Frontline Reports
Welcoming the Welcomers: One Afghan’s Journey to the U.S.
As World Relief continues to resettle Afghans who were evacuated from Afghanistan, we are reminded that resettlement often comes with both grief and gratitude.
For Afghans like David, resettling in North Texas has been an immense gift of safety, security and community. And yet, he feels the heartache of leaving his home and extended family behind. We are grateful to David for sharing his story with us today.
A Culture of Hospitality
“The most important thing to know about Afghans is, whenever a guest comes to our house, we’re happy for it,” David said. “We say that guest is not only our guest, it’s God’s guest that came to our house.”
David had just finished assisting the World Relief North Texas (WRNT) team with a cultural orientation for Afghans who had recently resettled in the area.
As an Afghan and newly arrived immigrant himself, his knowledge of both Afghan and American culture had quickly become a vital asset to the North Texas team in welcoming the influx of Afghan refugees who were arriving.
“I did work for the Americans for 19 years straight,” he said. “I know most of the cultures and how things work because if you work with someone from their country for 19 years, you get to hear a lot of stuff and you get to share your experience with them.”
The Day Life Changed
David, along with his wife and three children, was one of the 53,000 Afghans who were evacuated out of Kabul when it fell to the Taliban in August.
Growing up in Afghanistan, David’s father worked as a soldier for the Afghan special forces in Kandahar. Two of his brothers also worked for the coalition forces, and in 2002, shortly after the U.S. launched an attack against the Taliban, David began working with the U.S.
State Department as a translator.
The day the Taliban took Kabul, David was at work, and life changed dramatically for him.
“I had friends in town,” he said. “They called me that day and said, ‘You heard Taliban is in the city? People are running left and right and they’re just scared and don’t know what’s going to happen after this.’”
When he got off the phone with his friend, he quickly went to his supervisor and informed them of what was happening. At first, no one believed him. They thought it was impossible for the Taliban to take over so quickly, and while David agreed that it seemed unbelievable, the truth soon became clear.
The Rush to Get Out
Over the next three days, David and his colleagues — Afghan and American alike — worked tirelessly to get rid of as much ammunition and military equipment as they could so as not to leave it in the hands of the Taliban. On the fourth day of his shift, though, David was told to go home, get his family and bring them back.
“They told me, ‘bring your kids, wife, that we need to evacuate you guys as soon as possible from Kabul,’” David said. “I asked them, ‘what about my other family? Like my mother or my brother?’
“They said, right now the only thing they could do is me and my wife and kids. They said they could get the rest of my family in the future, but right now, I needed to bring my wife and kids back to the base.”
David left work and drove back to his house. When he arrived, he and his wife packed everything they could into two bags.
“I had only three hours to prepare and we took all the necessary stuff that we needed from the house and made two bags and brought it with us,” he said.
When David and his family returned to the military base, they boarded a plane and left Afghanistan. Though they were now physically safe, the life they knew had been left behind.
Journeying to the U.S.
Over the next few days, David and his family made an exhausting journey across the globe. They spent one night in Qatar before flying to Germany where they stayed on a U.S. military base for seven days. David said that living conditions on the base were not great, but that he didn’t blame anyone for the poor conditions. How could he when no one ever expected to have to house so many people with such short notice?
From Germany, David flew to D.C. where he and his family went through customs and border security before finally landing in El Paso, Texas where they would live on another U.S. military base for 30 days.
The two bags they had packed, however, didn’t make it.
“When we got to Qatar, they took our bags,” David said. “They said the first priority was to get us out from here, and then it’s the bags… For 20 days, we had to wear the same clothes and after 20 days, we finally got to take a shower and change clothes. They took our bags and I still haven’t received them.”
While living conditions in El Paso were better than they were in Germany, life was still difficult. David and the other Afghans had to sleep in tents and wait in hours-long lines to get their food each day.
“I don’t blame them because in the camp where we were it was more than 10,000 people,” David said. “It’s not easy to give food to 10,000 people, three times a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner.”
Each morning, David and several other Afghans would meet with leaders at the U.S. military base hoping for some update as to when they would be released from the base and resettled in a new home.
“We were not hearing good news,” David said. “All we were hearing was that we would have to stay here for longer and longer.”
His young kids were becoming restless, often wishing they had stayed in Afghanistan, believing that life was better there. While David tried to comfort them, he too was becoming impatient with living in a tent on a military base.
Eventually, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Beginning Again
Prior to the fall of Kabul, a few of David’s friends and family had been resettled by World Relief North Texas. It was through those friends that David heard about World Relief.
“I called [my friend] and said, ‘Please talk to Jonathan (WRNT Program Manager). If it’s possible to get out from this camp…I don’t want to wait. It’s taking too long.’”
David began making arrangements to leave the military base. He got copies of the necessary paperwork and medical records, booked plane tickets for his family, and left El Paso for Fort Worth. They spent their first night in Fort Worth at David’s cousin’s house, but the following day, Jonathan called David to say that an apartment was ready for them.
“He got the apartment ready in two days. It was amazing,” David said. “I couldn’t believe they helped us so much. They brought food, furnitures, beds for the kids, everything. Everything was in the house like a family living already.”
David said that walking into the house was like taking a deep breath. His children were thrilled and immediately began asking about when they could go to school.
Over the next few days, World Relief caseworkers helped get David’s kids enrolled in school. David’s wife purchased fabric and began sewing herself new dresses since their bags remained lost. David began volunteering with World Relief, acting as a translator and liaison with new Afghans as they arrive in North Texas.
“I told Jonathan the other day if he needs help as a culture-wise, I know more about Afghans, how to provide good relations, and help and stuff. I’m always ready to help them.”
While David and his family are working hard to settle into life in the U.S. — applying for social security, getting a drivers license and working with World Relief to get their SIV case approved — the toll of the last few months still weighs on them and the other Afghans in their community.
