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Blogs, Campaigns, Social Empowerment for Excluded Castes (India), Women in Ministry (Pacific Region), Women's Empowerment and Peace Building (Maluku, Indonesia)
March 7, 2024

Happy International Women’s Day!  

The theme this year is a great one: Invest in women: Accelerate progress! 

Women’s empowerment and education in places where they are excluded or marginalised has long been a pillar of global development, but lesser known are the climate benefits. 

Women make up a large proportion of the agricultural sector and produce up to 80% of the food in developing countries. When climate disasters hit, women and girls bear a disproportionate burden of the impacts and they’re typically already held back by pre-existing socioeconomic disparities.  

Women are also at the forefront of climate action and are key players in sustainable development the world over. By investing in women as early as possible and ensuring their full participation, we can hear their wisdom, follow their lead and make powerful change.  

What about us in the church?  

Our church is blessed to have so many formidable and bold women leading the way in faith and justice, both in Australia and among our partners overseas.  

Here are three women we’ve been investing in! 

Rev Geraldine
Methodist Church in Fiji

Rev Geraldine from Rotuma in Fiji is an Old Testament theologian who is passionate about her community and culture. She is currently completing her PhD in theology, which was enabled through a scholarship funded by UnitingWorld supporters (thank you!)

Rev Geraldine is a strong advocate for theological education and the inclusion and leadership of women for a stronger, more vibrant church.

“We as leaders need to give space for all people to speak. Not just for scholars, but people in the community. They are living the impacts of climate change and the social issues we need to know about to direct the priorities of the church and its theology,” she says.

On climate action, she said, “the world I want to see is one where … humanity respects creation, animals and trees, because there is life in them; and where there is kindness, caring and loving. Because I see God in that world.”

 

Rev Jeny Mahupale 
Protestant Church of Maluku (GPM) 

Rev Jeny (right) is the Project Coordinator of an initiative launched last year, working across six villages to teach and equip people to build and maintain productive kitchen gardens to grow their own food.  

Thanks to UnitingWorld supporters, GPM could access the resources needed to roll out the project in some pilot locations and is now expanding across the villages. Rev Jeny’s team has even been running popular workshops to show communities how to make their own organic fertilisers!  

Rev Jeny is also passionate about peacebuilding (she has been recognised by the United Nations for her work) and a central part of the project is to outreach to Muslim communities to build peace and greater understanding of God’s love for all creation. 

She and her team recently gave away 1,000 tree and plant seedlings in a single day as an outreach of the church, and to build awareness about the kitchen gardens project. 

“Please, as humans, let’s work together for saving the earth – saving our children’s future. Thank you so much for all your support for UnitingWorld and for us in the east part of Indonesia. One plant you give, one vegetable seed you share, is same as you share your breath for other people and nature. Thank You. big hug from Ambon-Maluku, East Indonesia.” 

Sophia Lakra,
Church of North India – Diocese of Durgapur 

Sophia is a Program Facilitator for the Community Development Program we support in Durgapur, North India, and is passionate about expanding education access for those who are traditionally marginalised because of poverty, gender or caste.  

During the pandemic, she kept her school’s vacation program going safely by organising a virtual summer camp! Engaging the children’s creativity kept the children connected throughout the holidays during an isolating time. 

“I want to see a world where all children can access education, and all the children who come to our programs are hopeful for a better future. One way to do it is by making children and all people aware of how to take care of the environment. We can plant trees, save water, take care of plants, animals, birds…,” she said recently.

  

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Blogs, Campaigns
February 12, 2024

Growing up in an ecological crisis. 

 An Australian child born in 2023 will experience four times as many heat waves, three times as many droughts and one and a half times as many bushfires during their lifetime as someone born in 1960. And for those born in more vulnerable parts of the planet, hunger, disease and homelessness are all on the rise due to the impact of changing climate.  

Childhood provides very little respite from these realities. If young people aren’t seeing evidence in their own communities of extreme weather events, there’s plenty of information at their fingertips via social media. 

