In a remote village in Malawi, a pastor stands before his congregation on a Sunday morning. But today, his role goes beyond delivering a sermon. He’s helping coordinate a community-wide initiative building bridges—literally and figuratively—connecting isolated farmers to markets and children to schools.
In El Salvador, a small church becomes the epicenter of a savings group, helping its members build businesses that provide income and jobs while fostering deep community connections.
These are just two snapshots of the transformative work happening through the Global Lift Collective (GLC), a pioneering initiative changing how churches and organizations collaborate to alleviate poverty.
The global statistics on poverty are stark: 719 million people live on less than $2.15 a day, and another 1.3 billion live in moderate poverty.
The situation is even more dire in Malawi, with 71% of the population surviving on less than $2.15 per day. Along with this financial scarcity, extreme poverty devastates dignity, community, and human potential, creating isolation, brokenness, and a sense of hopelessness.
Kyle Healy, Compassion and Justice Pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, one of GLC’s founding partners, explains:
“Extreme poverty means having no choice but to drink water you know could make you sick. You carry the guilt of limiting your child’s potential because you can’t afford school fees.”
Traditionally, organizations have worked independently, each attempting to solve different aspects of the poverty puzzle—whether it’s clean water, sustainable farming, or savings groups. But what if instead of competing for resources, they collaborated?
That’s where GLC comes in. By bringing together organizations like HOPE International, World Relief, Tearfund, ENLACE, and Living Water International, GLC has created a powerful, collective approach to poverty alleviation.
These organizations, each with specialized expertise, have come together to focus on collaboration rather than competition, creating a synergy that allows them to provide far more effective solutions.
In the next post, we’ll explore how this collaborative approach is making a real difference in communities, equipping local churches with the tools they need to be agents of transformation.