Project Locations

Most of the working population in Nepal relies on agriculture for their living, and the national economy depends on remittances and tourism income. The earthquake in 2015, the recent COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns adversely affected livelihood of vulnerable households. The southern border of Nepal is bordered by India. People from the two places come and go freely. Criminals take advantage of the convenience of crossing the border to traffic in people illegally.

Since 2006, we have served the poor in Nepalthrough building water supply and sanitation facilities, increasing farmland production, and encouraging farmers to save and operate small businesses to increase family income. We also set up a resource centre in a community in central-southern part of Nepal to train local technicians, who provide technical and sales support to over 200 farmers in the community. In combating human trafficking, we helped victims trafficked to red-light-district in India to repatriate to Nepal, provided them with shelters and spiritual counselling, and helped them integrate into the community. In addition, we shared the whole mission with 100 Nepalese churches and encouraged them to set an example by personally taking part in it and serve the community.

In Hong Kong, one in five Hong Kong people living below the poverty line. Even following policy interventions, the poor population stands close to 1,100,000 persons, staying over 1 million persons for several consecutive years. Working poverty was a notable poverty characteristic of ethnic minorities, who experience continuous marginalisation and discrimination by the majority Chinese community.

Given the situation of Hong Kong, we strive to equip local churches to practice integral mission in poor communities. Strategies include a) understanding how CEDAR’s experiences of poverty alleviation and its resources contribute to the local churches’ practices of integral mission through in-depth research; b) walking with the church bodies to develop localisation of integral mission; c) providing training to the Christian groups who serve the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, and encouraging inter-ministerial collaboration; d) encourage the Christian groups to do creation care reflection through different education activities, and to practice the role of good stewards in daily life. 

The majority of the population in Zimbabwe are farmers who rely on subsistence farming. They constantly face the threat of drought, coupled with the turbulent economic and political environment and the impact of COVID-19. The World Bank estimated that half of the population in the country is in extreme poverty. Many people only have one or two meals a day.

In response to the situation, we partnered with local churches in rural areas of the North and East to support small-scale farmers. For example, we provide them with fertilizers, seeds and goats, introduce conservation farming methods, engage them in sales marketing, packaging, saving and financial management to develop their livelihood. In the southern part of the country, we provide sex and reproductive health education, set up Child Protection Committees to advocate for children’s rights to the government and communities. This includes access to a birth certificate for every child and access to sexual reproductive health services in hospitals for teenagers. Having access to these fundamental rights and services help children grow up healthy.

Ethiopia is undergoing rapid urbanisation, however, a lack of well-planned infrastructure and good labour market cooperation led to emergence of urban poverty. In response to this, we provided food, clothing, sanitary supplies, as well as psychological support for children and their caregivers in slum areas in Addis Ababa. We also partnered with local churches to provide spiritual support to them. 

Moreover, we mobilised churches and communities in the Southwest to serve the poor. The ministry includes forming mutual aid groups, providing training on backyard gardening and sustainable farming, etc.

In Rwanda, more than 90% of the population believes in Christianity, and roughly 30% of them are Protestants. In 1994, a shocking genocide against the Tutsi occurred in Rwanda, taking away the lives of approximately 1 million people. After the genocide, Rwanda has been committed to studiously growing its economy. Although the poverty rate has lowered, nearly 40% of the population in Rwanda are still living below the poverty line. 

We support the local churches to serve communities in Karongi district, an area heavily affected by the genocide, in the western province of Rwanda. The church empowerment process consists of equipping members of the churches with skills to implement programmes like savings, agriculture, children and family strengthening to meet the needs of the poor. We also maintain and empower the Church Network Committees, established at the start of the project, to  continuously identify the needs of vulnerable communities and delegate ministries to focal people for implementation. 

Following the US troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan and being superseded by the Taliban, Afghanistan has reached an all-time low. The country's entire population of 38 million people is dangerously on the brink of plummeting into universal poverty. The United Nations has shown that the worst-case scenario would be 97% of Afghanistan's population falling below the poverty line by 2022, a distressing 25% increase.

Human trafficking is a severe problem in Thailand. It is estimated that there are about 610 thousand "modern slaves" in the country. They are often forced to engage in various illegal or unethical work under violence, including child labour, sex slaves, forced labouring for free to pay off debts. Moreover, there are hundreds of thousands of stateless people in Thailand. Most of them live in the remoted border, where they cannot enjoy the civil rights of education, medical care and social security.

