Tearfund to open in America

15 Jun 2018 News

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Tearfund

Development charity Tearfund has launched a new arm in the USA, it has announced.

The Christian charity, which specialises in relief and development, will be part of the wider Tearfund charity and will have close links with Tearfund in the UK.

It will be led by Sonia Patterson who takes up the role of chief executive. She has 20 years’ experience in developing business, non-governmental and community relations in the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Patterson will also sit on the charity’s board.

She said: “The mission of Tearfund resonates with my lifelong sense of personal calling to bring hope and wholeness to people in need.”

“I am excited to start this new chapter with Tearfund USA, building on the organisation’s global legacy of helping the most marginalised and vulnerable. I’m looking forward to the process of setting up the organisation in the US, meeting supporters and partners and following Jesus where the need is greatest.”

Clive Mather will chair the new organisation, following ten years as chair of the UK charity.

He said: “Tearfund USA will be asking Christians to go deeper in thinking about how they live. A whole life response to poverty involves praying, giving, acting, volunteering and making lifestyle changes. Sometimes it will involve sacrifice and inconvenience, but it will be liberating and empowering in a way that defies worldly expectations.”

Other people joining the board include Laura Meitzner Yoder, a professor of Environmental Studies at Wheaton College, Illinois and Jeff Galley who works for the leading US church network Life Church, that has campuses in eight states and has oversight of more than 80 local and global partnerships. 

 

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