Together We Stand

[ 63 ] We have faith in response Oenone Chadburn, Head of Humanitarian Support; and Katie Ballin, Humanitarian Support Officer, Tearfund T earfund is an international relief and development agency working across 47 of the world’s poorest countries. It is fully accredited against the Core Humanitarian Standard, and is funded by both public donation and multilateral and bilateral donors, working in fragile and hard-to-access locations. As a Christian organization Tearfund occupies a unique space between the church and other faith networks, the United Nations, governments and civil society. It operates through a powerful combination of faith leaders, local churches, national denominations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and global networks, reaching the most marginalized and vulnerable. This web of relationships is well placed to mobilize a holistic integrated approach to disasters. This same set of relationships can also play a vital role in the World Humanitarian’s Summit’s development of a ‘humanitarian ecosystem’, bringing to the forefront the need to ‘localize aid’ targeting those most in need. Centred on the ability of local churches to have extensive reach and modify behaviour, it can address the root causes of risk and the impact of a disaster. Tearfund sees its role as an enabling agency, strengthening the opportunity for beneficiaries to see hope in their future. As one church pastor puts it: “We were here before the disaster, we were here during the disaster and we are here after the disaster. Agencies like yours will come and go, but the church will always be here.” Tearfund is constantly witnessing the power of the church in times of crisis. Churches have accepted local leadership, and assets including buildings, as well as a community which can be mobilized quickly to respond, not based on organi- zational requirement but motivated by compassion and a heart to serve everyone. Churches can not only coordinate preparedness to save lives, homes and livelihoods, they can also lessen the impact of the next disaster when it comes, reducing casualties and enabling a faster recovery, reaching into difficult and remote areas. It seems strange therefore that the churches are oftenmarginal- ized in decision making and co-ordination. Faith understanding within the humanitarian system, sometimes called faith literacy, does not always see the added value of the church as one of the The coverage of church response In Myanmar, one of Tearfund’s partners is the Myanmar Baptist Convention (MBC), a network of nearly 5,000 churches operating in some of the most disaster-prone regions. It responds to small and large- scale humanitarian crises that impact the country every year. Being a widespread network, MBC is able to rapidly mobilize resources, trained staff and volunteers as emergencies occur. The strength of MBC’s connections extends to other faith groups, local NGOs and the Government. At a village level, established committees involving churches and other civil society actors help to ensure effective coordination. As a result of lessons learned from cyclone Nargis, Tearfund translated its resource ‘Disasters and the Local Church’ into Burmese, disseminating it across the network and using it to help better equip church leaders for all stages of disaster management. The guidelines proved especially applicable for MBC as it scaled up operations following the monsoon floods which hit 12 out of the 14 states, displacing 1.7 million people in June 2015. The guidelines encouraged stronger coordination with other responders and helped ensure humanitarian good practice was followed. While Tearfund was able to help MBC reach 3,500 individuals, the wider network reached over 100 affected communities to increase fundraising opportunities and distribute emergency food and non-food items within the first few hours of the floods, once members had conducted needs assessments and beneficiary selection. S’Lont Mun, Tearfund’s Myanmar programme coordinator, said: “People took the resource and used it to train people responding on the front line. I was scolded by some church leaders for not sharing the resource with them beforehand as it was seen to be so vital and practical for the relief response.” A local resident discussing church and community mobilization work with S’Lont Mun, Tearfund’s Myanmar programme coordinator Image: Alice Keen/Tearfund T ogether W e S tand