In response to human trafficking, as online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) has become more and more severe, we provide data analysis and related training for the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) in Thailand, also developing resources to assist the authority's investigation. For the development of the border areas, we built water conservancy facilities for the ethnic tribes in northern Thailand, encouraging residents to use the small open space next to their houses to farm, or breeding pig or fish, etc., so that they will be self-sufficient.

As a multi-ethnic developing country, the conflict between the Myanmar military and armed groups in ethnic minority areas has never ceased since its independence. Since the 1990s, CEDAR has cooperated with Myanmar Christian partners to carry out rescue and development projects in many regions across the country and empowered community residents to respond to humanitarian and development needs. 

In the northern Kachin State, we provided emergency resettlement and multi-faceted support for the poor who were displaced by the war. We also promoted community development throughout the country, including setting up community centres in Yangon slums to serve poor local families and provideIT and other vocational training and microloans. Under threat of pandemic and political insability, we further provided food aid, covid-19 protection and emergency cash assistance. In addition, given the serious problem of human trafficking in Myanmar, we combated human trafficking in three aspects: saving victims, assisting the recovery of the victimized women's body and minds and maturing their livelihood, and contacting potential victims through outreach work and drop-in center to provide body check, medical and emergency assistance.

Bangladesh is a country often affected by climate disasters such as flooding and typhoons. Besides, women in Bangladesh have low social status and easily face sexual violence. In poor areas, the situation of parents "married off" their daughters as the brides of adult men, selling children as child labour, etc., is serious, making children lose the healthy growth environment and opportunities.

We pushed off Disaster Risk Reduction in poor areas near the Bay of Bengal in the south, mobilised residents to form disaster management committees and nurtured residents to develop alternative livelihood. In response to the issues such as child marriage and child labour in Bangladesh, we advocated children's rights in the poor area of Dhaka. We provided counselling and vocational training to vulnerable women who are sexually exploited. Moreover, we organised a cross-church network to build church promotion and work out the integral mission spiritually.

Read CEDAR's articles about Bangladesh

CEDAR has been engaged in poverty alleviation and development in China for 30 years. From initially supporting partners' work to directly executing projects, it has now become a collaborative team to promote the fulfilment of the overall mission of Chinese social welfare organizations and make the Chinese ministry more localized.

As most of the poor in the mainland are concentrated in a remote areas with poor infrastructure, we promoted community health education, AIDS prevention and care for migrant children in Yunnan. For example, we provided whole-person development for children, including a good learning and playing space, infectious disease prevention, etc. We also carried out AIDS prevention education and testing to let more people with HIV/AIDS seek medical attention as soon as possible and carry out community care activities. We also promoted community health management work, partnered with the local hospitals to provide first aiders training, and provided health knowledge training in ethnic minority areas.

Lebanon's political and economic situation has been extremely turbulent in recent years; coupled with the far-reaching impact of the explosion at the largest port, every family has been affected. The country is also the country with the highest per capita density of refugees in the world. About one in three to four people is a refugee, of which 1.5 million Syrian refugees are. Facing the sharp declination in living conditions and the need to get along with what they see as "different", locals and refugees, as well as both of their next generations, must make adjustments.

To promote the understanding and trust between refugees and locals, we also produced satellite TV programs where refugees and local children could play together to learn how to let go of their inherent prejudices due to religion and race. We are active in promoting the communication between youth of different religions, encouraging them to use non-violent methods to transform community conflicts.

Read CEDAR's articles about Lebanon

It is located in the east of Europe, bounded by Russia, Belarus and Poland. The second-largest country in Europe by land area, populated by over 40 million people. Ukrainians comprised more than 70% of the population. The official language is Ukrainian.

UNHCR stated that since the breakout of the Russo-Ukrainian war on 24 February 2022, more than 3.5 million people had fled Ukraine by late March. The number of casualties was over 2,000 (as of 21 March). Many civilian facilities were destroyed, causing water and power outages, and that power outage continued to challenge medical services. CEDAR Fund funded partners to provide humanitarian aid, healthcare service and psychological and emotional support for refugees at the Ukrainian border.

A Central European country bounded by Germany, Czech and Ukraine and populated by 38 million people.

Since the Russo-Ukrainian War, many civilians fled to Poland for refuge. According to the data provided by UNHCR, Poland had already welcomed more than two million refugees up till 21 March. However, large cities such as Warsaw and Kraków almost reached their maximum capacity that they cannot accommodate more refugees and need to relocate the displaced Ukrainians to other cities. Funded by CEDAR Fund, our partners supported families accommodating refugees in Poland by, for example, distributing commodities. They also set up information counters in reception centres to provide services and financial support for Ukrainians who fled to Poland.

