Posts Tagged ‘Kenya’
How To Create Change That Lasts
It was a late afternoon in 2017 when we pulled up in front of the giant structure. Eight hours of driving off-road through rock, sand and empty riverbeds had left our team sore and tired, yet the sight alone was enough to shake us from our weariness. In front of us, upon the western shore of Lake Turkana, stood what appeared to be a factory â disheveled, empty and eerily silent.
Following the Sahelian drought of the mid-1980s, massive famine devastated the Turkana region. As is so often the case with large-scale global disasters, the initial compassion surge propelled aid rapidly into the region.
International organizations set up food distributions, medical teams flew in to staff temporary feeding clinics and the Turkana people were once again shown that when things get just bad enough, Western forces will undoubtedly swoop in and try to save the day.Â
That day, we witnessed one of these examples, as it blocked the blistering rays of afternoon sun from our faces. Twenty years and 150 million U.S. dollars later, a fishery had been completed for the people of Turkana. Its promise? To prevent the people of the region from ever facing starvation again. The reality? A tragic landmark of good intentions gone wrong. The people of Turkana, you see, do not eat fish.
The Elephant in the Room
In his book, When Helping Hurts, Steve Corbett recounts an old African fable:
Elephant and Mouse were best friends. One day Elephant said, âMouse, letâs have a party!â Animals gathered from far and near. They ate. They drank. They sang. And they danced. And nobody celebrated more and danced harder than Elephant. After the party was over, Elephant exclaimed, âMouse, did you ever go to a better party? What a blast!â But Mouse did not answer. âMouse, where are you?â Elephant called. He looked around for his friend, and then shrank back in horror. There at Elephantâs feet lay Mouse. His little body was ground into the dirt. He had been smashed by the big feet of his exuberant friend, Elephant.
Western missions and aid interventions, Corbett writes, are âlike dancing with an Elephant. Elephant does not mean to do harm, but he [doesnât] understand the effects he [is] having on Mouse.â
Sadly, the example of the fishery in Turkana is a tangible manifestation of this fable. It seems that every year we hear horror stories of time and money poured into well-meaning aid interventions that fail to solve the problems they intended to, create damaging patterns of dependency or, worst of all, create bigger problems for their intended beneficiaries.
World Relief Chooses a Different Path
These well-intentioned interventions, while tragic, have taught us important lessons. In fact, they are a central part of how World Relief developed our model of relief and development. We understand that lasting change comes not with quick fixes or band-aid solutions, but through a deep understanding of the unique beliefs, cultural traditions, resources and needs of the communities in which we work.
Such an approach ensures that in places like northern Turkana, we understand that this nomadic, pastoralist community survives on a diet of meat, milk and blood, and that asking them to eat fish â a species they believe are directly related to snakes and associate with danger â is not a quick fix, even in cases of famine.
In seeking to fight against famine in Turkana, we have worked closely with local churches and leaders to brainstorm creative solutions to combat malnutrition.
Over the last 12 years, weâve developed a robust agricultural program in the region that helps expand and diversify the Turkana diet beyond traditional food sources, as well as teach desert farming techniques to help conserve water.
Weâve also bred drought-resistant goats that can survive for longer periods of time without water and launched poultry farming and beekeeping groups that are not only helping the people of Turkana diversify their diets, but also earn income from sustainable food sources. These innovative, culturally-relevant solutions work for the unique challenges and needs of the population and have saved lives in the face of more recent famine and drought.
Grassroots interventions like the ones in Turkana not only honor local knowledge, culture and community resources, but they also pave the way to break the cycle of Western aid that disempowers so many communities in the developing world.
Becoming a Better Partner
In 2010, African economist Dambisa Moyo wrote in her book, Dead Aid, about the broken systems that keep many communities trapped in cycles of dependence on outside aid:
âAfrica is addicted to aid. For the past sixty years it has been fed aid. Like any addict it needs and depends on its regular fix, finding it hard, if not impossible, to contemplate existence in an aid-less world. In Africa, the West has found its perfect client to deal to.â
These words, though difficult and perhaps a bit controversial, echo all too true for many development practitioners who frequently hear petitions for food and money when first entering new communities.
