Helping the Poor
Although giving money to nonprofits like GFA World is one tangible way of helping the poor, there are plenty of other ways to assist—and to increase any individual monetary donation that God calls you to make. For example, you can donate your time advocating for the poor.
There are a variety of ways in helping the poor, including the following:
1. Email or call your local representatives
Ask them to support issues that assist those in need. After all, their job entails serving the people.
Look up your state representatives by district and obtain their contact information here.
2. Increase awareness
Talk to your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers about poverty, both on a local and global scale. You don’t need to be an expert; a couple of well-researched facts paint a compelling picture. Facts like these:
- One in 10 people worldwide live on less than $1.90 a day, and one in nine is hungry or undernourished.1
- 66% live on less than $10 a day.
- Overall, 85% of people in the world live on less than $30 a day.2
“Global poverty is one of the very worst problems that the world faces today,” according to Our World in Data. “The poorest in the world are often hungry, have much less access to education, regularly have no light at night, and suffer from much poorer health.”3
Most of the people living in extreme poverty reside in South Asia, East Asia, the Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Due to COVID-19 and its negative effect on the global economy, United Nations University states that for the first time since 1990, poverty may increase worldwide4. Prior to the pandemic, organizations like the UN, along with smaller nonprofits like GFA World, were improving poverty rates. The UN estimates that the number of people suffering from poverty could increase to somewhere between 420 million to 580 million as a result of COVID-19.5
“Such increase could represent a reversal of approximately a decade in the world’s progress in reducing poverty,” the report states.
To increase awareness of poverty, GFA World provides free copies of Revolution in World Missions that you can hand out, as well as the Veil of Tears movie kit, which tells stories of women who have found hope through the love of Christ.
3. Raise funds
Use your passion, hobby and connections to transform people’s lives through your own fundraiser. Whether it’s a small bake sale, running a marathon or asking kids from your local church to share some of their savings from their chores, your fundraising efforts can multiply individual contributions and help the poor. Bible donations including drilling Jesus Wells, building churches in local villages, providing bicycles, blankets or mosquito nets, are some of the items anyone can start a campaign for to impact poverty through a special tool developed by GFA World, called myGFA.
myGFA makes it simple to follow God’s call regarding helping the poor. It allows you to start a campaign for over 30 different ways to impact poverty, teaching adults and children how to read, write and do basic math, and giving families farm animals, like chickens, goats and rabbits, which produce food and offspring for a sustainable living.
4. Set aside donation money in your budget
Use your passion, hobby and connections to transform people’s lives through your own fundraiser. Whether it’s a small bake sale, running a marathon or asking kids from your local church to share some of their savings from their chores, your fundraising efforts can multiply individual contributions and help the poor.
We’re not always mindful about where we spend our money, so starting a fund that you contribute to regularly—to ultimately donate to the poor—is one way to give to God’s children. Stashing $5 or $10 a week that you might spend at your favorite coffee shop or skipping eating out one night a month and putting that money in your donation fund can make a big difference in the lives of the poor. You probably won’t notice much—or even remember a month later—that you gave up a couple cups of to-go coffee or fast food or other restaurant meals, but people whose lives are changed from your donation will remain eternally grateful for your small sacrifice.
5. Volunteer
If you have an interest, there’s probably a nonprofit that fits your niche. At GFA World, we are dedicated to helping the poor in Asia and Africa—particularly in villages where no one else is serving. Through our projects, we introduce people to the Word of God so that they can experience God’s love personally—and often, for the first time.
GFA World reaches out to the poor in four main ways:
- Through national missionaries, who minster like Jesus, helping the poor and meeting people’s physical and spiritual needs
- Through sponsoring children
- By investing in community development projects, like Jesus Wells, literacy training and skills training
- By helping people in need of care, on a daily basis such as people with leprosy, as well as those in crisis due to a natural disaster.
Volunteering fills your heart as you support others who receive your compassionate gifts of time and life-changing efforts.
One of GFA’s volunteer opportunities involves encouraging other Christians to get involved helping people in Asia and Africa. By being a conference volunteer over a weekend or a week, engaging the Body of Christ to get involved, you can help dozens of national missionaries gain the monthly supporters they need to deliver Jesus’ loving messages to remote villages.
Learn more about volunteering with GFA World, or begin your fundraising campaign today.
Learn more about Another Word for Slums1 Roser, Max and Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban. “Global extreme poverty.” Our World in Data. Revised in 2019. https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Sumner, Andy, Hoy, Chris and Ortiz-Juarez, Eduardo. “Estimates of the impact of COVID-19 on global poverty.” United Nations University. https://wider.unu.edu/publication/estimates-impact-covid-19-global-poverty.
5 Ibid.