Emerging Influencers is a six week leadership programme for 17-23 year olds. This community of young adults is raising money for Tearfund's life saving work in helping people to continue to lift themselves out of poverty. Over the weekend of the 17th/18th July, I shall be running 16 miles in 16 consecutive hours (1 mile each hour) along with the Run16 Team to represent the ~16 billion vaccines it’ll take to ensure that the global population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

We shall be raising money for Tearfund's Recover Together Campaign (https://www.tearfund.org/campaigns/recover-together) supporting communities in over 50 countries who have been most impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Tearfund is supporting these communities by:

Campaigning to help end vaccine inequality: Tearfund's local partners are advocating for governments around the world to include vulnerable groups, such as refugees, in their vaccination programmes. And they are asking the UK government to do even more to support lower-income countries. Tearfund are also helping prepare communities for the roll out of a vaccine, including equipping church leaders to share accurate information about Covid-19 vaccines.

Help those in urgent need: It is crucial that we continue to help those most affected by the pandemic as they wait for a vaccine. Many people have been pushed further into poverty due to the economic impact of lockdowns, and they remain at risk from the virus. Throughout the pandemic Tearfund have been working with churches and organisations in more than 50 countries to support the most vulnerable with emergency food and hygiene supplies. They urgently need your help to continue this life-saving work – before, during and after vaccines become available.

One of those people affected by Tearfund's work is Ana who is one of thousands of refugees who fled the political and economic crisis in Venezuela and is now facing weeks with very little food after a national lockdown in Colombia. "I don't know what I'm going to do without being able to feed my daughter", says 24-year-old Ana who has a four-year-old daughter. "If the government does not let us go out on the streets, I do not know what we are going to do to eat." Across the city of Barranquilla there are more than 15,000 Venezuelan families like Anas. Most of them depend on being able to work in order to put food on the table, but now they can no longer leave their houses. To try and stop the spread of coronavirus, the Colombian government has ordered that everyone should stay home for the next three weeks. However, relief agencies such as Tearfund and local churches have been given special permission to carry on supporting people. Before the lockdown, our Tearfund local partners distributed food parcels to 600 Venezuelan refugee families in Barranquilla. But there are many more people still in need of food. As part of this, the We Are Tearfund community is raising money for people like Ana through the Emerging Influencers programme and we would be incredibly grateful for anything you can give to support this cause.

Thank you,

Anna x