Itâs also precisely why, when we first enter communities, we begin by bringing local churches together to discuss the ways in which they can work together to solve their own problems. In fact, local pastors, community leaders and a global network of over 95,000 local volunteers, are responsible for the implementation of our programs around the world.
Whatâs more, 95% of our staff are local to the communities in which they work. Not only do they have an inside voice and understanding that no outside organization can bring, they also bring a passionate commitment for seeing their communities thrive. They will remain in their communities long after we depart â creating, leading and sustaining community efforts toward change.Â
World Reliefâs Commitment to Lasting Change
Our world today is obsessed with quick fixes, but at World Relief, weâre fighting for change that lasts. Today, drought is once again threatening severe famine as Turkana. Whatâs more, the war in Ukraine has caused food prices to spike and rates of malnutrition have increased among children.
And yet, in the imdst of renewed crisis, local churches are rising to the occasion, meeting needs and developing solutions to care for those who need it. Micah Kachoi, World Relief Kenyaâs Church Empowerment Zone Coordinator in Turkana said:
â[Churches] are thinking outside the box and asking, âWhat can we do?â
Despite the food shortage and drought, churches are still reaching out to identify the vulnerable people within their communities and mobilizing resources like food, clothing and medical care to support large populations of people who are suffering.â
At World Relief, we refuse to pour time, resources and money into short-term, misdirected solutions in efforts to address complex long-term problems. We believe the biggest problems of our world â disasters, extreme poverty, violence, oppression and mass displacement â have to be tackled at the root, with locally-driven sustainable solutions.
Only then can we ensure that projects like the Turkana fishery never happen again. Yes, this approach takes time. Yes, it is difficult to measure. Yes, in our fast-paced, results-driven culture of immediate gratification, it is hard. But we do it because we know that this approach is transformational â both today and for generations to come.
Thank you for your commitment to creating change that lasts. We could not do this work without you.
Francesca Albano joined World Relief in 2016 and has played a variety of roles with progressively expanding responsibilities. She is a passionate storyteller and cross-cultural communicator, having spent much of her childhood in Kenya and the U.K., before immigrating to the U.S. as a teenager. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology and International Affairs from Colby College and an M.A in Strategic Marketing Communications from Georgetown University, and is also a Storybrand Certified Guide. Today, her passions and expertise converge to help us tell the story of what God is doing through World Relief and the local church all around the world. She is deeply committed to stewarding this story, and the stories of those we serve, with great care and dignity as we also seek to inform, inspire and invite others to come alongside the work of World Relief. She lives close to Boston with her husband, Joe, and son, Teddy.
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, itâs 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, theyâd 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!Â
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 familyâs 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 Reliefâs Care Group program, where together they began brainstorming new food options to improve household nutrition.Â
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 â a goatâs source of food â 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 â three chickens and one cockerel â 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, youâll 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 Bachelorâs 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. Oliverâs 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 â 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, âIt 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.â
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 â 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 âsuper goatsâ 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 â they produced more milk, matured faster and fetched higher prices at the markets â 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.
âI 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) familyâs use and there was surplus milk, which we could share with my neighbor. The gifted goat was such a blessing.â
In early 2021, after the initial 20 goats had produced offspring, the goatsâ 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.
âThe 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,â 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 Bachelorâs 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. Oliverâs 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.
Attending to Godâs Creation
Today, on World Humanitarian Day, we join organizations from across the globe to bring awareness to the human cost of todayâs climate crisis and the immediate consequences this crisis is having on the worldâs most vulnerable communities. At World Relief, we believe creation care is one of the core tenets of Christian witness, and is an integral part of caring for the worldâs most vulnerable. Thatâs why we are committed to working toward environmental stewardship and climate-sensitive policies both internally and throughout our programs around the world.
And God said, âLet the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.â So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:20-21
In 2017, I accompanied World Relief Kenya Country Director Elias Kamau to visit Turkana County. The people of Turkana have been living in this area for hundreds of years, relying largely on their livestock for food. What I saw on my trip was devastating. Over 90% of the livestock in the county were dead. Children were suffering from malnutrition. And after two failed rain seasons, the Turkana people were starving.
This is a far cry from the picture of God’s creation we see in Genesis 1 â a picture of life in abundance, a creation overflowing with birds, fish and animals of every kind. A world that God declared very good.