“What we are requesting from you guys to just please be patient… Most of our people have done or have been through a lot of difficulties in Afghanistan and have given a lot of sacrifices when the U.S. military was in Afghanistan. Most of the people lost their brothers, their father, their families in what was going on in Afghanistan.”
You Can Help
Many Afghans, including David, still have family in Afghanistan who are trying to get out. They wait urgently for an update, and we wait and pray with them.
As World Relief works alongside the U.S. government to continue resettling Afghans like David, you can help. You can:
Pray: Pray for David, his family and others like them as they build a new life in the U.S. Pray also for the Afghan allies and civilians who are still seeking safety. Pray for World Relief Resettlement Staff as they work tirelessly to receive refugees as they arrive.
Advocate: Call on Congress to do everything in their power to evacuate as many as possible and resettle Afghan refugees. Together, we can stand with those who are suffering and influence our nation’s leaders to help vulnerable people around the world and in the U.S.
Give: You can respond to urgent crises, welcome immigrants like David and promote peace and justice across the globe by giving to World Relief today.
It takes all of us to build communities of love and welcome that we all feel proud to be a part of. Thank you for moving with us.
Rachel Clair is a Content Manager at World Relief. Alongside an amazing team of marketing colleagues, she manages the curation and creation of written and multi-media content for World Relief’s global platforms. With more than 10 years of experience creating content for churches and non-profits, she is passionate about developing stories that challenge individuals and communities to lean into all of whom God created them to be. She holds a BFA from Stephens College and is currently pursuing a certificate in a Spiritual Formation at the Transforming Center in Wheaton, IL.
Early Childhood Development Centers Help Care for the Caregivers
The first five years of a child’s life provide critical building blocks for lifelong development. Young children thrive when they receive intentional early learning opportunities and have parents who are equipped to care for them through responsive and playful parenting. However, for many families facing adversity, their child’s development may be hindered when one or more of their core needs are unmet.
At World Relief, we believe that local communities can come together to support caregivers in child rearing so their children can reach their full potential — caregivers like Caritas.
Caritas is an elderly blind woman who lives in Burundi. She had never been married or had biological children of her own, but when her two-year-old nephew was abandoned by his parents, she didn’t hesitate to welcome him into her small home.
However, her blindness made caring for her nephew a challenge. Caritas was always asking for help from her neighbors, and her church took notice.
Caritas lives in one of World Relief Burundi’s Church Empowerment Zones (CEZ). World Relief’s CEZ model of community development is unique and powerful, focusing on existing community assets rather than deficits. Partnering with local churches around the world, we prioritize local partnership and ownership, leadership development and capacity building so that local churches like Caritas’ can be the initiators and drivers of transformation in their own communities.
After being trained by World Relief, Caritas’ church hosted a community mobilization meeting about early childhood development. Church members decided to create a community-based Early Childhood Development (ECD) Center to meet the needs of parents and young children in their community.
Since demand for early childhood programming was high and capacity at the center was limited, church members decided to prioritize the most vulnerable children. Caritas and her nephew were identified as a family with significant need, so her nephew was admitted to the center.
After struggling to care for her nephew on her own, Caritas felt relieved to have a place where her child could benefit from the care and support of good people that she could trust. At the ECD center, he would have the opportunity to learn and grow through play.
“My child is not only protected, but he is more educated and surprises me in his development,” said Caritas. “He is no longer the poor child abandoned by his parents, but he has got a big family.”
Through community-based ECD centers like these, Caritas and hundreds of caregivers are seeing their children grow and flourish as they come together to ensure the most vulnerable children in their communities are given opportunities to develop and grow in safe spaces, full of joy, learning and playing!
Dana Pair currently serves as Program Officer at World Relief. Prior to joining World Relief, she worked in adolescent girls programming in the Portland, Oregon area. She is passionate about empowering women and girls to bring sustainable change to their communities.
10 Ways We’re Bringing Hope, Healing and Transformation in 2022
Across the globe, extreme poverty and mass displacement are on the rise, aggravated by the ongoing COVID pandemic. We’re currently facing the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time. And yet, there is hope. God is moving, and you’re invited to move too. Together, we’re bringing hope, healing and transformation to 2022.
As Myal Greene, World Relief President and CEO, recently said, “We have the opportunity to respond together as God’s church… Across the globe, men and women just like you are rising up to meet the needs of the most vulnerable among them.”
No one of us can carry the world’s burdens on our own. But when we move together, anything is possible. Will you join us?
In Burundi, we will expand our Sunday school and child protection programming in the Gitega region through 60 local churches, reaching 3,600 children in Sunday school and educating 120 church leaders on child protection.
In Cambodia, we will double the number of church networks with which we partner as we continue discipling home churches about God’s call to holistically love and serve the vulnerable.
In DR Congo, we will respond to the needs of over 125,000 vulnerable families returning from conflict in Tanganyika Province.
In Haiti, we will launch a youth empowerment agriculture-business program in the Belle Anse region.
In Kenya, we will launch our first child protection programming in the country.
In Malawi, we will mainstream our disability inclusion programming into all our work country-wide.
In Rwanda, we will expand our programming into a new region, the Gisagara District, as well as expand and scale our disability inclusion programming.
In South Sudan, we will expand our peace and reconciliation program to four additional counties located within a conflict prone region.
In Sudan, we will reach over 1.5 million people with a focus on those with special needs and others who have been neglected.
In the U.S, we will engage 1,000 church partners and 10,000 volunteers as we welcome 9,500 refugees and other immigrants into our local communities.
In faith, we’re expecting God to move greatly, even miraculously, this year. Stay informed about how God is moving through World Relief by signing up for our monthly newsletter below. Thank you for moving with us!
Kelly Hill serves as a Content Writer at World Relief. She previously served as Volunteer Services Manager at World Relief Triad in North Carolina before moving to Salt Lake City. With a background in International and Intercultural Communication, she is passionate about the power of story to connect people of diverse experiences.
