Churches are at the heart of transformation. Will you help them meet rising needs this Easter?
Joseph Biswas: My name is Joseph Biswas.
Ratna Biswas: I am Ratna Biswas.
In Bangladesh, around 35 million people are experiencing hunger daily.
Joseph and Ratna are another family facing the same desperate situation. And the climate crisis has worsened the already brutal monsoon conditions.
When their local church reached out to them, Joseph and Ratna decided to join Tearfund’s Transforming Communities programme taking place there.
The training Joseph and Ratna joined included looking at ways to improve the village, such as restoring the village pond to provide clean water to the community, while introducing new ways to earn a living, such as breeding goats.
Joseph Biswas: Our family has been struggling with poverty. We were in a lot of trouble because of this.
This Lent, your gift of £72 could provide families like Joseph and Ratna’s with a goat, empowering them to feed their children and strengthen their livelihoods.
Ratna Biswas: The pond was very dirty and unusable. The water of the pond was polluted, it was unfit for use. We informed Tearfund and Shalom (Tearfund partner) about this pond, "We, a lot of people live here, but we suffer from lack of clean water." After consulting with them, arrangements were made to repair the pond. They said that the pond would be repaired by building a dam around the pond to make it usable for us.
Sunita, Taslima, Monica and I took the initiative together. Now it is possible to take a bath and the water is much more usable, I hope it will improve further. In addition, Transforming Communities gave me two goats, out of which I sold one goat, one gave birth to a baby, now I have two goats. I have benefitted a lot from getting a goat. With my three children, it is difficult for me to bear the cost of their education.
However, I am doing well now, thanks to God, I used to have one meal a day, now I can eat three meals a day, I can educate my children. I think there has been a lot of improvement in people's lives but more needs to be done.
Needs are rising – there’s still time to help people overcome poverty through the church this Easter.
Please donate now
tearfund.org/lentappeal24