Creation is both a beautiful gift for our pleasure and joy, and an essential part of the very sustainability of our planet. Yet sadly, the incredible biodiversity that is celebrated in Genesis 1 is no longer as visible as it once was.
Though some may still dispute the degree to which climate change is being caused by humans, few would dispute that it is impacting our world. Wherever you may stand on this issue, as Christians, we should be able to agree that scripture is clear. God gave humans dominion over the earth “to work it and take care of it ” (Genesis 2:15).
Indeed, creation care is one of the core tenets of Christian witness. But today, there is mounting evidence that we are failing badly in this responsibility.
In his new Netflix documentary, “A Life On Our Planet,” natural historian David Attenborough, now 93, documents this decline and the reasons for it in vivid and disturbing terms. We, God’s chosen stewards of His Creation, are quite literally destroying the creation that makes our own lives possible, living apart from nature rather than being a part of it, and thus bringing forward what could be the sixth mass extinction event in the history of the world if we continue on current trends.
The Crisis
If that seems exaggerated, consider the following. In 1937 there were 2.3 billion people on the earth and 66% of the world was wilderness. By 1997 there were 5.7 billion people and 46 % of the world was wilderness. Today, in 2020 there are 7.8 billion people and only about 35% of the world remains as wilderness.
This matters because the sustainability of our planet and our lives depends on the delicate balance of rainforests, grasslands, oceans, ice caps and the rich biodiversity contained in them. As the planet warms, as populations grow and as we destroy wilderness to fuel our consumption-oriented lives, the cycle of destruction accelerates. As a result, since the 1950s, wild animal populations have halved. And itâs expected that unless we make dramatic changes, in the next twenty years the Amazon rainforest will become dry savannah and the arctic will be free from ice in the summer.
At World Relief, we see the effects of this directly in our work around the world, as climate change shifts long-term weather patterns, bringing more destructive climatic events such as severe flooding. This especially impacts the poorest of the worldâs countries, where food and water insecurity and environmental disasters have forced migration and increased conflicts and violence all across the developing world.
While in Turkana, expected rains have been replaced by months of extreme drought and resulting famine, weâve seen the contrary in Malawi and parts of Sudan where severe flooding has been far worse than in years past. In places like Haiti and Nicaragua, weâve seen an increase in both the frequency and intensity of tropical storms and greater suffering as a result. Most recently, we experienced the devastating effects of the worst hurricane season on record across Central America as Hurricaneâs Eta and Iota struck the region just weeks after one another, causing extreme vulnerability and devastation. And on our U.S. Southern border, weâre beginning to see an uptick in environmentally-induced migration as families flee environmental pressures in search of a safe place to rebuild their homes.
Now What
Much of our programming aims to combat the consequences of this devastating climate change.
In countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, our Agriculture for Life programming uses conservation techniques that help reverse the man-made consequences of over-farming and deforestation. By working with the land rather than depleting it, we are finding different ways to farm that are better for the environment and give farmers better long-term crop yields.Â
In Turkana, we are also working on range rehabilitation through the development of Conservation Areas. These areas are fenced-off portions of communal land that are protected from livestock and treated with high-quality grass seeds for a period of time. When the dry season arrives or drought hits, the conservation areas often provide the only viable pasture for livestock to feed on, ensuring selected herds are cushioned from the drought shocks and that the Turkana people can continue to rely on their livestock for food and milk through harsh periods of drought and famine.
In Haiti, we have just begun a new waste management project in partnership with Tearfund UK and Arris Desrosiers â a social enterprise company based out of the capital of Port-Au-Prince â which aims to change beliefs and behaviors around waste management and recycling through lessons in creation care and environmental stewardship. The project hopes to connect over 15,000 beneficiaries to proper waste collection and recycling, significantly reducing the waste flowing into the ocean and improving the health and well-being of thousands of families in the Port-au-Prince area of Carrefour.
In the coming years, World Relief is committed to working toward environmental stewardship and climate sensitive policies both internally and throughout more of our programs around the world.
Our Responsibility
In truth, it will take the whole world; governments, scientists, businesses and each one of us to reverse the trends. We all have to do our part.
We must not rest in denial just because the impacts of climate change are not on our own doorstep. That denial fails to honor God and the wonders of his creation.