Most of the working population in Nepal relies on agriculture for their living, and the national economy depends on remittances and tourism income. The earthquake in 2015, the recent COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns adversely affected livelihood of vulnerable households. The southern border of Nepal is bordered by India. People from the two places come and go freely. Criminals take advantage of the convenience of crossing the border to traffic in people illegally.

Since 2006, we have served the poor in Nepalthrough building water supply and sanitation facilities, increasing farmland production, and encouraging farmers to save and operate small businesses to increase family income. We also set up a resource centre in a community in central-southern part of Nepal to train local technicians, who provide technical and sales support to over 200 farmers in the community. In combating human trafficking, we helped victims trafficked to red-light-district in India to repatriate to Nepal, provided them with shelters and spiritual counselling, and helped them integrate into the community. In addition, we shared the whole mission with 100 Nepalese churches and encouraged them to set an example by personally taking part in it and serve the community.

In Hong Kong, one in five Hong Kong people living below the poverty line. Even following policy interventions, the poor population stands close to 1,100,000 persons, staying over 1 million persons for several consecutive years. Working poverty was a notable poverty characteristic of ethnic minorities, who experience continuous marginalisation and discrimination by the majority Chinese community.

Given the situation of Hong Kong, we strive to equip local churches to practice integral mission in poor communities. Strategies include a) understanding how CEDAR’s experiences of poverty alleviation and its resources contribute to the local churches’ practices of integral mission through in-depth research; b) walking with the church bodies to develop localisation of integral mission; c) providing training to the Christian groups who serve the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, and encouraging inter-ministerial collaboration; d) encourage the Christian groups to do creation care reflection through different education activities, and to practice the role of good stewards in daily life. 

The majority of the population in Zimbabwe are farmers who rely on subsistence farming. They constantly face the threat of drought, coupled with the turbulent economic and political environment and the impact of COVID-19. The World Bank estimated that half of the population in the country is in extreme poverty. Many people only have one or two meals a day.

In response to the situation, we partnered with local churches in rural areas of the North and East to support small-scale farmers. For example, we provide them with fertilizers, seeds and goats, introduce conservation farming methods, engage them in sales marketing, packaging, saving and financial management to develop their livelihood. In the southern part of the country, we provide sex and reproductive health education, set up Child Protection Committees to advocate for children’s rights to the government and communities. This includes access to a birth certificate for every child and access to sexual reproductive health services in hospitals for teenagers. Having access to these fundamental rights and services help children grow up healthy.

Ethiopia is undergoing rapid urbanisation, however, a lack of well-planned infrastructure and good labour market cooperation led to emergence of urban poverty. In response to this, we provided food, clothing, sanitary supplies, as well as psychological support for children and their caregivers in slum areas in Addis Ababa. We also partnered with local churches to provide spiritual support to them. 

Moreover, we mobilised churches and communities in the Southwest to serve the poor. The ministry includes forming mutual aid groups, providing training on backyard gardening and sustainable farming, etc.

In Rwanda, more than 90% of the population believes in Christianity, and roughly 30% of them are Protestants. In 1994, a shocking genocide against the Tutsi occurred in Rwanda, taking away the lives of approximately 1 million people. After the genocide, Rwanda has been committed to studiously growing its economy. Although the poverty rate has lowered, nearly 40% of the population in Rwanda are still living below the poverty line. 

We support the local churches to serve communities in Karongi district, an area heavily affected by the genocide, in the western province of Rwanda. The church empowerment process consists of equipping members of the churches with skills to implement programmes like savings, agriculture, children and family strengthening to meet the needs of the poor. We also maintain and empower the Church Network Committees, established at the start of the project, to  continuously identify the needs of vulnerable communities and delegate ministries to focal people for implementation. 

Following the US troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan and being superseded by the Taliban, Afghanistan has reached an all-time low. The country's entire population of 38 million people is dangerously on the brink of plummeting into universal poverty. The United Nations has shown that the worst-case scenario would be 97% of Afghanistan's population falling below the poverty line by 2022, a distressing 25% increase.

Human trafficking is a severe problem in Thailand. It is estimated that there are about 610 thousand "modern slaves" in the country. They are often forced to engage in various illegal or unethical work under violence, including child labour, sex slaves, forced labouring for free to pay off debts. Moreover, there are hundreds of thousands of stateless people in Thailand. Most of them live in the remoted border, where they cannot enjoy the civil rights of education, medical care and social security.