It’s not surprising then that a  recent survey of 10,000 children and young people (aged 16-25 years) in 10 countries, including Australia, found that 59% were  very or extremely worried about climate change, with 84% at least moderately worried.  

Action can also be an antidote to anxiety! Acting on climate, in ways large or small, can give hope and courage to others.
Lent Event is a great place to start.

If the young people in your life are worried about climate change, here’s a good article about how to manage eco-anxiety. 

 

At the same time, spare a thought for children growing up in our immediate neighbourhood, the Pacific and South East Asia.  

These are children who already know what it’s like to live in communities that flood too often, where fresh food is scarce, and waterborne disease keeps them from school. For some, ‘home’ will be uninhabitable by the time they’re adults – in Tuvalu, for example, young people are resigned to the fact that they have no future on their island homes and plan to relocate to Fiji or other parts of the Pacific as soon as they’re old enough.  

In the face of overwhelming challenges, where is the next generation finding hope? Who has the task of educating, equipping and inspiring them to overcome anxiety with action? 

Rev Nyoman Agustinus, Bishop of the Bali Protestant Church (GKPB), believes the Church can play a unique role. 

“We are called by God to see this earth as our home, care for it, protect and preserve its beauty,” he says. “This means that as early as possible we must provide education for children. If children learn to love the earth from the beginning, this will help them to protect the earth so it will be a healthy and comfortable home for them in the future.” 

Parts of the Church throughout the Pacific and South East Asia have been proactive during the past decade in educating members about the important role they can play in protecting the environment, many with the support of UnitingWorld theologians and resources. They see the critical role that the next generation will play and are committed to inspiring children to face the future with hope. Rev Agustinus says:

“In the Balinese church, we urge all pastors to show their love of nature and teach creation care in everything they do. This means catechism education and providing material for Sunday school teachers. We strongly encourage Pastors, Vicars and Sunday school teachers to provide education that is not limited to learning just in the classroom but can extend to a ‘natural school’.  Children can have direct contact with nature, step on mud, and plant trees with their families – as they grow, these trees will remind them of the role they play in looking after the earth for generations.” 

Part of the approach is helping children see that their individual actions are connected to a wider global reality. What impacts people in Bali – difficulty predicting when to grow and harvest crops, extreme weather events that destroy livelihoods, displaced communities due to flood – impacts people all over the world. 

“We want children here to know that individual acts become collective acts, and this is what will change the world. Let’s all be good role models and with our actions we will set an example: our children need to see this solidarity from other Christians around the globe.”

Watch Rev Agustinus’ message in the short video below.

You can play your part in encouraging our young people to overcome eco-anxiety and take action for the planet, both here in Australia and around the world. 

Learn more at www.lentevent.com.au 

 

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by
Blogs, Campaigns
February 12, 2024

Under a sky bluer than an eye, fisherman Kekai sets his line and waits.

He’s further from the shore than ever before and, with the crippling cost of fuel for his boat, he’s hoping for a catch. Fast. But it’s quiet on the sea; warmer water means the fish are seeking the deep, and trawlers are cleaning out the area more and more frequently.

As Kekai scans the horizon, he contemplates yet another canned dinner – salt in the water table from multiple king tides is poisoning his vegetable garden and no more fresh food will arrive at his tiny Tuvaluan island until next week.

“This is the frontline of changing climate for Pacific islanders,” says Rev Seforosa (Sef) Carroll, Fijian-born Australian theologian and academic.

“Diabetes is on the rise because of the change in diet; malnutrition and waterborne diseases plague the children because it’s so hard to grow anything. Clean water and sanitation are really difficult when the land is constantly flooded by salt water.

And it’s really sad, because these are people who are traditionally independent, used to caring for their land, taking from it what they need to survive, and generally in tune with creation.”

Changing climate has wrought havoc on what should be a delicately woven web of relationships between humans and the natural world. And while there’s much more agreement these days about the reality of climate change – most people are aware that we now face not just an ecological crisis, but a ‘here and now’ climate emergency – implementing solutions is more challenging.