Resettled: One Woman’s Journey Beyond Rebuilding
As the number of refugees arriving in the U.S. continues to increase in the coming months, we invite you to partner with us as we welcome them. Today, we’re excited to give you a glimpse at the lasting change that can happen when we move together.
A Crossing of Paths
At World Relief, we’re honored to walk alongside refugees and immigrants from around the world as they rebuild their lives in the U.S. Sharing their stories with you is a privilege. Often though, the stories we share are limited to a short and intense part of people’s lives.
Years later, you may wonder along with us, “How is that family doing now?” I never expected to get an answer to this question when I moved from North Carolina, where I worked at World Relief Triad, to Utah. But that’s exactly what happened.
Two weeks after moving, I bought a plant on Facebook marketplace from a woman named Buthainah. It didn’t take long for us to realize our shared connection: she had been resettled by World Relief Triad in 2009. Hearing her story reminded me of the lasting impact we can have when we move together. Buthainah eagerly agreed to share her story with us today.
When Everything Changes
Buthainah grew up in Baghdad, Iraq. Although the country was tightly controlled by Sadam Husain’s regime, she remembers having a happy childhood.
Her father worked as a major general at the naval academy, and her mother was an architect. Buthainah did well in school. She was a child of imagination — drawing, reading and writing stories in which she was the heroine. “Life was simple for us kids and family,” she said, “we were happy and content!”
But then war broke out, and everything changed. At 13, Buthainah fled with her parents and four sisters to Jordan. Two and a half years later, they were selected for resettlement in the U.S.
Flying to the U.S. was stressful. As a family of seven, they struggled through the airport with two suitcases each. Buthainah remembers bringing clothes, drawings and a memory book from elementary school with notes from her friends and teachers. “I’m a very sentimental person. [They’re] silly things, but they hold a lot of value for me.”
Buthainah’s family arrived on June 25, 2009. From geography to environment to culture, Buthainah was immersed in a world of difference. And a world where she, herself, was labeled as different.
“You have your life, and all of a sudden, it’s taken away from you,” she said. “And then you are labeled as a refugee, not who you are. It makes you feel unseen and it diminishes your value… or at least it did for me.”
Someone to Walk With
But someone did see Buthainah and her family — former World Relief Case Manager, Brian Boggs. “Brian was one of the very few people early on to really understand us,” Buthainah remembers. “He spent time to explain the system to us.”
Brian drove the family to appointments and made sure the kids were enrolled in school. He helped them navigate their new home, finding grocery stores and bus routes.
“[Case management is] basically like helping somebody start their life over in a new place,” Brian explained. “If you think about all the basics people just take for granted — children going to school, parents, if they need it, getting English classes — you’re trying to guide people in a way that will help them be successful later on.”
In the midst of hectic transitions and changes, Buthainah remembers that Brian was there for her family when they needed him most. “He was a stranger to us, [but he] made it easier to feel people cared and saw us for who we were, not just another number or another person who is going to be a burden.”
Life After Resettlement
With Brian’s help, Buthainah’s family adjusted to their new lives in America. The girls settled in at school and their parents found work. Their lives were being rebuilt. Eventually, Brian became busy caring for more recent arrivals, and Buthainah and her family transitioned out of World Relief programs, pursuing new dreams of their own.
Buthaina’s parents both went back to school for master’s degrees and then PhDs in computational science. Her mom is now working as an energy analyst and her dad is retired.
One sister is completing her residency in Delaware. Another is working as a paralegal and plans to go to law school. The third is in college, and the youngest, who was only five when they were resettled in the Triad, is hoping to finish high school in just three years.
As for Buthainah, she graduated high school with excellent grades, went to college, and worked as a process chemist at a pharmaceutical company. She then decided to attend graduate school in Utah.
Today, she’s moved back to Greensboro to be closer to family and has successfully completed a PhD in organometallic chemistry. She’s now dreaming of starting her own business and maybe even a reform movement.
“Like reform of education and reform of the way we think,’ Buthainah said. She wants to help people understand the many ways we can learn and approach life. “Exactly how I’m going to get there?” she laughed, “I don’t know — but I have faith that it will all work out.”
When We Move Together
Twelve years later, Buthainah’s had time to think about her experience of resettlement. When asked what she would say to her younger self, she said, “Just know who you are. Be true to who you are, and don’t be ashamed of where you come from.”
She also had some advice for those welcoming refugees now. “You have a choice to judge another human being and make them less than you or not,” she said. “We’re very thankful to the people who really gave us a chance and gave us a start.” People like Brian.
When Buthainah and Brian recently reconnected, she told him, “You made us feel seen and you made us feel like we’re humans and we have equal chance. Because of that, we were able to believe in ourselves. It just takes some people sometimes to have that faith in you at your lowest when you doubt yourself.”
But Brian is reluctant to take credit.
“When you know people who are going through some of the hardest things not only that they’ve been through, but maybe all of humanity could go through,” he said, “you see potential. I don’t take credit for any of it… [Buthainah’s family] worked hard and believed in themselves. It’s theirs. It’s really nice to be invited into their journey.”
For refugees, the road to rebuilding their lives is long. You can help Pave the Path for more families like Buthainah’s by joining our community of monthly givers who are committed to helping refugees and immigrants thrive today, tomorrow and long into the future. Will you join us in building lasting communities of welcome?
Kelly Hill serves as a Content Writer at World Relief. She previously served as Volunteer Services Manager at World Relief Triad in North Carolina before moving to Salt Lake City. With a background in International and Intercultural Communication, she is passionate about the power of story to connect people of diverse experiences.
Share the Gift Pt. 2: Paying it Forward to Empower Women in Turkana
Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. We invite you to share-the-gift by paying it forward alongside women in Turkana County. Earlier this month you heard about a powerful share-the-gift project in Karebur Village, Turkana.