In response to human trafficking, as online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) has become more and more severe, we provide data analysis and related training for the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) in Thailand, also developing resources to assist the authority's investigation. For the development of the border areas, we built water conservancy facilities for the ethnic tribes in northern Thailand, encouraging residents to use the small open space next to their houses to farm, or breeding pig or fish, etc., so that they will be self-sufficient.

As a multi-ethnic developing country, the conflict between the Myanmar military and armed groups in ethnic minority areas has never ceased since its independence. Since the 1990s, CEDAR has cooperated with Myanmar Christian partners to carry out rescue and development projects in many regions across the country and empowered community residents to respond to humanitarian and development needs. 

In the northern Kachin State, we provided emergency resettlement and multi-faceted support for the poor who were displaced by the war. We also promoted community development throughout the country, including setting up community centres in Yangon slums to serve poor local families and provideIT and other vocational training and microloans. Under threat of pandemic and political insability, we further provided food aid, covid-19 protection and emergency cash assistance. In addition, given the serious problem of human trafficking in Myanmar, we combated human trafficking in three aspects: saving victims, assisting the recovery of the victimized women's body and minds and maturing their livelihood, and contacting potential victims through outreach work and drop-in center to provide body check, medical and emergency assistance.

Bangladesh is a country often affected by climate disasters such as flooding and typhoons. Besides, women in Bangladesh have low social status and easily face sexual violence. In poor areas, the situation of parents "married off" their daughters as the brides of adult men, selling children as child labour, etc., is serious, making children lose the healthy growth environment and opportunities.

We pushed off Disaster Risk Reduction in poor areas near the Bay of Bengal in the south, mobilised residents to form disaster management committees and nurtured residents to develop alternative livelihood. In response to the issues such as child marriage and child labour in Bangladesh, we advocated children's rights in the poor area of Dhaka. We provided counselling and vocational training to vulnerable women who are sexually exploited. Moreover, we organised a cross-church network to build church promotion and work out the integral mission spiritually.

Read CEDAR's articles about Bangladesh

CEDAR has been engaged in poverty alleviation and development in China for 30 years. From initially supporting partners' work to directly executing projects, it has now become a collaborative team to promote the fulfilment of the overall mission of Chinese social welfare organizations and make the Chinese ministry more localized.

As most of the poor in the mainland are concentrated in a remote areas with poor infrastructure, we promoted community health education, AIDS prevention and care for migrant children in Yunnan. For example, we provided whole-person development for children, including a good learning and playing space, infectious disease prevention, etc. We also carried out AIDS prevention education and testing to let more people with HIV/AIDS seek medical attention as soon as possible and carry out community care activities. We also promoted community health management work, partnered with the local hospitals to provide first aiders training, and provided health knowledge training in ethnic minority areas.

Lebanon's political and economic situation has been extremely turbulent in recent years; coupled with the far-reaching impact of the explosion at the largest port, every family has been affected. The country is also the country with the highest per capita density of refugees in the world. About one in three to four people is a refugee, of which 1.5 million Syrian refugees are. Facing the sharp declination in living conditions and the need to get along with what they see as "different", locals and refugees, as well as both of their next generations, must make adjustments.

To promote the understanding and trust between refugees and locals, we also produced satellite TV programs where refugees and local children could play together to learn how to let go of their inherent prejudices due to religion and race. We are active in promoting the communication between youth of different religions, encouraging them to use non-violent methods to transform community conflicts.

Read CEDAR's articles about Lebanon

It is located in the east of Europe, bounded by Russia, Belarus and Poland. The second-largest country in Europe by land area, populated by over 40 million people. Ukrainians comprised more than 70% of the population. The official language is Ukrainian.

UNHCR stated that since the breakout of the Russo-Ukrainian war on 24 February 2022, more than 3.5 million people had fled Ukraine by late March. The number of casualties was over 2,000 (as of 21 March). Many civilian facilities were destroyed, causing water and power outages, and that power outage continued to challenge medical services. CEDAR Fund funded partners to provide humanitarian aid, healthcare service and psychological and emotional support for refugees at the Ukrainian border.

A Central European country bounded by Germany, Czech and Ukraine and populated by 38 million people.

Since the Russo-Ukrainian War, many civilians fled to Poland for refuge. According to the data provided by UNHCR, Poland had already welcomed more than two million refugees up till 21 March. However, large cities such as Warsaw and Kraków almost reached their maximum capacity that they cannot accommodate more refugees and need to relocate the displaced Ukrainians to other cities. Funded by CEDAR Fund, our partners supported families accommodating refugees in Poland by, for example, distributing commodities. They also set up information counters in reception centres to provide services and financial support for Ukrainians who fled to Poland.