So ‘which God’ can fix climate change, and how?

“People in the Pacific are inherently spiritual, it’s just in their DNA,” Sef says.

“But they have this hangover from colonial encounters with missionaries that gives them a view of God that actually isn’t all that helpful. The God many worship is generally seen as transcendent and uninvolved with humanity, responsible for weather and other big events, but somewhat distant.

“Many believing Islanders are convinced that this God won’t let their lands be destroyed because of the promise to Noah in Genesis after the Great Flood. So they wait patiently for the next miracle, even while their entire sense of identity is eroded as they watch their land disappear. Doubt creeps in: where is God in their suffering?”

This is where theology really bites and cultural views of God matter deeply. The temptation to see increasingly devastating weather events as evidence of God’s punishment for sin can lead to doubling down on morality codes, while at the same time jettisoning any sense of personal responsibility or agency in the face of the emergency. Sef says:

“‘Which God’ we worship – our understanding of God’s identity – really matters.  That kind of purely transcendent God is not the God of Jesus, of Emmanuel, God with us. It’s not the God that says we are caretakers with responsibility and empowerment by God’s Spirit. And helping Pacific people to shift from this kind of inheritance theology to one that says that through Christ, God is suffering with creation and God is suffering with us, is really critical. That theology can help people to be proactive and inspire them to action.”

Faith drives meaning and behaviour in many parts of the Pacific Islands. But shifting long-held understandings takes time, and that’s a commodity we simply don’t have.

“We’re sitting on a ticking bomb here,” Sef says. “And it takes time for people to unlearn and relearn theology, and to gain a new understanding of faith.”

It’s why UnitingWorld’s partnership to train ministers and theological colleges is so critical. Resources like Bible Studies and workshops are opening eyes to who God is and how God is at work in and through God’s people in the world. But the work is slow and painstaking, and it can’t be the only solution.

“Pacific Islanders might be the ones most impacted in our region by changing climate, but it’s on all of us to step up to acknowledge the impacts in our own neighbourhoods and across the globe, and to play our part. Every single one of us needs to ask ‘which God are we worshipping?’ A God who is only concerned with our ‘spiritual lives’ or a God actively involved in collaborating with us in reclaiming creation? I dream of a rigorous theology embraced by Christians around the world, inspiring us to action where we are, with what we have. It’s going to take all of us, doing everything we can.”

Watch Sef’s message in the short video below.

This year, UnitingWorld’s Lent Event is creating a movement of people committed to urgency, solidarity and faithful action for God’s creation.

We’re calling on you to do something personal – make a change to your life that benefits creation during the 40 days of Lent and pray it sticks throughout the year.

We’re calling on you to do something practical – make a donation to support projects across the Pacific and elsewhere that open minds to new understandings of God and drive faithful action, empower communities to protect their environment through tree planting initiatives and provide clean water.

We’re calling on you to get political – contact your local representative to chat about their approaches to climate change, educate yourself about policies, and help hold government accountable for their actions.

‘Which God’ will fix climate change? The God of Emmanuel, who is with us in suffering, invites and empowers us for action.

How will it happen? All of us, acting in solidarity and with urgency.

Join us today at www.lentevent.com.au

 

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by
Blogs, Campaigns
February 12, 2024

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of coming home – to a physical place, a person or community. In English, the word home perhaps feels a bit restrictive, conjuring up bricks, mortar, a mortgage and soaring interest rates. But for our Pacific neighbours, language has gifted words with stronger wings.

Vanua, for Fijians, means land, home or village. But with multiple subtle variations throughout the Pacific Islands, it captures so much more than that. It gives voice to the connections people have with land, sea and sky, as well as their relationships with one another and their obligations to stewardship. Theologian, Rev Dr Cliff Bird from the United Church of Solomon Islands, explains:

“When we start with the idea of ‘home’ among Pacific Islanders, we instantly have an understanding of relationship and mutual obligation. When we say that creation is ‘home’ not only to people and animals, flora and fauna, but God too, then we are expressing a powerful theological concept that is woven throughout Genesis. And this is a critical part of our framework for teaching people about what it means to act in the midst of this current ecological crisis.”