500 miles north, in Kachoba Village, another share-the-gift project is also taking root. This time, it’s combating malnutrition while empowering women to take on new and important roles within their families and community.
Sharing the Gift in Kachoba
Turkana has predominantly been a patriarchal society. Men are the leaders and the heads of the household and are responsible for making decisions concerning family wealth including slaughtering livestock for food and/or choosing which livestock gets sold or traded.
In this pastoralist community, it is common for the men to leave the home weeks at a time, taking the livestock out to graze where they can find food. In better times, households would have food in the reserve. They would slaughter an animal, cut the meat into thin strips like spaghetti then hang it out in the sun to dry completely. Then, they’d salt the meat and keep it above the fireplace which is always smoking, thus preventing the meat from rotting.
If one household was running low on food, a neighbor might put some of their meat in a pot to make some broth and offer it to others. Again, hands meeting in the pot!
Today, however, climate change and drought is threatening their very way of life. As the livestock is dying off, there is less meat for people to eat, and the remaining livestock struggle to produce milk. Malnutrition is rampant and is affecting children under five at increasingly high rates.
As the primary caregivers of the home and children, women have valuable insights into their family’s needs. And yet, they are not consulted on decisions that affect livelihoods, livestock or daily food intake. In order to combat malnutrition in Kachoba, women need to weigh in.
Care Groups and Creative Problem Solving
Many of the women in Kochoba are involved in World Relief’s Care Group program, where together they began brainstorming new food options to improve household nutrition.
Initially, the mothers proposed milking goats, but concluded they would have a hard time finding adequate feed for their goats. The cyclic drought caused by climate change has made foliage — a goat’s source of food — hard to come by. Underfed goats cannot produce an adequate amount of milk to feed their families.
As the women talked further, they proposed the idea of chickens. Chickens are smaller animals so they are easier to feed. And while men typically control decisions related to livestock, they see chickens as too small for them to worry about.
In 2021, World Relief gifted 50 participating women with four chickens and one cockerel. The women agreed that once their chickens reproduce, they will give away a similar number — three chickens and one cockerel — to another lady in her community.
Because men don’t care for chickens, women are able to have an asset in their hands that they can control, and which can significantly improve nutrition at the household level.
They’re also able to make decisions about whether or not they want to sell one of the cocks or chicks to purchase something they need such as medication for a sick child. Although the project is less than a year old, we are seeing improvements in the way families relate to one another. It has helped women a great deal.
Moving Together Toward Lasting Change
The share-the-gift project is just one part of an expansive community development project in Turkana. The local church networks in the area continue to supervise these projects, ensuring that the seed of love first planted by World Relief will saturate the entire community so that every household has the chance to receive and improve their livestock.
That’s where the whole joy today is. We are not just creating solutions for people to have food to be stronger. We are creating solutions that are wholesome, uprooting the community from poverty, to a place of holistic transformation, where they are able to take charge of their destiny.God loves his people and is infinitely interested in their welfare. That statement is true whether someone is a project coordinator or implementer (like our staff) or a project beneficiary. We are moving together, growing and learning together as we seek to create lasting change in our communities and around the world.
Share your gift this Giving Tuesday by paying it forward on behalf of a friend or family member. When you give today, you’ll receive a digital card to send to your loved one, letting them know about the lasting change their gift is creating.
Elias Kamau serves as Country Director at World Relief Kenya. He has over 20 years of experience in humanitarian and development work in various countries including South Sudan, Somalia, Haiti, Kenya and Sudan. He started his career as a schoolteacher rising to the position of Director of External Studies and Continuing Education and successfully trained teachers in and out of Kenya. Exposure to the plight of refugees while serving as an education and training consultant in the sprawling Dadaab Refugee camps in Northern Kenya marked a turning point in his life. He resigned his position with the government feeling called to those vulnerable people. He went on to serve them in some of the poorest parts of the Horn of Africa where he held various positions with reputable International organizations including CARE, Norwegian Church Aid, International AID Services and World Concern among others before joining World Relief. Elias lives in Nairobi with his family including his wife Phelista and two children; a girl and a boy. He enjoys making friends and sharing the love of Jesus.
Oliver Otsimi serves as the Turkana Program Manager at World Relief. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies (Community Development) and post graduate trainings in Horticultural Crop Production and Post-Harvest Technology, Agribusiness and Marketing. Oliver is studying for a Masters degree in Project Planning and Management at Maseno University. Oliver’s ambition is to positively transform poor households achieve food security and prosperity to enable them live a life of dignity as intended by God. He is married to Pamela and they have two children.
Share the Gift Pt. 1: How One Community in Turkana Is Paying it Forward
Hands Meeting in the Pot
Turkana County, Kenya, is not an easy place to live. Some have even referred to it as the oven of the world. High temperatures hover at an average of 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The air is dry, and rainfall is scarce.
Many residents have lost all their livestock due to persistent drought, and malnutrition is rampant — especially among children whose mothers struggle to produce enough milk to feed them due to their own dietary deficiencies. And yet, a culture of generosity and creativity is giving way to hope and innovation in partnership with World Relief.
Because of the sheer hardness of life in Turkana, community members have developed strong relationships and social capital with one another, depending on each other greatly. You may often hear stories of Turkanans moving to the United States or Australia to work. The money they make is sent home, often supporting several households.
Turkanans even have a saying, which goes, “It is best for your hands to meet in the pot, licking fingers with nothing, than it is for you to have a big meal in front of you to eat all alone.”
This idea of giving to your relatives and neighbors is an ingrained way of life in Turkana. And it is this way of life that has led to a new program called Share the Gift in the Karebur and Kachoba communities.
