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A Day at Tearfund’s Headquarters, learning about the Real Hunger Games

By Anita Mathias

Matthew Frost, CEO of Tearfund
Simon Jenkins, Dave Walker, Pete Phillips, Anita
Richard Littledale
I spent the day in the Tearfund offices in Teddington, near London (invited as part of their first Bloggers Day) and met several other bloggers and digital media people whose work I knew—Richard Littledale, the blogger; Simon Jenkins, the editor of the wonderfully irreverent Ship of Fools(check out what they say about your church; or, on second thoughts, perhaps you better not); Dave Walker, artist of the hilarious churchy cartoons for The Church Times; Pete Phillips who teaches theology at Durham, Liz Clutterbuck, etc.
I knew very little about Tearfund’s work, and am always eager to understand more about the causes and solutions of poverty—and I am glad I went.
Matthew Frost, the CEO of Tearfund spoke grippingly for a couple of hours on Tearfund’s work. (Read Matthew’s take on the Real Hunger Games.)
He used a story of “Tom and Margaret” from Uganda who were converted, and thereby gained hope. They were particularly struck by the feeding of the 5000. They worked in a quarry for six months, and saved money. They bought chickens, sold the meat and eggs, bred them; and then bought goats with the proceeds. Sold milk and meat, bred them, and bought citrus trees with the proceeds.
All this with the help of the local church supported by Tearfund.
Matthew felt that the key to their transformation was that the gospel offered them hope.
* * *
This is a familiar rags to riches romance. Why doesn’t it happen elsewhere in Africa, and the fourth world? I remember asking my friends who worked with desperately poor people in Mozambique and Sierra Leone about whether the poor could grow tomatoes in pots; keep laying hens. No, she said, deferring gratification would be too hard. It would be too tempting to have chicken for dinner.
So interestingly, the way Tom and Margaret broke out of the cycle of poverty was the way Dickens recommends as the surest means to happiness, and the idea at the heart of Rob Parson’s simple but practical book, “The Debt Trap.” “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”Somehow or the other, consume just a little bit less than you earn. Somehow or the other, save just a little bit every month.  Eventually invest it in capital goods (which help you earn more) or in income-producing investments.
* * *
I sat next to the dynamic young  Jay Butcher at lunch. Jay was converted in his final undergraduate year. He was to be an aeronautical engineer. Well, Jesus wrecked that!
He interned for a church after graduating, read the Old Testament, and heard the scalding, uncomfortable call in Amos and Micah for compassion on the poor. He worked with a Human Rights organisation for a couple of years, and then joined Tearfund.
He’s a passionate and charming Campaigns Officer—and learnt all his skills on the job!! He’s working on the Unearth the Truth campaign now, which is lobbying the EU for full transparent disclosure of transactions of multinationals in Africa. £3000 is lost every second due to corruption. It simply vanishes. Africa is very rich in natural resources, and the sales of its natural resources—gold, oil, diamonds, mining rights, land—brings it 9 times the aid it receives. However this money largely vanishes into the pockets of the corrupt, or into private Swiss bank accounts. Corruption is possibly Africa’s largest problem. (And so you can see how non-taxable enterprise—the hens, goats, garden model might well offer hope to her people.)
 The Tearfund staff seemed happy and charming. I would have imagined that people who see poverty, corruption and injustice on a daily basis would become bitter and angry. (Well, I fear I would!) But perhaps, like “Tom and Margaret,” they have hope. Campaigns do work eventually, Jay said, perhaps not as thoroughly as campaigners wish, but they do work, incrementally.
Matthew Frost said, “Prayer is the most significant development intervention there is.” And that brings hope to Uganda, and hope to London!

Read my new memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India (US) or UK.
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Comments

  1. Anita Mathias says

    March 31, 2012 at 11:37 am

    Thanks Liz. I enjoyed meeting you too. We did learn an enormous amount in those few hours!!