Change will only happen when our own hearts are moved so that we have eyes to see and ears to hear. It will happen when we cease to allow climate change and care for our environment to be seen purely through the lens of politics or economic self-interest and bow in submission to our duty of care for God’s creation â a creation to which we are all connected; when we reduce economic inequality and education disparities in the developing world so that we can bring population growth under control; and when we recognize what we do “over here” affects people “over there”. Whether in small or big ways, each one of us can make a difference in building a better world today, tomorrow and for generations to come.
It is time â if not past time â to attend to our Lord’s business.
Tim Breene served on the World Relief Board from 2010 to 2015 before assuming the role of CEO from 2016-2020. Timâs business career has spanned nearly 40 years with organizations like McKinsey and Accenture where he was the Corporate Development Officer and Founder and Chief Executive of Accenture Interactive. Tim is the co-author of Jumping the S-Curve, published by Harvard Publishing. Tim and his wife, Michele, a longtime supporter of World Relief, have a wealth of experience working with Christian leaders in the United States and around the world.
Get to Know Our Staff: Kenya
In 2021, weâre giving you the inside scoop on the work that World Relief is doing in communities around the world through a new series called, Get to Know Our Staff. Each month, youâll hear from a different staff member from across the World Relief network. Through videos, stories and interviews youâll learn more about who they are, the communities where they work, what they do and why they love what they do.
On deck this month is Noah Sankale Pesi, our Church Empowerment Zone Coordinator in Kajiado, Kenya. Noah has been working at World Relief Kenya since 2018 and is passionate about seeing churches mobilized to serve the most vulnerable. Hear more from Noah in the video below!
Do you want to create lasting change alongside passionate, mission-driven coworkers like Noah? World Relief is growing our team to meet the increased needs of our world, and weâre looking for people like you to join us.
The Path to Lasting Change
Change isnât easy, and it isnât fast. Change shows up day after day, month after month, year after year. The path to change requires faithfulness, consistency and a commitment to going the distance â no matter how far or how long it takes.
I remember the day our team pulled up to the abandoned factory on the western shore of Lake Turkana. Eight hours of driving off-road through rock, sand and empty riverbeds had left our team sore and tired, yet the sight of the looming, disheveled building was enough to shake us from our weariness.
Following the Sahelian drought of the mid-1980s, massive famine devastated the Turkana region. As is so often the case with large-scale global disasters, the initial compassion surge propelled aid rapidly into the region. International organizations set up food distributions, medical teams flew in to staff temporary feeding clinics and the Turkana people were once again shown that when things get just bad enough, Western forces will undoubtedly swoop in to save the day.
Now, blocking the blistering rays of the afternoon sun from our faces, stood one of these examples. Twenty years and 150 million U.S. dollars later, a fishery had been completed for the people of Turkana. Its promise? To prevent the people of the region from ever facing starvation again. The reality? A tragic landmark of good intentions gone wrong. The people of Turkana, you see, do not eat fish.
In 2010, African economist Dambisa Moyo wrote in her book, Dead Aid, âAfrica is addicted to aid. For the past sixty years, it has been fed aid. Like any addict it needs and depends on its regular fix, finding it hard, if not impossible, to contemplate existence in an aid-less world. In Africa, the West has found its perfect client to deal to.â
These words, though difficult to hear, echo all too true for many development practitioners who frequently hear petitions for food and money when first entering new communities. The fishery in Turkana is a tangible manifestation of Moyoâs claim. It seems that every year we hear horror stories of time and money poured into well-meaning aid interventions that fail to solve the problems they intended to, create damaging patterns of dependency or, worst of all, create bigger problems for their intended beneficiaries.
These well-intentioned interventions can leave those of us that long to see lasting change take root feeling overwhelmed, perplexed and even defeated. Is there a solution? Is it possible to help without creating dependencies? Is there truly a way to bring flourishing to communities across the globe?
While stories like this one from Turkana are tragic, theyâve taught us important lessons.
In fact, they are a central part of how World Relief has developed our model of relief and development because theyâve helped us understand that lasting change comes not with quick fixes or band-aid solutions, but through a deep understanding of the unique beliefs, cultural traditions, resources and needs of the communities in which we work.
It means that in places like northern Turkana, we understand that this nomadic, pastoralist community survives on a diet of meat, milk, and blood, and that asking them to eat fish â a species they believe are directly related to snakes and associate with danger â is not a quick fix, even in cases of famine.
