Description

Empowering women. This gift supports TEAR’s partners to encourage and support local women to create groups that enable them to learn new skills and advocate for change in their local communities. As part of these groups, women may access training in literacy, bookkeeping, women’s rights, leadership or vocational skills.

How your gift helps

This group of women are a catalyst for change in their community. Part of a project by TEAR’s partner Faith in Action (FIA) in Bangladesh, they are known as a “Self-Help Group”. They meet regularly and work together to save and loan money, learn new skills and help each other learn and become aware of their rights and entitlements in society.

When FIA began working in this area of Bangladesh, staff described the communities as experiencing a poverty that had “crippled their thinking, creativity and initiative”. Their work is bringing the community together, encouraging and equipping them with the skills and knowledge to realise their own potential.

One Self-Help Group member from Faith in Action’s project, Rekha Begum (not pictured), was taught how to prepare compost, provided with seeds, and began a vegetable garden outside her house. Now she grows enough vegetables for her family to eat. She then accessed a loan from the group to buy two ducks and two chickens. Eggs have improved her family’s nutrition and provide a small but regular income selling them in the village. She paid the loan back and took a second loan to buy a goat. Her children, who she previously couldn’t afford to send to school, are now attending and there is a sense of hope for the future. Rekha said: “Faith in Action gave me a new hope and dream. I want to educate my children. I want my family to be happy. I would also like to encourage others to join our Self-Help Group.”

Your gift of a Women’s Community Group is contributing to projects like this one and making a difference in the lives of those facing poverty and marginalisation.

About our partner

Faith in Action is a Christian development organisation, focusing on providing holistic and sustainable community development ensuring life in fullness for the individual and the community.

What you receive

• Choose from a printed card or download-and-print pdf card (or no card, just a tax-deductible receipt).
• Links to download-and-print cards are emailed to you after checkout.
• The amount you have donated will not be on the card.
• Printed cards:
  • A blank envelope for your card.
  • Free standard postage within Australia (5-7 working days) or $6 for Express Post (2-3 working days). Express Post cards will normally be sent the same day if the order is made before 1:30pm AEST. Please note: Express Post only operates in these areas within Australia.
  • Note: We cannot ship printed cards outside Australia (but you can still order the digital cards).
  • Note: We do NOT write on your cards—they are delivered to you to personalise.
• A tax-deductible receipt.