10 Years of GAiN
In 2025 we are celebrating ten years of GAiN UK!
We want to take you on the journey of GAiN over the last decade, sharing stories and highlights from each year. These stories will be spread out over the next 5 months, as we focus on two years with each post, so check back in to read about our growth and adventures!
2015
GAiN UK was launched in May 2015. For over five years, Sarah Patel had been working with the Agapé UK leadership to explore ways in which they could express their heart to care for the poor, respond to crises around the world, and engage the hearts and minds of the people of the UK. Sarah met with Klaus, the current Global Chairperson of GAiN, and the seed of GAiN UK was born and the slogan “helping with heart and hand” was at the core of GAiN UK’s ethos.
Sarah was able to utilise the Global Network by working with other GAiN offices in their established relief and disaster projects, sending teams to Haiti and Romania and starting to collect aid for Iraq.
Our first project sent from the UK, the team spent 2 weeks in Haiti supporting local partners in the rebuilding of an orphanage that collapsed during the 2010 earthquake.
2016
In our second year, we continued to engage the people of the UK by partnering with Agapé Students and Newday Festival to collect aid for Iraq. With the support of GAiN Germany, we sent two transports to Iraq at the start and end of 2016. These shipments totalled 745 boxes of aid filled with winter blankets and clothes. This was the beginning of our relief work and mobilising people to use their resources to collect and donate aid to support those in need. Today this continues to be a core part of our work and has grown to include our amazing collection points within our worldwide Relief strategy.
We also sent a team to Romania to assist our partner as they help children whose families live by the rubbish dumps. One staff shares about her experience with the GAiN Romania project.