When seeking to fight against famine in the region, we worked closely with local churches and leaders to brainstorm creative solutions to combating malnutrition amongst the Turkana population. Today, we run a robust agricultural program in the region that helps expand and diversify the Turkana diet beyond traditional food sources, as well as teach desert farming techniques to help conserve water. Weâre also breeding drought-resistant goats that can survive for longer periods of time without water when drought strikes, providing a prolonged food source for the people of Turkana.
Grassroots interventions like the ones in Turkana not only honor local knowledge, culture and community resources, but they also pave the way to break the cycle of Western aid that disempowers so many communities in the developing world.
Itâs also precisely why, when we first enter communities, we begin by bringing local churches together to discuss the ways in which they can work together to solve their own problems. In fact, local pastors, community leaders and a global network of over 95,000 local volunteers are responsible for the implementation of our programs around the world. Our international staff, 95% of whom are local to the communities in which they work, have an inside voice and understanding that no outside organization can bring. Whatâs more, they will remain in their communities long after we depart â creating, leading and sustaining community efforts toward change.
Over the last six months, it has become apparent that the quick fixes and bandaid solutions our nation and our world have often gravitated toward are no longer working. The COVID-19 pandemic coupled with continued systemic racial injustices in the U.S. have shed light on the truth that problems must be faced at the root and lasting solutions cannot be rushed. It takes time, attention and intention to forge the path to lasting change, no matter what issue youâre trying to address.
At World Relief, weâre embracing this approach as we tackle some of the worldâs biggest problems â disasters, extreme poverty, violence, oppression and mass displacement. We are devoted to addressing the root causes of these issues with locally-driven, sustainable solutions that ensure transformation remains long after World Relief is gone. Yes, this approach takes time. Yes, it is difficult to measure. Yes, in our culture of immediate gratification, it is hard. But we know this approach works. And we want you to join us in it.
Will you join us as we forge the path to lasting change?
Voices from the Field: COVID-19
Over the last several months, our International Country Directors have recorded video messages to update us on how things are going for their teams and beneficiaries and to encourage those of us living in the U.S. In times like these, we are grateful for technology that keeps us connected as we weather this pandemic together.
You can view their messages below.
Updated on May 5th
Democratic Republic of Congo
âNothing is impossible with God.â – Jean Nyandwi
Currently, DR Congo has nearly 2,000 known cases of COVID-19, and the number continues to rise. Country Director, Jean Nyandwi, recently connected with some of our U.S. staff and church partners to update them on how Congo was dealing with the growing crisis.
Early on, Jean and his team took advantage of an already planned agricultural program to spread COVID-19 prevention messaging to over 4,291 people. The team continues to spread virus prevention messaging by utilizing our vast network of church partners and program participants. Though the threat of the virus is still very real, Jean offered some words of encouragement at the end of his call. Watch the video below to hear what he had to say.
Updated on April 8
Kenya
âTogether, we are still making an impact.â – Elias Kamau
Kenyans are very relational people, and like many in the U.S. they look forward to the day when social-distancing is a thing of the past. Country Director Elias Kamau sent us an update asking for prayer and outlining the ways World Relief Kenya is adjusting its programs, partnering with the Minister of Health and utilizing its network of churches to reach thousands of people across Kenya.
Updated on March 27
Rwanda
âThis is my prayer for you. And I ask that you continue to pray for us too.â – Moses Ndahiro
In March, Rwanda issued a shelter-in-place order. Country Director Moses Ndahiro said that the team worked quickly to establish virtual offerings for some of their programs. Mosesâ encouragement from Philippians 4 reminds us to continue with a posture of prayer as we move through the unknowns of this season.
Toward a Vision for Gender Equality in Kajiado, Kenya
At the southern edge of the former Rift Valley province, just south of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, lies Kajiado, a mountainous region with vast valleys of open space where zebra, giraffe and wildebeest roam. Spread throughout the diverse countryside are communities of the Maasai people â a people known for their brightly colored clothing and the multi-colored, beaded jewelry they wear around their necks and arms. Although theyâre widely celebrated for honoring and maintaining their way of life, the Maasai people arenât without challenges.
