Helping-Hand Appeal 2025

Nurturing land, harvesting hope

The Helping-Hand Appeal is an annual collaboration between the Family Ministries Unit and International Development UK.

The focus of the 2025 Helping-Hand Appeal is Food Security - working alongside communities to overcome food insecurity.

Machanzi - wearing beige hat and blue top, smiling

The impact of climate change has been severe. We are experiencing extremes of weather and the rainfall is changing over time … We need to take action to ensure that the population survives the extreme weather systems that are prevailing these days.

Machanzi, Project Coordinator, Raising Champion Farmers, Zimbabwe

Family farmers around the world are on the frontline of the climate crisis. In the face of unpredictable rainfall, severe drought and extreme weather events, each day they work hard to nurture the land they depend on.

However, the traditional farming methods they have relied on season after season are no longer yielding enough food to live on.

Machanzi knows this well. As one of the project coordinators of The Salvation Army’s Raising Champion Farmers project in northern Zimbabwe, he is working alongside family farmers to cultivate change.

Across three divisions in the Zimbabwe Territory, 300 farmers have received training in conservation agriculture, a method that emphasises the importance of working with the land to strengthen rather than subdue it.

Through techniques such as soil coverage, zero tillage and crop rotation, as well as the use of organic compost rather than synthetic fertilisers, the land is being nourished and restored.

For families who rely on a successful harvest to survive, there is no safety net. A good crop is the difference between life and death.

By adopting conservation agriculture, they can build a more sustainable future for themselves and their communities.

It’s not only about growing food – it’s about nurturing land and harvesting hope.

All money raised through the 2025 Helping-Hand Appeal will go towards supporting future food security projects

Start Fundraising

Helping-Hand is primarily a fundraising appeal. Any money raised and donated during 2025 will be used to fund The Salvation Army's international food security projects. Here are a few ways you could raise money for Helping-Hand 2025 either individually or as part of a team:

COMMUNITY MEAL: Organise a dinner event and sell tickets. Highlight this year's Helping-Hand Appeal, and you could feature Zimbabwean dishes to tie-in with the featured project.

COOKING CLASS: Partner with local chefs to offer cooking classes. Participants can learn to cook healthy and sustainable meals while supporting the Helping-Hand Appeal.

GARDENING WORKSHOP: Host a workshop teaching attendees how to grow their own food. Charge a fee for the class, and provide starter kits with seeds and tools.

QUIZ NIGHT: An easy one to host, in a venue, church hall or at home. For an evening of relaxed entertainment, ask groups for an entry fee and find your quiz questions online. Show the Helping-Hand 2025 Food Security video halfway through, or have a round all about the issue of food, to remind people why they are there.

SAVE AND GIVE: Donate what you would normally spend on getting the car washed / buying a coffee / getting a takeaway … and watch the pounds mount up!

GENEROSITY JAR: Keep a container/jar in your home or on your group's registration desk where people can pop in their spare change throughout the Appeal.

SET UP A FUNDRAISING PAGE: Setting up a fundraising page gives you the opportunity to share your activity/event, give an easy way to your supporters to donate and share updates! Set up a fundraising page.

Memory, female Zimbabwean farmers tends to crops

Donate to food security projects

Support family farmers as they work to overcome food insecurity

Donate

The Helping-Hand Appeal was the inspiration of Colonel Olive Booth during the Second World War. Soon afterwards a regular pattern developed and the worldwide Home League began donating money to a variety of Salvation Army projects, particularly those overseas. The resources produced enabled funds to be raised in creative and challenging ways alongside learning something about the partner territory in which each project is situated.

This current collaboration between Family Ministries and International Development commenced with the 2001 Appeal ‘Living Water’ and has, since that time, raised in excess of £2.5 million. The Appeal supports The Salvation Army's international projects in the areas of anti-trafficking, clean water, food security, and women and girls.