  2. Liz says

    March 29, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    Great post Anita and lovely to meet you yesterday! I'm still processing my thoughts for a more serious reflection…
    Liz x

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Premier Digital Awards 2015 - Finalist - Blogger of the year
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Recent Posts

  • “Rosaries at the Grotto” A Chapter from my newly-published memoir, “Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India.”
  • An Infallible Secret of Joy
  • Thoughts on Writing my Just-published Memoir, & the Prologue to “Rosaries, Reading, Secrets”
  • Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India. My new memoir
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If you'll forgive me for adding to the noise of th If you'll forgive me for adding to the noise of the world on Black Friday, my memoir ,Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India, is on sale on Kindle all over the world for a few days. 
Carolyn Weber (who has written "Surprised by Oxford," an amazing memoir about coming to faith in Oxford https://amzn.to/3XyIftO )  has written a lovely endorsement of my memoir:
"Joining intelligent winsomeness with an engaging style, Anita Mathias writes with keen observation, lively insight and hard earned wisdom about navigating the life of thoughtful faith in a world of cultural complexities. Her story bears witness to how God wastes nothing and redeems all. Her words sing of a spirit strong in courage, compassion and a pervasive dedication to the adventure of life. As a reader, I have been challenged and changed by her beautifully told and powerful story - so will you."
The memoir is available on sale on Amazon.co.uk at https://amzn.to/3u0Ib8o and on Amazon.com at https://amzn.to/3u0IBvu and is reduced on the other Amazon sites too.
Thank you, and please let me know if you read and enjoy it!! #memoir #indianchildhood #india
Second birthday party. Determinedly escaping! So i Second birthday party. Determinedly escaping!
So it’s a beautiful November here in Oxford, and the trees are blazing. We will soon be celebrating our 33rd wedding anniversary…and are hoping for at least 33 more!! 
And here’s a chapter from my memoir of growing up Catholic in India… rosaries at the grotto, potlucks, the Catholic Family Movement, American missionary Jesuits, Mangaloreans, Goans, and food, food food…
https://anitamathias.com/2022/11/07/rosaries-at-the-grotto-a-chapter-from-my-newly-published-memoir-rosaries-reading-steel-a-catholic-childhood-in-india/
Available on Amazon.co.uk https://amzn.to/3Apjt5r and on Amazon.com https://amzn.to/3gcVboa and wherever Amazon sells books, as well as at most online retailers.
#birthdayparty #memoir #jamshedpur #India #rosariesreadingsecrets
Friends, it’s been a while since I blogged, but Friends, it’s been a while since I blogged, but it’s time to resume, and so I have. Here’s a blog on an absolutely infallible secret of joy, https://anitamathias.com/2022/10/28/an-infallible-secret-of-joy/
Jenny Lewis, whose Gilgamesh Retold https://amzn.to/3zsYfCX is an amazing new translation of the epic, has kindly endorsed my memoir. She writes, “With Rosaries, Reading and Secrets, Anita Mathias invites us into a totally absorbing world of past and present marvels. She is a natural and gifted storyteller who weaves history and biography together in a magical mix. Erudite and literary, generously laced with poetic and literary references and Dickensian levels of observation and detail, Rosaries is alive with glowing, vivid details, bringing to life an era and culture that is unforgettable. A beautifully written, important and addictive book.”
I would, of course, be delighted if you read it. Amazon.co.uk https://amzn.to/3gThsr4 and Amazon.com https://amzn.to/3WdCBwk #joy #amwriting #amblogging #icecreamjoy
Wandering around Oxford with my camera, photograph Wandering around Oxford with my camera, photographing ancient colleges! Enjoy.
And just a note that Amazon is offering a temporary discount on my memoir, Rosaries, Reading, Steel https://amzn.to/3UQN28z . It’s £7.41.
Here’s an endorsement from my friend, Francesca Kay, author of the beautiful novel, “An Equal Stillness.” This is a beautifully written account of a childhood, so evocative, so vivid. The textures, colours and, above all, the tastes of a particular world are lyrically but also precisely evoked and there was much in it that brought back very clear memories of my own. Northern India in the 60s, as well as Bandra of course – dust and mercurochrome, Marie biscuits, the chatter of adult voices, the prayers, the fruit trees, dogs…. But, although you rightly celebrate the richness of that world, you weave through this magical remembrance of things past a skein of sadness that makes it haunting too. It’s lovely!” #oxford #beauty
