TEAR Fund New Zealand is a Christian aid and development agency working in partnership with child sponsorship, community development, Microenterprise and disaster relief projects throughout the developing world. We believe in empowering developing communities to mobilise their own strategies to end poverty and build hope. We do not operate our own development projects.

Rather than employing ex-patriot field workers, we partner with local Christian organisations and churches in developing countries. We seek to build effective relationships with these partners, grounded in mutual respect, trust and accountability. By operating though partner agencies we work directly with the poorest, cutting out the middleman, red tape and bureaucracy. This also helps to keep down costs and stretches your dollar. We help poor communities find solutions to their own problems.

We take extra care to ensure women, children and other marginalised groups have a voice in this process. Aid is distributed regardless of the religious beliefs of recipients of our projects. At TEAR Fund we believe in a holistic approach that cares for the whole person: physically, socially, politically and spiritually. 






Compassion International:
TEAR Fund’s Compassion Child Sponsorship Programme is part of an international network of Christian development organisations. The network is administered by Compassion International, a Christian child sponsorship organisation. Compassion International works in over 24 developing countries, with over 3,000 projects and 700,000 sponsor children.



Integral Network:
We are a member of the Integral Network. The Integral Network is a coalition of Christian relief and development agencies from throughout the developing world. Comprising a global alliance of 12 independent Christian relief and development agencies, working together to present a more effective response to poverty worldwide.

" The importance of Integral is its vast networking capacity and the ability to draw upon its member agencies for rapid, co-ordinated and sustained responses to both complex humanitarian emergencies, as well as community development among the worlds poorest communities. By coming together as an alliance, members are able to contribute specialist resources to the network and ensure that resources are maximised for the most effetive impact on poverty alleviation.


National Memberships:
Other Networks TEAR Fund is a member of the New Zealand NGO Disaster Relief Forum, the Council for International Development, and is a recipient of New Zealand government funds through NZAID. 




MICAH Network:
TEAR Fund is a member of the MICAH Network. The Micah Network is a group of 275 Christian relief, development and justice organisations from 74 countries. The Micah Network was formed with the aim to deepen the public’s engagement with the poor; and to challenge leaders to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, so as to halve absolute global poverty by 2015.