Berta, Mozambique. Photo: Peter Caton/Tearfund
We’re passionate about our vision to work with and through a worldwide network of local churches – forming one global church – to end poverty. This is why we work to the highest possible standards, with integrity and transparency.
Below we outline some of Tearfund’s values around what we do, how we do it and why we do it.
Being professional. In everything we do.
As well as setting high standards for ourselves, we’ve signed up to a range of internationally recognised operating standards because they enshrine our principles of respecting the people we work with. At Tearfund we strongly believe development work should be answerable to the people it aims to help. Because of this, we’re a member of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP). We also believe in transparency, being open about the way we work. We demonstrate this publicly through the HAP 2007 Standard in Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management.
The standards we’ve signed up to stipulate that aid is given regardless of race, religion, nationality or gender, that it will never be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint. This is of vital importance to us, because God’s love is for everyone, and this is the kind of ‘development work’ the Bible describes.
Want to know more? Click here.
Being Christian
Tearfund is a Christian organisation. We’re passionate about living out God’s kingdom-values of love, hope and transformation. It’s what inspires and drives us.
We were born out of the Evangelical Alliance in 1968, and our biblical values are the foundation of everything we do.
You can read Tearfund's Statement of Faith here. This was created by a panel of leading theologians chaired by Christopher Wright, international director of the Langham Partnership, and including theology academic Professor Stephen Williams – and Dr Ida Glaser, an expert in Muslim-Christian relations.
Local church: love in action
Acting with justice and loving mercy are central to the purpose of the Christian church. As a group of followers of Jesus, the church is a powerful and transformational force, vital to freeing people from poverty regardless of race, religion, nationality or gender.
We facilitate, inspire and challenge local churches to help transform lives materially and spiritually. Our ten-year vision is to see 50 million people released from material and spiritual poverty through a worldwide network of 100,000 local churches.
The local church loving the whole person: integral mission
When Jesus connected with people, he changed their lives completely - spiritually, physically and emotionally. He knew that people were more than just their hunger, or more than just their despair. We always take our inspiration from the example of Jesus, and so our work focuses on the 'whole' person – working through churches to tackle both material and spiritual poverty.
We call this integral mission. Find out more here.