The period of Lent, Cliff says, is a perfect time of reflection on our relationship to the home we share with our neighbours and God. It provides an opportunity to reflect on the human impact we bring to our home and on the kind of activities that shape the place that nurtures and sustains us.

“When we think about how we treat our individual homes, it can bring focus to the way we treat our collective home – the planet,” Cliff says. “How does what we buy impact on this home we share? What are the commercial and industrial activities that we support, and how do they damage the earth and ocean? How do we dispose of garbage, including the clothes we wear?”

Cliff is heartened by the knowledge that individual acts become community acts and from there, they can become national and global realities.

Watch Cliff’s message in the short video below.

This year, UnitingWorld’s Lent Event is creating a movement of people committed to urgency, solidarity and faithful action for God’s creation.  

We’re calling on you to do:

  • something personal – make a change to your life that benefits creation during the 40 days of Lent and pray it sticks throughout the year.  
  • something practical – fundraise or make a gift to support critical climate action in vulnerable communities
  • something political – use your voice to influence your community to demand urgent climate action

We’ve put together this list of things you can do to make ‘home’ more liveable for all of us, for longer.  Check it out and share it with those who are looking for ideas and encouragement.  

Join us today at www.lentevent.com.au

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Campaigns, Community Health & Infant Nutrition (Timor Leste), News
August 24, 2023

Act2 is a major transformational change project focused on shaping the future of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA). As part of the Act2 Project, every Uniting Church member, council and community is being invited to take part.

We’ve contributed our perspective through a written submission, and in an online forum where we were joined by international partners. Rev Dr Cliff Bird from the United Church in the Solomon Islands (UCSI) was a panellist in the forum and shared some generous feedback about what partnership with the UCA has meant to UCSI.

“Our understanding of mission has evolved since we entered into partnership with the Uniting Church in Australia. It has been broadened and enriched as it has moved from a narrowly spiritualistic understanding to a more holistic understanding,” he said. “We now share a greater focus on practical concerns like ending poverty and violence against women and taking faithful action on climate change. These were not seen as core business of the church, but now they are part of our life and understanding of what it means to follow Jesus.”

Rev Dr Bird also pointed to how the partnership has strengthened UCSI as an institution. “Our decision-making processes have improved along with our ability to look inwardly. It has resulted in us becoming more accountable and transparent and create more rigorous policies and procedures. We’re so grateful to be able to share knowledge and expertise, stories and resources back and forth with our partners in Australia as elsewhere.”

In our written submission to Act2, we highlighted some strengths of the UCA and major challenges as we see it. We also provided some ideas for change and how we and our international partners could help:

“As Christianity becomes a minority faith in an increasingly diverse and secular Australia, we have much to learn from our partner churches who come from multifaith contexts, and who fight poverty and injustice with dogged determination without diluting their identity as Christians or being reticent about sharing God’s desire to know and love all people.”

You can read our full submission here.
You can watch the recording of the online International Partnerships and Ecumenical Relationships forum here or read a reflection/summary of the discussions here.

If you’re reading this, you care about the mission of the Uniting Church – please contribute your thoughts and ideas to the Act2 project. Discerning the shape of the UCA in future needs all the wisdom we can gather.

Find out more about the Act2 Project and how you can engage at www.act2uca.com.

 

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Campaigns, News, Women's Empowerment and Peace Building (Maluku, Indonesia)
June 20, 2023

In response to a growing food crisis in Maluku, our church partners are mobilising all the resources at their disposal to improve food security and tackle poverty.

We’ve been supporting the Protestant Church of Maluku (GPM) and their development agency to expand their initiative of planting community kitchen gardens to address growing poverty and food insecurity.