World Relief began working in Kajiado in 2018, and it wasnât long before we came to understand the hard truths of life for people living in this community. 57% of children are under-vaccinated against common yet life-threatening diseases. 10% of children under the age of five are malnourished. 44% of all households are food insecure, meaning that they either do not have enough food or enough money to buy food in the next week. And the rates of preventable diseases are very high due to unclean drinking water and poor hygiene practices.
These numbers alone are difficult to comprehend. And yet, the situation in Kajiado is even more dire for girls and women. Harmful cultural beliefs and traditional practices strip opportunity from thousands of young girls and women and prevent them from achieving their God-given potential, condemning them to a life that is anything but equal.
Among the Maasai tribespeople living in Kajiado today, 78% of all girls undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) â a harmful practice that involves either the partial or total removal of external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs, for non-medical reasons. FGM typically takes place between infancy and the age of 15 and can result in serious, life-long health consequences such as severe bleeding, life-threatening infection, complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
Today, more than 200 million women and girls living around the world have undergone this brutal practice, and the WHO now classifies FGM as a human rights violation.
FGM, however, is just one way gender injustice manifests itself in Kajiado. Only 10% of young girls attend secondary school due to early teenage marriage and/or unexpected pregnancies. In a community that values men as warriors and chiefs, girls and women are given little to no opportunity to break out of the age-old mold and shape their own futures.
And yet, change is beginning to take root.
With the help of 184 local church partners, World Relief is changing hearts and minds through Bible study, behavior-change workshops and vision casting seminars. Implemented through local churches, these programs teach basic biblical definitions of marriage, friendship and equality. Little by little, men and women of God are embracing the concept of Imago Dei and are beginning to speak out against harmful cultural beliefs â in particular, those that harm or marginalize young girls and women.
Take Josephine, for example, a brave woman of about twenty-five years of age and a mother to five children. Her husband is all but non-existent in her life, except when he has material needs. Every few years, he pops back into Josephineâs life, robs her of the food and material goods that sustain her family, and spends her money on alcohol before leaving again.
In Maasai culture, a woman cannot leave her husband even in the most challenging and unfair of circumstances. Therefore, Josephine is forced to stay in this harmful marriage. And yet, thereâs hope.
Josephine is surrounded by a band of women from her church, one which partners with World Relief, who have come alongside her to pray with her. They share food and clothing with her during the harder times, and they check in on her to see how she is doing. Josephine is now one of the few in her community to speak out against domestic violence and inequality in the marriage relationship, which is a little talked about issue despite the high number of marriages facing similar challenges.
And then thereâs Beatrice, a woman who is speaking out strongly against the traditional role Maasai women are expected to play â a role that burdens Beatrice daily. Often rising at four oâclock in the morning, she spends her days preparing and cooking food for her family, fetching water thatâs a two-hour walk away, raising her children, finding ways to cover school fees, caring for livestock, and building and maintaining her house. Most days, Beatrice doesnât make it to bed until 11 oâclock at night, only to rise again at 4 am the following day.
Now, Beatrice is raising her voice against this kind of inequality. Sheâs also speaking out strongly against female genital mutilation, which she herself experienced as a young girl.
Remarkably, not all advocates for gender equality are women. Sabore is one of the last laibons in his community â the highest of chiefs in a Maasai tribe and a role that passes on from father to son. A Laibon acts as a ritual leader and has authority over all political and military decisions. Yet Saboreâs testimony is about more than just his generational status. Itâs of his status as a follower of Christ. He now speaks out about a hope that far outshines his role and has become a prominent church leader in the community, advocating for the most vulnerable, including many of the young women in his community.
There is still much work to be done in the Maasai community of Kajiado, but we are seeing change take root, and we are committed to continuing the journey toward a gender-equal world, wherever it takes us. Thank you for being #EachForEqual alongside us.
Amanda Patterson serves as World Reliefâs Humanitarian and Disaster Response Unit Program Officer in DR Congo and South Sudan. Prior to joining World Relief, Amanda worked overseas as a humanitarian responder to refugee and conflict emergencies in Niger, South Sudan, Greece, and Ethiopia with a large Christian NGO. She is passionate about helping others experience the beauty and diversity of Godâs creation through art, nature and cultural engagement.