Introducing the Galla Goat
World Relief began working in Turkana in 2011 in response to a drought-induced food crisis. At the time, one-third of the population suffered from malnutrition. We collaborated with local churches and community members to seek solutions to these issues, and together, we developed robust programming around the issues of food and water security — including introducing a new breed of goats to the region, the Galla goat. Galla goats are a specialized, drought-resistant breed of goats. News outlets like NPR have called them “super goats” because of their ability to withstand high heat.
Initially, many Turkanans were skeptical about the new breed. Their goats were red, and the Galla goats were white. These pastoralist men were proud of their livestock and treasured their red goats. Likewise, they feared the white goats would be easier to spot leaving them prone to conflict or theft.
But as they came to see that the Galla goats were superior — they produced more milk, matured faster and fetched higher prices at the markets — they became more willing to give the goats a try.
Sharing the Gift in Karebur
While the Galla goats are, themselves, a gift and a miracle, in 2019 World Relief worked with local churches in the Karebur Village to take things a step further. Together, they designed the first share-the-gift project.
Under the guidelines of this initiative, 20 women were each gifted a Galla goat and each committed to gifting the first female offspring from their goat to another, equally needy person in the community. From there, the chain reaction would begin, until everyone had access to a Galla goat.
Akiru was one of the first 20 women to receive a goat.
“I love Karebur Community because of the unity and love [we] have for each other… Life has always been a struggle in our community. The drought has always been with us and our goat breeds had been deteriorating as their body sizes had been diminishing and so was their production. The gift of an improved goat was indeed a blessing to us.
I remember during the first lactation the goat produced a lot of milk which was enough for my (own) family’s use and there was surplus milk, which we could share with my neighbor. The gifted goat was such a blessing.”
In early 2021, after the initial 20 goats had produced offspring, the goats’ owners stayed true to their commitment and gifted their first female offspring to others in the community. Women like Anna received the tangible provision of sustenance as well as a renewed sense of connectedness with her friend and neighbor.
“The goat from [my]neighbor has improved our relations for the better. My neighbor now is like a very close relative as a result of the bond of caring resulting from this valuable gift of love,” she said.
The share-the-gift project is just one part of an expansive community development project in Turkana that is made possible when we move together. The local church networks in the area continue to supervise these projects, ensuring that the seed of love first planted by World Relief will saturate the entire community so that every household has the chance to receive and improve their livestock.
You, too, can share the gift this season. Your gift of $60 can make a huge difference in the lives of the most vulnerable around the world, including supplying a goat to a family in Turkana!
Will you give the gift of hope and lasting change this season?
Elias Kamau serves as Country Director at World Relief Kenya. He has over 20 years of experience in humanitarian and development work in various countries including South Sudan, Somalia, Haiti, Kenya and Sudan. He started his career as a schoolteacher rising to the position of Director of External Studies and Continuing Education and successfully trained teachers in and out of Kenya. Exposure to the plight of refugees while serving as an education and training consultant in the sprawling Dadaab Refugee camps in Northern Kenya marked a turning point in his life. He resigned his position with the government feeling called to those vulnerable people. He went on to serve them in some of the poorest parts of the Horn of Africa where he held various positions with reputable International organizations including CARE, Norwegian Church Aid, International AID Services and World Concern among others before joining World Relief. Elias lives in Nairobi with his family including his wife Phelista and two children; a girl and a boy. He enjoys making friends and sharing the love of Jesus.
Oliver Otsimi serves as the Turkana Program Manager at World Relief. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies (Community Development) and post graduate trainings in Horticultural Crop Production and Post-Harvest Technology, Agribusiness and Marketing. Oliver is studying for a Masters degree in Project Planning and Management at Maseno University. Oliver’s ambition is to positively transform poor households achieve food security and prosperity to enable them live a life of dignity as intended by God. He is married to Pamela and they have two children.
The Price of our Daughters
Earlier this week, news broke of Parwana Malik, a 9-year-old girl sold for $2,200 to a 55-year old man in an Afghan displacement camp. The heartbreaking story is one of many coming out of Afghanistan this week, as families struggle to survive since the Taliban took control of the nation.
Many of us were shocked and despaired by this news. Here, we answer a few questions about child marriage and what can be done to curtail the devastating practice.
Is what we’re seeing in the news in Afghanistan a common occurrence around the world? How prevalent is child marriage globally?
Unfortunately, child marriage around the world is far more common than any of us would like to believe. Worldwide, an estimated 650 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood. Each year, over 12 million girls are married before the age of 18 – that’s 23 young girls every minute.
Globally, we have made significant progress over the last decade in reducing the occurrence of child marriage, but the effects of COVID-19 have dramatically shifted that trajectory. A recent report by UNICEF revealed that 10 million additional girls are now at risk due to the pandemic – a result of school closures, economic stress, service disruptions, pregnancy and parental deaths.
Isolated and with limited freedom, these child brides are deprived of their fundamental rights to health, education and safety. They are neither physically nor emotionally ready to become wives and mothers and face increased risks of experiencing dangerous complications in pregnancy and childbirth, contracting HIV/AIDS and suffering domestic violence and abuse. With limited access to education and economic opportunities, they and their families are also more likely to live in poverty.
What are the factors that contribute to child marriage around the world?
There are many complex elements that contribute to underage marriage globally – including harmful gender norms, social and cultural practices, poverty and insecurity.
At the root of child marriage is gender inequality and injustice. All over the world today, girls are valued less because of their sex and denied their rights. They are controlled by patriarchal systems that often limit their freedom, education and decision-making.
These systems create social and cultural norms that further restrict girls and women from having control over their own lives and futures. And for too many girls, these norms dictate early marriage before the age of 18.
Nearly 40% of girls in the world’s poorest countries are married before the age of 18. Families in poverty see the marriage of their daughters as a way to both ease the burden of living costs and secure economic stability from the dowry or “bride price.”
Early marriage of girls becomes even more frequent during times of conflict or crisis, as families slip further into poverty. The marriage of a daughter can often be used to repay debts, settle conflict, or create alliances. Some parents, can even see early marriage as a way to protect their daughters from sexual violence during conflict where the rule of law has broken down.