Three new community kitchen gardens have been planted in 2023, using the land of local congregations and individuals in the church.

“That the church is driving this is also an encouragement for the people,” says Rev Jeny Mahupale, who has made her own family land available for the project.

“We’re still in an early trial with different vegetables like spinach but the results are good so far with fruits like rambutan and pineapple.”

The General Secretary of the GPM Synod, Pastor S. Sapulette, describes the initiative as a “planting movement” and hopes Rev Jeny and the church’s leadership will inspire others to join.

“This is a movement that was born from reflecting on the struggles of our congregations and the reality we face together as a nation,” said Pastor Sapulette.

He hopes that more congregations can be empowered and trained by Rev Jeny and her team to make their land available for economically productive crops to help tackle the food crisis.

Please pray for the work of our partners in the Protestant Church of Maluku and for an end to the food crisis there.

Thank you for enabling us to support our partners to expand this project through your donations.

We are gathering more stories from this project to share over the next few months.

Photos: Rev Jeny and the team at the community kitchen garden.

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Blogs, Campaigns, Women's Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation (Bali, Indonesia)
May 29, 2023

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, significant progress had been made to alleviate poverty.

In the first two decades of the millennium, global poverty rates had been cut by more than half and there was good reason to be optimistic about the future. 

The optimism spurred world nations to come together in 2015 and agree to work towards an ambitious set of Sustainable Development Goals. Number one on the list: eradicating extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030. 

The pandemic plus rising inflation and the impacts of the invasion of Ukraine have set progress back as much as nine years in many low-income countries. 

Despite the United Nations declaring a “Decade of Action” to accelerate progress and get back on track, efforts to end poverty are not yet advancing at the speed or scale required to meet the goal.  

Where do we Christians fit in to this and what can we do?

At the turn of the millennium, Christians were at the forefront of anti-poverty movements like Make Poverty History, Jubilee 2000 and Micah Challenge (now Micah Australia).

In Australia, activism has continued through the years, with Christian groups lobbying successive Australian governments to increase funding commitments to sustainable development across the globe.  

The position of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) has been that Australia should commit to the internationally-agreed target of contributing 0.7 per cent of our Gross National Income (GNI) to sustainable development initiatives by 2030. 

After a long period of the deepest cuts to the aid budget in Australia’s history, the Albanese government has restored a modest increase, as well as partial indexation to ensure it grows over coming years.  

There’s hope again!  

But of course, it isn’t just about governments. It’s about all of us.  

We in the UCA, through UnitingWorld, are blessed to be a part of a powerful network of people and organisations working together to make sustainable progress to end poverty in our world. 

The lives and work of our overseas partners constantly show us what is possible even while faced with huge challenges.  

Take our partners in Bali.  

Imagine a tiny group of Christians, living amongst staunch Hindus. They make up less than two percent of the population and live on the cultural margins, with little power or influence. But led by the Gospel to bring good news to the poor, they set themselves to weaving a web of relationships.  

They win the trust of the poorest in their community by listening to them. They bring together village elders and government representatives. They reach out to their international church partners for support. Then, slowly but surely, they become the catalytic center of a movement of social transformation. 

Because of their hard work, people blindsided by COVID-19 have the chance to start again with new livelihoods. Women, young people and people with disability are able to have their say in how their village uses government grants. Families get access to health services and children go to school. And, best of all, the communities become more resilient and more able to deal with setbacks and disasters. 

This is the story of our partner, the Protestant Christian Church in Bali. Through them, we have the great privilege to be a part of their incredible community development work to end poverty in rural villages.  

Every day, our overseas partners are impacting the lives of people and helping communities overcome poverty in real and lasting ways. 

It’s a joy to be able to support them in it.   

The movement to end poverty is formidable, but smaller than the need requires. 

So everyone is invited, and everyone has a role to play. 

Together we can end poverty. 