Co-Authoring Godâs Story
Our world is full of stories. From ancient hieroglyphics to the stories in the Bible, to cultural fables and modern fiction â stories create understanding and give meaning to our world. They captivate and compel the human brain like nothing else can. They affect how we think, how we behave and how we respond to the world around us. Stories can empower and encourage us or take away our hope and our dignity. They can compel us to reach out in compassion or turn inwards and hide behind walls. In the words of Robert McKee, stories âare the currency of human contact.â
Itâs no wonder, then, that when people ask me about the World Relief story, I get excited because ours is a story of God at work. Itâs a story of solidarity with the suffering, the oppressed and the marginalized. Of people saying âyesâ to Godâs call and co-authoring his story of hope and transformation. Of a small ministry birthed in Park Street Church in Boston in 1944 that has grown to touch more than five million lives every year and has responded to disasters, extreme poverty, violence and oppression in more than 100 countries since it began.
For over 75 years, World Relief has sought to discern the movement of God and respond to it. Our identity and character of today have been molded by the recognition of our dependence upon God and in our belief that we, as believers, get to be co-authors in the story God is writing today. Throughout our history, we have been formed by the countless stories of individuals who have followed Godâs call and allowed him to use their lives and experiences to shape who we are and what we do.
Take Debbie, a young American nurse who was working in a mission hospital in Ghinda, Ethiopia, in 1974 when rebels armed with machine guns and grenades burst into the hospital where she was working. She and another missionary nurse named Anna were abducted and forced to run across the mountains of Northern Ethiopia in 104-degree heat. When Anna couldnât keep up, the rebels shot and killed her while Debbie looked on in horror. Debbie, who was pregnant at the time, was held in captivity for 26 agonizing days. Most of us, I think, would have turned our backs on Africa after such an ordeal. But not Debbie. She and her husband later settled in Nairobi, where she joined World Relief and found herself responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis that was beginning to engulf the continent.
Years later, Emmanuel, a humble, soft-spoken man of deep faith felt called to Rwanda and became one of our first staff members in the country. It was 1994, and the genocide had just ended. Christians around the world were grappling with the horrific reality that the church was complicit in many of the atrocities that stunned the world. I first met Emmanuel a few years ago and asked him what it was like when he first arrived in Kigali.
âThere werenât many people then,â he told me. âJust lots of bodies by the roadside, and dogs. Lots of wild starving dogs, feeding off the corpses.â
Nearly twenty-five years later, Emmanuelâs selfless, compassionate love and quiet, spirit-filled wisdom in those early years has built a reservoir of trust with local communities and churches that has paved the way for our work to flourish. The respect he commands within local communities, and his powerful ministry of presence has opened the doors to hundreds of churches and homes, allowing our staff to come alongside families and communities in transformative ways.
Meanwhile, a South African man named Dr. Pieter was working at World Relief in Mozambique, pondering the question, âhow can we address high levels of child mortality in very poor remote communities that donât have access to healthcare or clinics?â He piloted an innovative program to reach women and communities with education that encouraged healthy behaviors, ultimately resulting in the creation of our Care Group model. At the time, this use of peer group instruction was a complete paradigm shift in development work.
Of course, the stories that make up our organization donât just belong to our staff. Thousands of them come from the small stirrings and big leaps of faith of men and women like you. People like Jonathan, a software engineer from Massachusetts who identifies strongly with his Jewish family history. His father was on the last Red Cross train out of Germany during WWII, and his grandparents both perished in Auschwitz. Today, Jonathan gives faithfully to World Relief to fight back against the violence and oppression that so many, like his father and grandparents before him, experience on a daily basis, and to support them on their journey as refugees to find safety.
As I reflect upon these different stories of faithful commitment, I am struck by the fact that no amount of central planning, no government organization or think-tank could ever have assembled the people and the pieces that have contributed to the World Relief story, and make our approach to development and sustainable solutions so distinctive today.
These separate strands of commitment, curiosity and discovery were the yeast that gave rise to our theory of change and our model of church empowerment. Years later, our staff codified and professionalized these learnings, as we came to understand the uniquely powerful role the local church could play in poor – and especially remote – communities. We recognized the importance of trust and relationship building, and of allowing communities to take ownership of their own destinies rather than depending on outside interventions.
