I gave one of our young interns (David Tan) at TEAR Fund the task of trying to define poverty as part of his journey of working out what good ‘development’ is – here is what David wrote. Feel free to share your thoughts on the topic with him -Frank The question “what is development?” cannot be answered without first asking “what is poverty?” After all, the purpose of development is to abolish poverty. Defining poverty [...]

The following article is written by David Tan, a year 12 student from Rangitoto College. As part of the College’s Gateway programme, David is getting some work experience at TEAR Fund. What the heck is “development”? It’s an important question. I wonder what happened to the $45 cheque I gave to TEAR Fund last month… it’s a lot of money for an unemployed seventeen-year old teen. I want lives to be transformed and dreams to [...]

I had a chance to chat with Aaron Ironside this morning on the Balanced Breakfast – the morning show on New Zealand’s Rhema. I have been asked to offer a reflection for the Insight slot on Wednesday mornings in the three weeks leading up to Christmas, so I have one to go next Wednesday morning. If you want to hear it, listen in at 7:40am. I thought I would take a chance here to expand [...]

New data out of the US shows that the gap between rich and poor has grown wider: the gaps in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest parts of the population in 2007 was the highest it’s been in 80 years, while the share of income going to the middle one-fifth of Americans shrank to its lowest level ever (source: Huffpo). This comes just after data from the [...]

Here’s an image from Reuters by Photographer/Journalist Damir Sagolj featured in the Guardian’s 24 Hours in Pictures display that they run each day. It speaks volumes. It’s often easy to glance past images without really taking them in and giving them a second thought. When we do so we miss the rich stories and reflections that they offer us. Take the time to consider this image and think about the following questions. Why do you [...]

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 Mazarkapadi Village. All of our team carried bottled water in our day packs. My dry thirst [...]

TEAR Fund Advocate Phil Ryburn describes his recent trip to India, particularly his time with Saahasee and Freeset.

Tear Fund’s Advocate Manager – Beth Harper – talks about the Insight Tour she recently led to visit our partners in India.

A member of the TEAR Fund International Programming Team talks about the situation in Kyrgyzstan and central Asia, plus his recent travels.

Sue Braithwaite, TEAR Fund’s Resource Development Advisor talks about her recent trip to India and her seminars for elderly supporters around Aotearoa.