory’s in China.  There are allegations, as reported by The Independent, that the working conditions in Chinese factory’s that make Apple products are far below the standard set by [...]

TEAR Fund’s Easter Focus for 2010 has been empowering women in the slums of India, specifically focusing on the work of our partner, Saahasee in the Bhiwandi area on the outskirts of Mumbai. Recently a group of our advocates had an opportunity to visit that project. One of the them was Carl. This is Carl’s reflection on that visit. It [...]

Kibera was my first experience of urban slums and sparked a personal interest in the development of slums and the contribution the model of slum living is making to some progressive modern city planners who are thinking about how cities should be built for the future. It is estimated that 1 billion people live in slums worldwide and it is [...]

TEAR Fund NZ’s senior Programme Officer is currently in the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. He is there serving our partner, Tearfund UK, and will be acting as the Director of their Disaster Response Team as they go about establishing their work in the area over the next few months. Ian has kindly agreed to share his experience through regular blog [...]

With the major rescue efforts being called off in Haiti and those resources being diverted to the continuing provision of emergency relief and care, alongside efforts to stabilise the country another pressing problem is becoming of increasing concern, child trafficking. Child trafficking in Haiti was already a problem with several NGO’s noting a sharp increase in the number of children [...]

It’s time to enter the discussion about Pat Robertson’s comments relating to Haiti. The comment from the infamous televangelist that has caused much furor in the media and around the internet can be viewed over on Youtube. In the clip, Pat Robertson makes a connection between Haiti’s poverty and suffering and a “pact with the devil” that was supposed to have [...]

While in India, I had the opportunity to talk to a few young people living in poverty who have New Zealand sponsors. I asked one young guy (11 years old) what he would wish for if he could have one wish and know without a doubt that it would come true. The circumstances that young man lives in could only [...]

The following is a slideshow of images I captured during my time in India. It’s by no means all of them, but represents a good portion of the pictures I captured of children. Note: Give yourself a pat on the back if you can guess the song line I have mimicked in the heading of this post. Does anyone want [...]

Her Eyes, originally uploaded by made2serve. Yesterday I got back from India. I was there with one of our International Programme Officers, Jared, to look at the work of ASHA in Delhi and Saahasee in Mumbai. Both of these organisations are partners of TEAR Fund NZ. If you help support our work, then you also help support theirs. After seeing [...]

Frank catches up with Jared, one of our Programme Officers, about his recent trip to Nepal to examine the work we support there.

Here’s a travel blog on my recent trip to Niue. My wife and I were only there for a one week holiday, so don’t expect anything profound, inspiring or well informed. If you’re familiar with my articles you wouldn’t be expecting that anyway.

The following video is of Hans Rosling making a TED presentation demonstrating through various data tools, how countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. It is extremely interesting.

Lawyer Jonny Moses talks about his work for the UN in Tanzania, prosecuting suspects from the Rwandan genocide.

I was intrigued by this map that was sent to me recently clearly showing the distribution of the worlds wealth and population. The fact that 14% of the worlds population enjoy 73% of the wealth while the remaining 86% are left with only 27% of the goodies was no surprise. The fact that when it comes to the 50 cities [...]

They don’t wear eye-patches or peg legs and you won’t find any parrots perched on their shoulders, but they are no less pirates for that. Twenty-first century piracy Somali style is a far cry from the swashbuckling, sea dogs of old but, in recent months, they have captured both the headlines and the public’s imagination. Their high seas hijackings have [...]