21 Facts About Tearfund

Tearfund is an international Christian relief and development agency based in Teddington, UK.

In 1972, Tearfund worked overseas for the first time – as opposed to funding projects run by existing agencies – working in hospitals, clinics, and feeding camps of Bangladesh alongside the charity Interserve.

John Stott was the first International President of Tearfund and was succeeded in 1997 by joint Presidents Rene Padilla and Elaine Storkey.

In 1994, Tearfund set up the Disaster Response Unit, later re-named the Disaster Management Team.

Under Executive Director, Doug Balfour, Tearfund became a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group, comprising 13 charities, including Oxfam and Christian Aid.

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Tearfund began an early child sponsorship programme, 'Family Plan' in 1974 – later renaming it 'Partners in Childcare'.

Tearfund later changed its emphasis from institutional care to supporting children through families and local churches.

In 1999, Tearfund played a role in the foundation of the Micah Network, which consists of over 750 evangelical organisations worldwide.

Tearfund marked its 50th Anniversary in 2018 with an extensive campaign encouraging financial giving, prayer for an end to extreme poverty and further support for its campaigning work.

In 2018 Tearfund announced that it was launching Tearfund USA, with Sonia Patterson, founder of the Impact Wisdom website, the first CEO.

Tearfund Learn: An arm of Tearfund that produces a wide range of educational resources for people involved in development work.

Tearfund produces a number of regular and one-off publications, mostly available in both printed and digital formats.

Tearfund Learn – publish a number of educational resources, include Footsteps, a community development magazine.

Church publications – Tearfund sends supporting churches regular resources to coincide with appeals and emergencies.

In 1997, Tearfund started a full-scale programme to equip supporters to campaign on poverty issues called 'Global Action Network'.

Isabel Carter from Tearfund was part of the team that launched the international Jubilee 2000 campaign in 1996.

In 2005, Tearfund joined a number of NGOs and other groups for the Make Poverty History campaign.

In 2012 Tearfund campaigned with the Publish What You Pay coalition, leading to oil, gas, mining and forestry companies registered within the EU being required to publish payments made to governments anywhere in the world.

In 2019 Tearfund launched a 'Rubbish Campaign' which petitioned large companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, PepsiCo and Unilever to manage their plastic pollution.

Current Tearfund ambassadors include Tamsin Greig and Bear Grylls, along with a number of evangelical Christian leaders including Rev Katei Kirby and Pete Greig.

Tearfund dedicated the proceeds of one of the charity evenings for his 50th anniversary to the organisation.