Photos: After he had to leave his job to look after his elderly mother, Komang was struggling to make ends meet and was losing hope for a better life for his family. Supported by UnitingWorld, the Protestant Christian Church in Bali helped him start a small chicken-breeding business that has given him an entire new future. 

You can help us make a powerful impact this tax time

We’re fundraising to resource the critical work of our church partners in the Pacific, Asia and Africa; giving people the tools and opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty. 

Right now, your donation will be combined with funding with the Australian Government to make up to six times the impact ending poverty! 

Donate today at www.unitingworld.org.au/endpoverty 

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Blogs, Campaigns, Women's Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation (Bali, Indonesia)
May 17, 2023

Here at UnitingWorld, we believe the most effective way to help people overcome poverty for good is sustainable development in partnership with local communities.

Our partner church’s project to end poverty in rural Bali is a great example of the lives that we can change, and how by working together we make a bigger impact to end poverty.

It’s a program that helped thousands of families keep their heads above water during the pandemic and that is now helping people like Komang, his wife, Desak, and their three children escape intergenerational poverty.

Komang comes from a low-caste farming family. Growing up far from the tourist circuit and its employment opportunities, he never had the chance to pursue an education but was fortunate to secure a job as a driver for the provincial government.

When his father died of COVID-19, he had to leave his job to look after his elderly mother at home (pictured). He worked as a day labourer for fishermen nearby and tried building back the family vegetable farm, hoping to make a life of it. He worked hard to provide for his family and hoped to give them opportunities he didn’t have.

But in the quiet village economy, Komang was only just managing to make ends meet. When the economic downturn hit, he started to despair that he wouldn’t be able to afford to pay for his children to go to school or have proper health care.

He couldn’t see it, but a whole network of people was working together and was ready to help him find a path to a more secure, hopeful future.  

Komang heard about the Maha Bhoga Marga Foundation (MBM), the development agency of our partner, the Protestant Church in Bali, from the elders of his village who were hosting a meeting to connect the community with MBM staff.

“We received information from the village that there would be a visit from MBM, who could help with our low income,” said Komang. “So, we attended a meeting together with twelve other families from our community. They listened to our struggles with the economy, job-losses, high cost of living… and explained how they can help.”

Komang told them his biggest challenges were learning how to grow a new business and finding money to start. Our partners said they could help with both.

UnitingWorld supporters helped resource our partners to provide Komang with technical help to launch a chicken-breeding venture and cash to buy the things he needed to get started.

Working hard to make the most of the opportunity, Komang turned 100 chickens into a thriving small business! He can now afford to send his children to school and buy the essentials they need.

“The dream that I have always hoped for is that our family can change for the better, to do more prosperous work so that we can have a decent life and without lacking anything.

The role of the MBM staff means a lot to our success. From the beginning until now, they accompanied us in providing help and and group training with others who were given the same support. This way we can each make improvements, sharing the experiences of raising chickens.” 

We talk a lot about the importance of partnership at UnitingWorld, because we really do believe that when we work together — churches, local communities and leaders, people like Komang, and you and me— we unlock the most effective route out of poverty.

And when partnership is at its best, all parts are able to give and to receive and to celebrate the incomparable joy of each life made more abundant.

 

You can make a powerful impact this tax time 

We’re fundraising to resource the critical work of our church partners in the Pacific, Asia and Africa; giving people the tools and opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty. We hope to raise $500,000 to continue this life-changing work.

Right now, your donation will be combined with funding from the Australian Government to make up to six times the impact ending poverty! 

Find out more and donate at www.unitingworld.org.au/endpoverty 

 

This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP). Thanks to ANCP, we’re making a huge difference together; lifting families out of poverty and helping people improve their lives.

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Campaigns, News, Social Empowerment for Excluded Castes (India)
March 27, 2023

Imagine living in a rural village of about 250 people. It’s been your home since birth, and each day follows the simple but tough life of subsistence farming. Access to health services, education, and employment opportunities is severely limited, so, like everyone here, you make a living off the land and strive to give your children the opportunities that you didn’t have.