So, I am not going to become a book-bore, I promis So, I am not going to become a book-bore, I promise, but just to let you know that my memoir "Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India," is now available in India in paperback. https://www.amazon.in/s?k=rosaries+reading+secrets&crid=3TLDQASCY0WTH&sprefix=rosaries+r%2Caps%2C72&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_10My endorsements say it is evocative, well-written, magical, haunting, and funny, so I'd be thrilled if you bought a copy on any of the Amazon sites. 
Endorsements 
A beautifully written account. Woven through this magical remembrance of things past is a skein of sadness that makes it haunting. Francesca Kay, An Equal Stillness. 
A dazzling vibrant tale of childhood in post-colonial India. Mathias conjures 1960s India and her family in uproarious and heart-breaking detail. Erin Hart, Haunted Ground 
Mathias invites us into a wonderfully absorbing and thrilling world of past and present marvels… generously laced with poetic and literary references and Dickensian levels of observation and detail. A beautifully written, important, and addictive book. Jenny Lewis, Gilgamesh Retold 
Tormented, passionate and often sad, Mathias’s beautiful childhood memoir is immensely readable. Trevor Mostyn, Coming of Age in The Middle East.
A beautifully told and powerful story. Joining intelligent winsomeness with an engaging style, Mathias writes with keen observation, lively insight and hard-earned wisdom. Carolyn Weber, Surprised by Oxford 
A remarkable account. A treasure chest…full of food (always food), books (always books), a family with all its alliances and divisions. A feat of memory and remembrance. Philip Gooden, The Story of English
Anita’s pluck and charm shine through every page of this beautifully crafted, comprehensive and erudite memoir. 
Ray Foulk, Picasso’s Revenge
Mathias’s prose is lively and evocative. An enjoyable and accessible book. Sylvia Vetta, Sculpting the Elephant
Anita Mathias is an is an accomplished writer. Merryn Williams, Six Women Novelists
Writing a memoir awakens fierce memories of the pa Writing a memoir awakens fierce memories of the past. For the past is not dead; it’s not even past, as William Faulkner observed. So what does one do with this undead past? Forgive. Forgive, huh? Forgive. Let it go. Again and again.
Some thoughts on writing a memoir, and the prologue to my memoir
https://anitamathias.com/2022/09/08/thoughts-on-writing-a-memoir-the-prologue-to-rosaries-reading-secrets/ 
#memoir #amwriting #forgiveness https://amzn.to/3B82CDo
Six months ago, Roy and I decided that finishing t Six months ago, Roy and I decided that finishing the memoir was to be like “the treasure in the field,” that Jesus talks about in the Gospels, which you sacrifice everything to buy. (Though of course, he talks about an intimate relationship with God, not finishing a book!!) Anyway, I’ve stayed off social media for months… but I’ve always greatly enjoyed social media (in great moderation) and it’s lovely to be back with the book now done  https://amzn.to/3eoRMRN  So, our family news: Our daughter Zoe is training for ministry as a priest in the Church of England, at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. She is “an ordinand.” In her second year. However, she has recently been one of the 30 ordinands accepted to work on an M.Phil programme (fully funded by the Church of England.) She will be comparing churches which are involved in community organizing with churches which are not, and will trace the impact of community organizing on the faith of congregants.  She’ll be ordained in ’24, God willing.
Irene is in her final year of Medicine at Oxford University; she will be going to Toronto for her elective clinical work experience, and will graduate as a doctor in June ‘23, God willing.
And we had a wonderful family holiday in Ireland in July, though that already feels like a long time ago!
https://anitamathias.com/2022/09/01/rosaries-readi https://anitamathias.com/2022/09/01/rosaries-reading-secrets-a-catholic-childhood-in-india-my-new-memoir/
Friends, some stellar reviews from distinguished writers, and a detailed description here!!
https://amzn.to/3wMiSJ3 Friends, I’ve written a https://amzn.to/3wMiSJ3  Friends, I’ve written a memoir of my turbulent Catholic childhood in India. I would be grateful for your support!
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