Our theory of change did not emerge in a classroom or research laboratory, but on the margins, âin the dust of the communities and the heat of the huts, where we recognized the storehouses of [preexisting] wisdom,â as Debbie puts it. Only the hand of God, the movement of his spirit and the faithful obedience of people like Emmanuel, Debbie, Dr. Pieter and Jonathan could write such a beautiful and unexpected story.
Today, these experiences and more have led to the adoption of our Care Group model by more than 25 different NGOs in over 28 countries with beneficiaries now numbering in the millions. Similarly, our innovative Savings Group model and our grassroots Village Peacekeeping Committees are creating incomes, building independence and preventing the outbreak and spread of violence in places like Congo and South Sudan.
At World Relief, our fluid approach to the changing world reflects what New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright, has described as âobedient improvisationâ â faithful to scriptural authority and tradition, but alive to our time, open to new learning and discoveries and constantly seeking out what story God might be writing on the margins and responding to it.
I thank God that World Relief has brought help and hope to over five million vulnerable people around the world this last year. But what amazes me most, and what I am most grateful for, is the commitment of the 1,500 staff, 6,000 churches and 95,000 volunteers who have joined us as co-authors in this story. I thank God for the thousands of you who make this work possible by choosing to engage, pray for and give to this work. Your commitment, courage and faith is an inspiration to us every day. Thank you for co-authoring this story of restoration and hope that God has so graciously entrusted us with.
Tim Breene served on the World Relief Board from 2010 to 2015 before assuming the role of CEO from 2016-2020. Timâs business career has spanned nearly 40 years with organizations like McKinsey, and Accenture where he was the Corporate Development Officer and Founder and Chief Executive of Accenture Interactive. Tim is the co-author of Jumping the S-Curve, published by Harvard Publishing. Tim and his wife Michele, a longtime supporter of World Relief, have a wealth of experience working with Christian leaders in the United States and around the world.
Neemaâs Plight
In an area known as Mile 46 in the Kajiado District of Kenya, the Elangata Wuas Primary School sits beside a grove of trees. On a seemingly ordinary Friday in July, the whole school â boys and girls, teachers and the headmaster â leave their lessons and gather to welcome visitors outside in the schoolyard. The students, dressed in blue uniforms, fill rows of wooden chairs; girls on the left, and boys on the right.
After a warm welcome and a short introduction, the students stand in groups to present short speeches, dances and poems they had prepared for the visitors. A group of girls perform a traditional dance, some students sing a song, and then Ann Wanjiku stands to present an original poem.
Her words are powerful, her cry sincere. May her voice ring in your ears and move your heart. May you, like me, be changed.
Neemaâs Plight
by Ann Wanjiku
In front of you is Ann Wanjiku,
ready to present a poem entitled, Neemaâs Plight.
Sit back, relax and enjoy
Birth of a baby, must be a blessing event,
But hers was nothing short of a curse,
Culture, gender, count them all.
A girl is not as welcome as a baby boy,
at thirteen she has to face the worst.
A knife cut across her genital,
a midwife circumcised and stitched her,
she now has a black scar.
Why is it this kind of pain?
This pain of primitive culture?
Dear mankind!
wherever you are!
is she not a human being? (sobs)
As if that is not enough
â14 years is perfect real wife,â
her father said,
As he expected cold cash,
from a 40-year old man,
Killing her dreams, education and childhood,
But marriage was done,
the dowry was paid,
Injecting the title of wife into her bloodstream.
Dear mankind!
wherever you are!
is she not a human being? (sobs)
Thank you.
Today, in honor of International Day of the Girl Child, we celebrate millions of girls like Ann, boldly speaking up and advocating for a future where they have the agency and opportunity to reach their God given potential.
Will you join with us and stand for the rights of girls around the world today? Together, we can help build bright futures for girls for generations to come.
$35 Sends a displaced girl in South Sudan to school.
$80 Teaches five girls how to protect themselves from human trafficking in Cambodia.
$150 Provides a safe place for a refugee girl in Jordan to receive basic education, process trauma and experience Christâs love through the local church.
$250 Reduces early marriage of young girls in Malawi through weekly clubs that teach girls about their worth and promote future success through education.
Dana North serves as the Marketing Manager at World Relief. With a background in graphic design and advertising and experiences in community development and transformation, Dana seeks to use the power of words and action to help create a better world. Dana is especially passionate about seeking justice for women and girls around the world.