But for four to five months of every year, the dry season and erratic rainfall make it impossible to grow your crops. When the seasonal drought hits and there isn’t enough water for farming, you and every working-aged person along with your families must migrate far away from home to try to find work to survive. The village becomes practically deserted, leaving only the elderly. Think of what this instability does to your children’s education and the development of your community!

This was the case for a village in Sarenga, West Bengal before our partners the Church of North India (CNI) through the Diocese of Durgapur asked how they could help.

The villagers’ request was a simple one: find a way to put in place a sustainable source of crop irrigation that doesn’t dry up when the rain stops and the local streams become empty.

Thanks to the generosity of UnitingWorld supporters, our partners were able to purchase and install two submersible pumps that can channel large volumes of water across long distances. The new sources of irrigation mean that the community can continue farming throughout the year and not have to travel away and work for others to earn a living. Summer in Sarenga this year has the usual erratic rainfall and dryness. But due to this project, we know that there is now an entire village of people who no longer have to uproot their lives for months at a time and who are hard at work contributing to their families and community.

UnitingWorld’s Program Manager Shreshtha Kumar visited the village this year and was blown away by the complete turnaround described by the people.

It’s so heart-warming to see how the village has become a self-sufficient community. The people can now rely on far better food security and the whole life of the village is benefitting.

Our partners are also helping the community to access high-quality education through their study centre and self-help groups, teaching skills to people to help them develop extra sources of income and pathways to career opportunities.

This is how our partners are making incredible change in 26 rural villages across Sarenga and Ranibandh provinces as well as in two urban slums in Durgapur. These communities are extremely poor and marginalised but are on the way to having more sustainable, healthy and hopeful futures thanks to the love and support of our partners.

This project is such an inspiring example of the life-changing work that UnitingWorld and our supporters get to be a part of, and it’s a testament to our belief that just a few small interventions—guided by communities themselves—can lead to radically positive and long-term change for so many people.

As part of Lent Event, we’re fundraising to support this work that is changing lives and transforming communities in India and beyond. Will you help us reach our goal? Your gift will go a very long way to helping so many people and communities lead lives of dignity and hope.

Durgapur Sewing Centre for Adolescent Girls and Married Women

This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP). Thanks to ANCP, we’re making a huge difference together; lifting families out of poverty and helping people improve their lives.

 

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Blogs, Campaigns, News
January 24, 2023

With everything going on in the world, it’s easy to feel powerless. The challenges are huge.  

But here’s the thing: by supporting UnitingWorld, you’re part of a global movement working together to change lives – including yours! Because when we work for change, we ourselves are changes. 

Lent is coming. It’s a 40-day season to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, seeking to practice a life focused on prayer, simplicity and generosity. It’s a precious opportunity to step back from the noise, take some intentional time to fix our hearts on what we can do to love our neighbours and heal our hurting world. 

Join us for Lent Event 2023

Pray – Use our prayer guide to pray alongside our partners as they address the challenges facing their communities. 

Live simply - Give up something in solidarity with people who have less. 

Give - Donate or fundraise to help our partners fighting poverty and injustice.   

This is the difference you can make

$25 can provide nutritious food to kids in Timor-Leste.  
$50 can help a family start pig breeding in Indonesia.  
$100 can provide job opportunities and education for a person with a disability in Sri Lanka.  
$500 can send a girl to school in India.  
$1,000 can supply clean water for a village in Papua New Guinea.

Join Lent Event

 

Kim’s Story

Kim is a youth leader and champion of bringing clean water and sanitation education to where it’s most needed in remote Papua New Guinea. 

“When we build clean water infrastructure on our church or school properties, we always try to put it in the middle of the island so people can stop by on their way to town to get water,” Kim told us.   

“We try to do things in ways that ensure everyone in the community benefits.”  

Kim is making waves in his community with the support of people like you. Read his full story here. 

This is what happens when we choose to walk hand in hand with our neighbours. Together, we can change lives. 

Will you join us?

Make a difference