Tearfund CEO, Bec Oates, reflects on her recent visit with our partners in India, where she saw marginalised communities enjoying restored dignity, hope, and opportunity.
On a recent trip to visit Tearfund’s partners in India, I visited communities that face extreme poverty and discrimination. People who are entirely excluded from society. People who are referred to as untouchable.
Imagine believing that you are untouchable.
When you grow up with an understanding that you are less than human, that you don’t have value, you believe it is true. It’s devastating and an affront to God.
It is an evil of poverty that leaves people with no sense of self.
It leaves people believing that they are not worthy of relationship with others, that they have nothing, that they are nothing. It leaves people believing that they are not even worth the water to wash their body.
And it is in this context that God is powerfully at work.
The work that is happening in these communities with Tearfund’s local Christian partner has meant that many people have come to understand that they have deep value, that they have a voice, that they belong and can contribute to society – that they are made in the image of God.
They are rising from poverty and lifting the heavy blanket of lies that has covered them.
This is how the Good News changes lives.
And what good news it is, at a time when the headlines rarely offer hope. At a time when the world feels increasingly, overwhelmingly uncertain: rising hunger, worsening disasters, deepening injustice.
Beyond the small but mighty glimpses I saw on my trip to India, at Tearfund we are seeing time and time again how this good news, lived out in practical ways, brings real and long-lasting transformation. Our local partners are on the ground, alongside communities, equipping families with tools, training and support to rise out of poverty and oppression. Where once there was despair, now there is dignity. Where systems failed, communities now flourish.
And yet—the need is growing. Shrinking aid budgets and compounding global crises have created a widening gap. It’s a gap that you and I, as followers of Jesus, can fill with a bold, persistent love.
If we need any hints as to what that love looks like, 1 John 3:16 reminds us:
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
God’s love for us is not passive—it moves, it acts, it sacrifices. And as his people, we are called to reflect that same love. Not only in word, but in courageous action. Even when no one else will. Especially when no one else will.
Before the end of the financial year, we’re aiming to raise $2.9 million to ensure our partners can continue meeting urgent needs, responding to emergencies, and building long-term solutions.
And we need your help.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more about how you can help to ignite change where it’s needed most, through our End of Financial Year appeal.
At a time when the world urges you to consume more, you have an opportunity to give more. To turn outward. To let your everyday choices—what you buy, what you support, what you pray for—become acts of justice, hope and restoration.
We can be the generation to change the story.
To end poverty. To challenge inequality. To restore creation.
To believe that even just one life changed is worth it.
The call for Christians to respond is more urgent than ever. While millions continue to live in the daily grip of hunger, or under the false label of untouchability, or be held back from life-giving resources like water or medical care, we can’t just sit back and watch. We must act.
Because if we won’t —who will?
Change starts here. Now. With you. With us.
Will you join me in being a reflection of God’s love to a hurting world?
Join Restorers, our monthly giving community, and be part of a network of passionate Christians dedicated to renewal, transformation and the restoration of hope in hard places across the globe.
Related projects have received support from the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
