While it has been a challenging and difficult year, at Tearfund Australia we are looking back with so much thankfulness for how God has continued to provide for and encourage us and our partners.
Please continue to pray for all of our partners, who still face many immediate and long-term challenges related to COVID-19.
There are a large number of COVID-19 cases in Ethiopia that are continuing to rise, but many of the related restrictions are easing. On top of this, the conflict in Tigray, on the border of Sudan, is continuing to escalate and having an impact on the rest of the country.
Tearfund Australia’s partner Ellita – Women at Risk (E-WAR) seeks to enable women involved in prostitution to exit the work through rehabilitation and livelihoods training.
They shared this prayer with us:
🙏🏽 “Ethiopia needs lots of prayers and sometimes it is very hard to comprehend all what's happening here. The conflict in Tigray is still going on and we would really like to encourage the entire Tearfund team to continue praying for Ethiopia.”
This request comes during a time of great tension in Ethiopia in which the federal government has declared a state of emergency in Tigray Regional State and there is growing conflict between government and Tigrayan armed forces. Please pray for peace.
One of Tearfund Australia’s partners in Ethiopia is a group of three local NGOs supported by Tearfund Ireland. They have started a self-help group (SHG) movement which has been able to share good information about COVID, as well as helping with resilience during COVID.
People are struggling a lot more at the moment - many loans from the groups are for immediate needs like food, instead of for business needs, and people who don’t have access to groups are using expensive money lenders to buy food. There are food shortages due to supply chain issues, and many people have had to close their micro businesses that they depended on for their livelihoods.
🙏🏽 Pray for the COVID situation in Ethiopia, that the number of cases can start to decrease. Pray for the safety, health and protection of our partners and the communities they are serving. Give thanks for the work of our partners and that they are able to provide support for people struggling on the margins.
During the lockdown in Zimbabwe, smaller groups have been meeting with social distancing and a greater focus on hand washing.
Our partner Nzeve has found that the young hearing-impaired people they work with have been able to continue to lead small groups even when staff couldn’t get out to see them. This has been very encouraging!
🙏🏽 Give thanks for the incredible Nzeve staff. Also praise God for the amazing young people who have been able to still lead small groups and keep connections going.
Our partner HEFO has been resilient in meeting the new challenges of the COVID environment and adapting their activities to meet the needs of their community. They have been able to help communities understand about COVID and how to prevent it, and are now working with schools to help with sanitation and hygiene.
🙏🏽 Give thanks for HEFO’s work and their flexibility and resilience. Pray for staff who have been working hard to adapt this year. Give thanks for the good work they have been able to do in a challenging environment.
Tearfund's partners in Nepal have all been impacted by COVID with staff members, board members and many community members having contracted the disease.
The economic impact of both internal lockdowns and global travel restrictions have been considerable. Borders with India that were closed are now open again enabling families reliant on seasonal migration for work to begin to travel again, but now with even greater risks. Children’s education has been heavily disrupted with schools closed for around seven months of this year. Schools not yet fully reopened.
🙏🏽 Our partner WACT has requested prayer for the following areas:
🙏🏽 Our partner PNL has asked us to pray for the health and safety of their team during field visits, and the health of their Self-Help group members, child club and adolescents involved in the project.
There have been a relaxation of restrictions in Zambia, although case numbers continue to rise slowly.
Our partner ROCS has been working to make sure people have good information about COVID and how to prevent it, and they have found that people are now a lot more interested in hand-washing! They have a major water and sanitation focus in their project, so have been well equipped to do this important work.
Schools have been out for about six months now in Zambia. In the rural areas, there are many children that have not returned to school and in the province where ROCS does a lot of work there are about 1800 school girls who have not returned due to pregnancy. ROCS is working with a number of local government and civil society partners to seek to address the issues relating to getting children back to school and also the issue of sexual abuse in the community.
🙏🏽 Pray that COVID cases continue to be contained in Zambia. Pray also for the situation relating to children not returning to school, especially girls, and the reasons behind these different situations. Give thanks for ROCS staff who are so dedicated to their community and who want all to experience fullness of life.
🙏🏽 Our partner in Afghanistan has asked us to pray for:
Our partner Moorditj Keila is an Aboriginal Community Organisation based in Perth. Tearfund supports a driver education program run by Moorditj Keila and supported them during the peak of COVID-19.
🙏🏽 Thank God for the support Moorditj Keila is able to offer to its community.
Pray for the community and that they are able to continue to support each other.
Tearfund Australia has partnered with Hope for Health for nearly 20 years. Hope for Health is based on Elcho Island (Galiwin'ku) and aims to reawaken Yolngu vitality with a traditionally grounded health program.
🙏🏽 Pray for the health of people on Elcho Island (Galiwin'ku) and for Hope for Health as they run the health retreats and regular preventative health clinics.
Pray for people to be helping each other, strong and healthy and united.
Pray that people on Elcho will be able to live life to the full both physically and spiritually.
Our partner Strong Women Talking in Queensland has delivered care packages throughout COVID for vulnerable women who are part of their program. Now they are also collecting donations of beauty or hygiene products to gift to the women in the lead up to Christmas.
🙏🏽 Please give thanks for the care and dedication shown by Sono and her team at Strong Women Talking. Pray for the women in their program who have faced many challenges.
