04/06/2026
... thank you to all who supported (and organised too) last months open cafe, which resulted in St Andrew's being able to send £1375 to Tearfund.
They have written that our generosity...'is providing hope for people around the world, equipping the local church to show God's love in places of great need.
In rural Zimbabwe, the Dora community was stuck in extreme poverty. People lacked clean water and often went hungry. Sexual and gender-based violence and child marriages were prevalent. Cutting down trees for firewood was damaging the environment, and churches weren’t working together.
In 2012, Tearfund’s partner, Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, ran Tearfund’s Transforming Communities training for the first time in Dora. This programme uses Bible studies to train local churches and communities to identify the challenges they face. They then use their locally available resources and skills to overcome them in a way that is long-lasting and far-reaching.
One of the first attendees was Pastor Thanks, who told us, ‘Transforming Communities has really changed my life and transformed my mindset. Before [the training], my life was so hard and my family lived a life that was painful. After we came across the Transforming Communities approach, it helped us realise that we can take charge of our future, we can change our lives and rewrite our stories… I began a small project rearing chickens. We started a business and then diversified into breadmaking. From there, our lives and income began to bloom bit by bit.’ Pastor Thanks, now a Transforming Communities trainer, describes Dora as a community that has been transformed. Through expanding the training, mindsets have been changed, water points have been built, and self-help groups have been established. ‘The transformation begins in the church but flows out to the community.’