How can we work with communities and families to prevent child marriage?
Thankfully, prevention methods can help significantly in reducing the occurrence child marriage.
One such method is building holistic child protection systems that create protective environments for early adolescents and teens. At World Relief, this looks like early adolescent and adolescent clubs which equip and empower not only children themselves to understand how to prevent early marriage but also those that are in the circle of care and influence, including parents and caregivers, faith leaders, teachers, mentors and other community members. By establishing this kind of protective environment, we can prevent abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence before it occurs.
Since economics and root issues of poverty are the primary drivers for early marriage (as we’ve seen exacerbated in the developing world during the pandemic), another prevention method lies in strengthening families through economic projects that build household resilience and sustainability. At World Relief, these projects include savings and agricultural groups that help families achieve economic security.
Can you tell me more about World Relief’s child protection work, specifically?
At World Relief, our child development and protection work includes early adolescent and adolescent clubs; Channels of Hope for Child Protection; and community-based Child Protection Committees.
We empower churches and communities to create clubs for adolescents to help them develop critical life skills such as respecting one another and discovering personal strengths, as well as sexual reproductive health, child rights and issues of child protection. As adolescents approach adulthood, our programming incorporates lessons in mentoring, job skills training, youth savings groups, life skills and HIV/AIDs prevention and support
Educating children alone about how to protect themselves isn’t enough. That’s why we also train churches in child protection, mobilizing faith leaders and community members to build protective environments for children through our Channels of Hope for Child Protection program. Through these workshops, individuals and the wider faith community are empowered to respond to local issues and build sustainable solutions that help prevent and protect children from abuse and violence and help them thrive in their communities.
We then link children, adolescents and adults together through community-based child protection committees. These child protection committees, established by World Relief, help promote and facilitate partnerships among churches, communities and government systems and providesa way for communities to own the responsibility for child protection as a community and includes the participation of children and youth.
How can I help?
We believe that change is possible for the millions of girls around the world who suffer through forced marriages. But it takes all of us, moving together, to create change that lasts.
When you give to World Relief, you can improve the lives of young girls around the world – protecting them from forced marriages that deprive them of opportunity and leave them vulnerable to physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma.
Here’s just some of what your money can do:
$50 will teach one couple how to better care for and nurture young girls – changing the narrative about the worth of daughters within families.
$250 will form an adolescent girls clubs – providing 15 girls with the opportunity to learn the skills and receive the support they need to transition well into adulthood.
$1,000 will sponsor an intensive conference for church leaders regarding child protection issues so they can be equipped to advocate for and create a protective environment for young girls in their community.
Will you join us as we bring protection, hope and opportunity to these girls?
Girls: Change Makers and World Shapers
“Girls are one of the most powerful forces for change in the world: When their rights are recognized, their needs are met and their voices are heard, they drive positive change in their families, their communities and the world.” – Kathy Calvin, United Nations Foundation President & CEO
If you empower a girl, you empower her whole community. We’ve seen this at World Relief, where girls around the world are finding opportunities to step into their God-given gifts. Often, among the most vulnerable populations globally, girls have a unique power to lift up their communities as they themselves rise.
In places of conflict, women are peacemakers and influencers. In times of need, women drive transformation and development in their homes, their neighborhoods and their nations. And when girls feel valued, celebrated and motivated, they grow up to be powerful change-making women.
Today, on International Day of the Girl Child, we’re sharing two stories of girls who are creating change in their communities. Sifa and Marady live thousands of miles apart, but they have something in common: they’re both part of World Relief Kid’s Clubs.
Through Kid’s Clubs, we partner with local churches, schools and community members to teach children how to develop healthy relationships with God, others and self. In their local clubs, Sifa and Marady are learning and leading others to grow physically, emotionally, socially, mentally and spiritually.
Sifa: Starting a Kid’s Savings Movement in Rwanda
Sifa is 11 years old, and her dream is to become rich. But she doesn’t want to be rich for herself. Sifa wants to use her money to serve orphans and vulnerable children. And she wants to help other kids do the same.
After seeing the positive impact joining a World Relief savings group had on her parents and family, Sifa decided that she and her friends should be learning about saving and finances, too. Sifa told her peers about the savings group and they decided to start their own.
The group is made up of 30 kids between the ages of six and 11. With their parents’ support and supervision of a Kid’s Club volunteer, each child contributes about 10 cents at weekly meetings.
Soon, the group had enough money to purchase two chickens for each child. The kids care for the chickens and sell the eggs at the market, continuing to increase the savings of the group. Together, Sifa and her peers decide on priorities to solve their problems, as well as those of the community — especially caring for the needs of their most vulnerable neighbors.
Because of Sifa’s determination and heart to help other children, she’s inspired a movement.
So far, more than five churches in her community have followed her lead and started savings groups in their Kid’s Clubs.
As for Sifa, she’s looking forward to earning more money and helping more kids. “Looking at how far I have come,” she said, “earning enough to buy a chicken which is producing eggs for selling to the market, my future is guaranteed.”
Marady: Leading Through Crisis in Cambodia
At 12 years old, Marady is a leader among her friends. When she started attending Kid’s Clubs, Marady was so enthusiastic about what she was learning that she began sharing lessons and activities with her classmates at school. Now, she’s become one of the club’s biggest advocates.
When COVID-19 hit, club meetings were sometimes cancelled due to safety concerns, but Marady remained committed. Once it was safe, Marady would gather her friends from Kid’s Club and review activities and lessons they had learned together.
“Marady has a helping heart,” a Kid’s Club volunteer said, “She helps prepare the space and materials when the club starts and ends. She also helps remind and call her club-mates to Kid’s Club every week.”
“I really enjoy coming to Kid’s Club,” Marady said. “I like to play with other kids and do some activities like washing our hands, cutting our nails and coloring together.”
