Posts Tagged ‘We Move Together’
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.Â
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.”Â
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.Â
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.
Expect A Miracle: Reimagining Our Lives in the New Year
Though the new year may be upon us, many of us are still moving through the immense amount of change we’ve experienced over the last two years. Today, Karen Gonzalez encourages us to see change as God’s vehicle for renewing and reimagining our lives.
We invite you to read or listen to Karen’s message below, then check out the entire Made for Change Audio Series, created to help you experience God’s presence in the midst of change. May you find the peace and presence of our good and loving God, the one who can do more than we could ever ask for or imagine.Â
Listen to the audio version of this blog post and find more audio meditations here.
Another Year of Change
When I was little, my grandmother sent me a card every year for my birthday. She would always write a special message inside, and then in the corner, in small, careful print she would write, “Jesus loves you and so do I. Expect a miracle.”
“Expect a miracle” were the words she lived by. They sustained her and reminded her that the Almighty would act in unexpected ways for her good and for God’s own glory.
Many of us can likely relate to my grandmother… 2020 – and subsequently 2021 — have been difficult years, in ways most of us could not have imagined: We faced a contentious election season, a global pandemic, racial unrest and economic turmoil.
We are grateful to say goodbye to the old, difficult year and welcome the potential this new one holds. We want to expect a miracle — something different but welcome, surprising but joyful. And so we come to this new year with expectation, with the assurance that God makes all things new, even us.
Change reimagines. It’s what God uses to reimagine our present circumstances and give us hope for a future beyond anything we could ever ask.
Naomi’s Story
I’ve been reflecting on the story of Naomi in the book of Ruth. For a woman whose name meant “pleasant,” Naomi led a life of suffering and grief. She experienced famine, forced migration, widowhood, the death of her sons, abject poverty and an uncertain future.
After the death of her children, Naomi returned home to Bethlehem for a new beginning in the company of her widowed daughter-in-law, Ruth.Â
But to Naomi, the future did not look bright. She knew that having a husband and sons was the only way to ensure her survival, the only means for a woman’s economic sustenance in her society. Without them, she could not imagine a life full of anything but poverty and despair.
The best Naomi could hope for were the provisions in God’s law, designed to care for poor people like her: gleaning the leftovers in the fields and vineyards.Â
She railed against God, bellowing that her name should have been bitter, not pleasant, because her life had been bitter, “The Lord has afflicted me,” she cried, “and brought misfortune upon me. I went away full but now I am empty.”
In a million years, Naomi could not have guessed that the terrible changes in her life would be God’s vehicle for reimagining her life. Though the pain and the loss would not be erased, they would be robbed of their sting because God would redeem and restore her life.
Naomi, a woman who thought that men — a husband and sons — were God’s only way of providing for her well-being, could never have imagined that a woman — her loyal daughter-in-law — would be the path through which she’d experience God’s faithfulness.
By the end of the story, Ruth had remarried and given birth to a son. Naomi gets to hold her grandson as part of a new family. She listens as her Bethlehem neighbors rejoice with her and proclaim, “your daughter-in-law who loves you is more to you than seven sons.”Â
Reimagining the Future
Today, we know that this grandson is in the lineage of Jesus. Naomi’s reimagined life connected her to the story of the salvation of all humankind. Change reimagines, not just Naomi’s life but yours and mine.Â
God worked in Naomi’s life through means that were entirely unexpected — like a phoenix, Naomi rose from the ashes of her scorched life. As the Psalmist says… Naomi got to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
We don’t know what will happen this new year, but we know who will be with us through it — our good and loving God, the one who can do more than we could ever ask for or imagine. Change is God’s vehicle to renew and reimagine our lives.
As the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 3:20 & 21: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever!”Â
Friends, expect a miracle.
Karen Gonzalez serves as the Director of Human Services at World Relief and is the author of the new book The God Who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible and the Journey to Belong.
Welcoming Afghans in San Diego
Since August, World Relief has welcomed and resettled over 1,000 Afghans who had been evacuated out of Kabul. Today, over 34,000 Afghans remain on eight U.S. military bases awaiting their chance at a new life in the U.S. World Relief is diligently preparing to resettle up to 7,000 of these brave individuals between now and March 2022.
The need is great, and we couldn’t do this work without the help of partners like Hope for San Diego.Today, Susie Fikse, Executive Director at Hope for San Diego, talks about why partnering with World Relief is critical to Hope for San Diego’s mission. Read more to find out how you and your community can move with us, just like Susie and Hope for San Diego have done. Together, we can create communities of love and welcome that we all feel proud to be a part of.
First, can you tell us a little about Hope for San Diego?
Hope for San Diego is an independent non-profit with a mission to engage our community to care for and invest in our under-served neighbors. Our focus areas include refugees/ immigrants, sex trafficking, foster care and homelessness—all pressing issues in San Diego.
