Barnabas Aid is a charity that channels aid from Christians, through Christians, to Christians. We work to empower our suffering brothers and sisters around the world.
This page will tell you more about who we are and why you might want to work for us.
So why should you work for Barnabas Aid?
Barnabas Aid is a Christian mission
This means that, primarily, we work for God. We believe in following the Biblical mandates of helping our Christian brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than ourselves (Galatians 6:10) and practically demonstrating Jesus’ love for humanity (John 13:34).
Working for a Christian aid agency means working among people who are all Christian, and who all care for each other. Cliché as it sounds, Barnabas Aid staff are like family to one another. So you know that if you work for us, your wellbeing will be our priority.
Barnabas Aid staff genuinely care about our suffering brothers and sisters
Barnabas Aid is not just another organisation; we are a Christian ministry that cares about our work and the people we help. We are not profit-based but project-based: the suffering Christians we help are at the centre of our work.
In fact, 100% of the money donated to a project fund goes to suffering and persecuted Christians. The only money we take for the general running of the organisation is from donations sent to the General Fund.
Barnabas Aid empowers our beneficiaries
We do not give the sort of aid that will keep recipients dependent upon charity for their survival: we provide aid to empower them.
This means that we do not create finite projects dependent on our physical presence for their running: we often train our beneficiaries to run these ventures themselves – knowledge and skills they can pass on to others in their community – and provide the means for them to lift themselves up out of poverty.
Here are a few examples of how we empower our brothers and sisters. While these stories may naturally become dated over time, they highlight the ongoing impact of our work. Additional reports on our current and past projects are in our 'how you helped' reports.
- Example 1: Barnabas Aid funds the running of a Christian school in Egypt for refugees from Sudan. This school provides a nurturing Christian environment for children to learn in, giving them educations so they can have bright futures. It also provides jobs for the adult Christians who fled Sudan, so they can earn a living and pay their bills as they set up their new lives in Egypt.
- Example 2: Barnabas Aid helps impoverished Christians in South-East Asia to escape poverty through skills centres, where they can engage in training needed to set up a variety of small businesses. These include mushroom, fish and pig farming ventures, as well as sewing, hair and beauty, motorcycle maintenance or computer skills. Some Christians trained at these skills centres even go on to work there: Dao, for example, after learning many new skills, became a manager at her local centre, teaching these valuable proficiencies to other believers.
- Example 3: Barnabas Aid has provided Christian communities in Uganda with cuttings of cassava (a staple vegetable) and others with a female goat, to help set up long-term farming initiatives. We also provided training on how to look after the crops or animals, which provide solutions for both food and income which will hopefully sustain these communities for many years to come.
Most importantly, Barnabas Aid believes in the power of prayer
We are a prayer-focused ministry, and believe that the prayers of Christians can make a real difference.
With this in mind, we invite you to join us in prayer:
- We pray for you: that God will use the talents He gave you for the good of His Kingdom. We pray that you will know your true calling, and have the courage to pursue it.
- We pray for suffering Christians: that the Lord will watch over them and comfort them. We pray that they will remain strong and faithful in the face of adversity.
- We give thanks for the work that Barnabas Aid has been able to do to help suffering Christians. We pray that we can continue to provide assistance wherever it is needed, and that our work will help to sustain, strengthen, encourage and empower God’s people around the world.