Because of Marady, the friendship between the kids and the hygiene knowledge they learned remained intact in the midst of a challenging season.
We thank God for girls like Sifa and Marady! Through their compassion and perseverance, they are creating lasting change among their friends and neighbors. Whether helping kids maintain knowledge and friendship through a pandemic or inspiring financial responsibility as a means to care for one another, these girls are transforming the world around them one change at a time.
Sifa and Marady are just two of the 1.1 billion girls around the world. If we invest in and empower girls globally, what else might they accomplish?
Join us in celebrating the power and potential of girls around the world by giving today or joining The Path.
Emily Kankindi Iyakaremye joined World Relief in 2005 as a receptionist. Six months later, she was promoted to Assistant to the Country Director and served in this role for seven years. Her skills and experience in communications, planning and hospitality then lead her to a role in the Evaluation, Research and Development department where she served for four years. Today, Emily heads the Communications and Documentation unit at World Relief Rwanda, working as the Communication and Documentation Coordinator. She is married and has two daughters aged 11 and 13 year old. She has a Bachelor Degree in Marketing and is in the process of furthering her studies in the domain of counseling and human services as she believes it is her passion and gift from God.
Bopha So serves as a Child Development Facilitator at World Relief Cambodia, where she has worked for almost 21 years. She has a great heart for the most vulnerable, and is gifted at building good relationships within communities, especially with kids’ parents.
Kelly Hill serves as a Content Writer at World Relief. She previously served as Volunteer Services Manager at World Relief Triad in North Carolina before moving to Salt Lake City. With a background in International and Intercultural Communication, she is passionate about the power of story to connect people of diverse experiences.
Sanctions Against Ethiopia are Not the Answer
Over the last two weeks, the news cycle has been inundated with reports, stories and updates on events unfolding in Haiti and Afghanistan. While our teams on the ground in Haiti continue to respond with emergency assistance, and our local U.S. offices prepare to welcome new Afghan neighbors, we don’t want to forget the other crises that continue to evolve across the globe.
Today, World Relief’s Gemta Adula speaks into the conflict happening in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, advocating for sustainable solutions to a complex situation. Read on to learn more. Thank you for continuing to lean in and join us as we respond to urgent crises and build resilience in communities across the globe.
With military forces blocking humanitarian aid routes to parts of Ethiopia’s volatile Tigray region, there are calls in Congress to enact sanctions against the Ethiopian government. But sanctions are not the answer.
I work with Ethiopian refugees, and my experience has shown me that sanctions will only further impede aid from reaching the most vulnerable people in rural Tigray. I urge the U.S. to keep the diplomatic channels open and focus on finding a way to open humanitarian access.
Tigray has been the site of guerilla warfare, sexual violence and torture since the end of 2020, when a conflict arose between the Ethiopian federal government and Tigrayan regional forces. Since then, an estimated 1.7 million people have been displaced from their homes; many are internally displaced, while others have crossed borders into Eritrea and Sudan, where I served as World Relief’s country director for six years.
Most are left with nothing more than the clothes they were wearing. The situation is likely larger than we know, but the government has restricted access to and communication with many parts of the region.
World Relief operates in various parts of Sudan, including as one of the largest NGOs operating in West Darfur and Central Darfur, which are facing their own tensions and displacement crisis.
But we are also active in the Blue Nile State, on the Ethiopian border, where we are helping refugees who have crossed the border into Sudan. Last month, a new camp called Camp 6 was established 6 km away from the Ethiopian border, designed in coordination between the Sudanese Government’s Commissioner for Refugees and the U.N. World Relief has been distributing food, blankets, shelter materials, face masks and soap bars in the camp.
One of the refugees at Camp 6 is Eikram Ali, a 14-year-old girl who fled the violence and was separated from her parents in the process. In Ethiopia, she dreamed of becoming a teacher or a nurse, but her life has been turned upside down by the conflict. Her village was hit by massive mortar attacks, and she spent her first weeks in camp not knowing whether her parents had survived the attacks. Only recently, she learned they were alive when friends from her village arrived in Camp 6. “I still can’t sleep,” she told one of our staff members, “because I am really missing them.”
The situation in Sudan is difficult. The economy in Sudan is in a freefall, with the value of the Sudanese pound falling rapidly. Buying power declines daily. Fuel is in short supply. Trade and commerce have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions and refugees are especially vulnerable to the virus.
America lost a lot of its clout with the Ethiopian government during the previous presidential administration. But even as we work to rebuild bridges, we need to push hard on Ethiopian leaders to be accountable for these atrocities and to truly consider whether the cost of continued fighting in the name of national unity is worth the destruction of innocent lives.
We have to focus on finding a diplomatic solution in Tigray to restore peace and stability in the region so that displaced people can return to their homes in time.
The United States should not push unilaterally for sanctions, but rather should work with the U.N. on durable solutions. In time, there will be a need to dispense justice through meaningful truth and reconciliation methodologies, but right now, getting aid to the Tigrayan refugees in Sudan and allowing humanitarian access to all parts of Tigray in Ethiopia should be the top priorities.
By giving today, you help World Relief respond to crises like the one in Tigray when and where we’re needed most. Your gift provides aid to those affected by humanitarian crises and builds resilience in communities across the globe.
Gemta Birhanu has been the Sudan Country Director for the past six years, and was recently promoted to Deputy Director of the Humanitarian and Disaster Response Unit at World Relief. Gemta holds a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) with specialization in project management, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Dry Land Agriculture and Natural Resources Management. Gemta lives in Ethiopia with his wife and three children.
4 Things You May Not Know About COVID-19 and Why You Should Care
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt our daily lives and the Delta variant creates new uncertainties, many of us are feeling weary. Experts have a term for this: pandemic fatigue. Pandemic fatigue can cause us to feel disengaged and even hopeless. We may even begin to ask ourselves, “Why should I care about COVID-19?”
