Manly-Manado was started in September 2005 by Jim Goddard and a group of local Christian residents to provide hope, dignity, opportunity and freedom to those trapped in poverty in Manado; and to build a stronger sense of relational community within Manly.

It was formed as a community partnership to help transform lives out of the  mutual poverty that exists within both communities. It aimed to empower people to personally take action against poverty using their passions and talents and tangibly affect someone in a specific community.

Jim's personal story on visiting his sponsor child in Bolivia, coming to understand a sense of responsibility to help the poor, and in the process of doing so seeing his own poverty, is very compelling. It formed the basis for the movement.

The vision of the movement was to see the mutual transformation of both communities, from their relative types of poverty towards sustainable levels of well-being.

The mission was to provide a relational, educational and empowering movement, enabling a participative transformational journey for people in both communities.

The fruit of this combined action benefited over 6,000 people in Manado through a myriad of development projects, run by development partners Bridge of Hope and Compassion, resulting in many stories of transformation.

Five years on, it is a wonder to reflect on how the Manly community has embraced a partnership with Manado and how many lives have been transformed in both communities.

The grassroots movement has provided a catalyst for unifying individuals and groups locally. It has stimulated a growing social conscience and capital evidenced in a proactive contribution of time, energy and resources in education, advocacy, prayer and fundraising. Hearts have been stirred and eyes opened to social injustice and the inequalities that exist in our world.

In tangibly addressing the issues of poverty, the movement has helped to create community and kinship in Manly while meeting physical and material needs in Manado. It has also caused many to reflect upon the nature of poverty within Manly and how our culture of individual self-fulfilment often fails to recognise the interdependence necessary to build strong effective community.

Manly-Manado Inc. has therefore fulfilled its mission and vision. And now as the wave of change to speak up and stand up for the poor is taken forward by the Manly community, the horizon for many is expanding to the global poor.

As such it is felt that the authorised fundraising platform of Manly-Manado is no longer required and the decision to formally close the operations of Manly-Manado Inc. as of May 2010 has been made.

Informally however the partnership, which at its heart is made up of relationships, can never be closed….it lives on in the hearts and minds of those sponsoring the development of children through Compassion or providing opportunities for families through Bridge of Hope.

Going forward, to ensure that the people of Manly continue to have this relational opportunity the Manly-Manado website will continue to act as a record of the partnership, while also continuing to provide the links through to Compassion and CNEC (Bridge of Hope) to support people in Manado.

With this change comes the closure of the opportunity to publicly fundraise under the Manly-Manado brand. Individuals interested in publicly raising funds for Compassion or CNEC (on behalf of Bridge of Hope) directly however can still do so under these organisation's own fundraising authorities. Please contact the respective organisation directly.

If you have any further questions about these changes please see our Q&A page which covers many questions.

Manly-Manado began as the God-inspired vision of an individual, it is now known as an established and recognised local community partnership that has impacted and transformed the lives of many within the communities involved. It has also planted a seed of possibility in the hearts of many across Australia and the world; some now desiring to replicate the Manly-Manado model in their own community.

To this end Jim Goddard has set up Global Community Partnerships, with a mission to empower and mentor Christians to shape and lead their own mutually transforming community partnership.