Today, we’re sharing four things you may not know about COVID-19 and why you should care. At a time when many of us feel disconnected, COVID-19 continues to show that we’re truly all in this together.
When COVID-19 swept the world in early 2020, we quickly realized it would mean major shifts in the way we serve those in vulnerable situations. Eighteen months later, we’re still learning, still adapting and still uncovering new ways this virus is affecting people across the globe. Here’s what you may not know:
1. Extreme poverty and food insecurity are on the rise.
In 2020, Oxfam and The World Food Bank predicted that half a billion people would be pushed into extreme poverty and a “famine of biblical proportions” would be ushered in by the pandemic. Today, we’re seeing those predictions play out:
- 296 million people worldwide are going without food — a statistic that’s up 111 million from April 2020.
- 56% of the world’s children now lack access to education or health services (up from 47%).
- And the estimated number of COVID-induced poor is expected to rise from 119 million to 124 million.
World Relief President and CEO Myal Greene reflected, “The pandemic is basically undoing a decade’s worth of human development around the world in terms of progress in getting people out of poverty. We’re certainly seeing that in many of the communities where we work.”
2. COVID-19 is disproportionately impacting those in already vulnerable situations.
When Mount Nyiragongo erupted in DR Congo earlier this year, coronavirus was not the first concern on anyone’s mind. “When people were fleeing, nobody cared about COVID-19 preventive measures,” said Jean Nyandwi, World Relief DR Congo Country Director.
“After the people who had fled returned back to the city, the government announced the third wave of COVID-19,” he continued. “We believe partly this volcanic eruption may have increased COVID-19 cases.”
While the volcanic eruption may have increased people’s exposure to the virus, a lack of access to vaccines, as well as vaccine hesitancy, is most certainly putting women and men at a greater risk of contracting the virus.
In a country that already faces one of the world’s worst food security crises, vulnerability to one crisis made increased vulnerability to the COVID crisis inevitable.
And these stories of increased vulnerability are not unique to DR Congo. Across the globe, those in vulnerable situations are experiencing outsized impacts of the pandemic.
“It’s making the poor poorer,” Nyandwi said. “When people get sick, they have to pay for their hospital bills. Burials also cost money. Many people have lost their jobs. Prices have increased for basic commodities, particularly in the city of Goma, and likely this is true for the rest of the country as well.”
3. And it’s not just the poorest of the poor who are being affected.
When we talk about the poorest of the poor, we’re referring to those who live on less than $2 a day. That number is increasing by several hundred million people globally, and that is significant.
But, as Greene mentioned in a recent interview, “other tiers of poverty are also increasing as people are moving down the scale of development. We’ve had to do food distributions among middle-income populations where we haven’t typically had to do such activities before.”
This was the case in Cambodia where an April lockdown affected people like Grandma Phun Phally who lives in Phnom Penh province. Like many small business owners, Phun Phally relies on daily market sales to afford food and basic necessities. Job losses and decreased incomes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have made it harder for people like her to afford these necessities, and this latest round of shutdowns only intensified the fragile situation.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has caused the government to limit travel during this time, so I and my family members are unable to go out and do business and earn money,” Phun Phally said. “Because our family owns a small business, we don’t have as much money to spend over such a lengthy period of time. That is something we are very concerned about.”
4. Churches and local communities are being equipped to respond.
In Cambodia, World Relief partnered with local churches to supply and distribute food relief packages to the neediest households in Phnom Penh. Grandma Phun Phally was one of the recipients.
“Thank God. He heard our plea and answered it,” she said. “A food shipment from WRC, our church’s partner, was another blessing. This package is extremely beneficial to us in continuing to fight through this difficult period…Pray for everyone to come out on top in this difficult situation.”
In total, World Relief Cambodia gave $20,000 in grants, which funded food relief packages for 1,378 families.
World Relief continues to reach local communities across the globe with accurate COVID-19 prevention messages. Thanks to a $2.3 million grant from USAID, this work is expanding in DR Congo, Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda.
Churches and faith leaders are being equipped and mobilized to rally their congregations and communities around infection prevention efforts including supplying community members with cloth masks, handwashing soap and other community care supplies while also providing accurate information about COVID-19 vaccines.
Faith leaders, who are often seen as trustworthy authorities in local communities, are playing a key role in accelerating equitable access to and widespread use of COVID-19 vaccinations and prevention measures.
Why You Should Care
COVID-19 continues to impact the world and the church continues to respond. But, as individuals facing what can seem at times both insurmountable and far removed, we might still be asking ourselves, “Why should I care about COVID-19?” or even, “What can I possibly do?”
When we asked Greene these questions, we thought his answer captured it perfectly:
This pandemic is the greatest crisis the world has faced within our lifetime, and the people who are most affected by it are those already in the most vulnerable situations in the world. Unless we get this thing under control, that suffering isn’t going to stop and is going to get progressively worse.
In 1 Corinthians, we read about the body of Christ and the idea that when one part suffers the whole body suffers. In the U.S., many of us feel as if we are turning a corner, but right now, many places around the world have not yet turned the corner. Those parts of our body are suffering. But we can help.
We all have a role to play — whether it’s through prayer, getting the vaccine or supporting causes that are helping the most vulnerable through this time — we can help our neighbors get over the edge of this pandemic and we can do it together.
Help your neighbors get over the edge of the pandemic and beyond by giving today or joining The Path.
Kelly Hill serves as a Content Writer at World Relief. She previously served as Volunteer Services Manager at World Relief Triad in North Carolina before moving to Salt Lake City. With a background in International and Intercultural Communication, she is passionate about the power of story to connect people of diverse experiences.
Rachel Clair serves as a Content Writer at World Relief. With a background in creative writing and children’s ministry, she is passionate about helping people of all ages think creatively and love God with their hearts, souls and minds.
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