How did you first get connected with World Relief?
Twenty-five years ago, I was living in Atlanta. The church my family attended was involved with World Relief, and I signed up to bring Thanksgiving dinner to a refugee family. I remember standing at the door of this family’s small apartment. There were eight people living there. They had no furniture in the living room, but they welcomed me and my family and offered us drinks and fruit. We couldn’t really communicate because of the language barrier, but it was a really meaningful and eye-opening experience.
How did you help bring World Relief to San Diego?
Shortly after I took the job as Executive Director of Hope for San Diego, we began working with refugees in the area. Soon we realized that there were many organizations doing many different things for refugees — all of them great, but very uncoordinated.
For a long time, I felt the need for some kind of umbrella organization to help bring all our efforts together and to make sure the work we were doing was helping instead of hurting. I knew World Relief would be a great partner to bring us all together and help facilitate healthy ministry.
We connected with the World Relief SoCal office, and they did a few trainings with us and our church partners. But when the border crisis came to a head a couple of years ago, it became clear that we needed the expertise of World Relief in closer proximity to all these needs! It took some time to figure out how to make it work, but in March, we were able to fund the first full-time World Relief staff in San Diego, and a group of churches assembled to collaborate in building a more effective ministry to refugees.
Aside from funding, how else does Hope for San Diego partner with World Relief?
Our partner churches volunteer in different ways through the connections World Relief provides, whether that is building friendships with refugees, providing tangible support like furniture or shoes, or participating in tutoring programs.
We have also hosted World Relief speakers at educational events, which is a powerful way to help our community build a Biblical worldview of immigration. Likewise, we sent a select group of leaders on a Border Vision Trip, which opened eyes to the complexity of immigration issues facing people just 30 minutes from our homes.
How is Hope for San Diego specifically working to welcome and resettle Afghans in your community?
Thanks to the support of people within our eight partner churches and other community members, we were very quickly able to form two Good Neighbor Teams, mobilize volunteers to set up apartments and deliver groceries, secure 40 mattress donations and pre-paid phone cards, among so many other things. The immediate and continued response from the community has been encouraging.
We believe that relationships designed to support self-sufficiency are the key to long term transformation—both of the refugees and the volunteers that engage with them. Our goal is to create a minimum of 10 Good Neighbor Teams (4-5 people each) through our partnership with World Relief that will commit to building genuine, long-term friendships, helping refugee families orient to American life and create a future here.
We also believe another key element of welcoming refugees is educating our community about their plight and celebrating the diversity that they help create so in January, we’re hosting and event called “From Strangers to Neighbors.” Matt Soerens from World Relief will be there to speak and we’re eager for the ways this will engage and equip others in our community to respond.
Why is partnering with World Relief one of the things you’ve continued to hold onto?
The work of World Relief is more essential than ever before. The gaps between the affluent and the poor continue to widen and World Relief is helping to bridge those gaps. When I see a refugee family of nine living in a two-bedroom apartment and six kids trying to do online school while their parents are working two jobs, I know that we need to come alongside these families to provide support. Without organizations like World Relief, these kids are going to fall further behind, which has long-term consequences for all of us.
What is your vision for the Church in San Diego, and how do you see World Relief playing a role in that vision?
Our vision is to see God renew San Diego so that even people in the most vulnerable situations can thrive. Our city is not experiencing shalom in the way God intended unless all people are thriving, not just those within our churches. The Church is the vehicle God wants to use to bring renewal and hope to our city. But that means we have to step outside the church and outside our comfort zone to build relationships. In order to do that, we need the right opportunities and the right training. World Relief provides that for us.
We are so grateful for partners like Susie and Hope for San Diego who remind us that when we move together, we can be an irresistible force for good and an agent of lasting change. Help create communities of love and welcome this season by moving with us and giving today.
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.
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!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 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.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 — 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.
10 Reasons to Give Thanks in 2021
2021 has been a challenging year. Like you, we’ve felt the pain of loss, the ache of division in our churches and communities and the harsh realities of ongoing injustice around the world. This Thanksgiving, we may even feel tempted to ask, What’s there to give thanks for?
And yet at World Relief, we’ve found there’s much to be grateful for in 2021. In the midst of the crises and the chaos, God has opened doors, made paths straight and raised up partners who move with us to serve those experiencing vulnerability. We asked 10 of our staff from around the world to share just some of what they’re grateful for this year. We hope their testimonies of God’s faithfulness shining through in 2021 will inspire you to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18), as they have us.
What are you grateful for in 2021?
Karen Crisler, Community Engagement Manager, Appleton, WI: I’m grateful to be in a field of work that is laboring towards restoration; that despite the fractures in all spheres of life, redemption is at work. I’m also grateful that I’m slowly learning that this work doesn’t rest on my shoulders, but rather my daily need is what tethers me to Jesus. I’m so thankful that I got to join the World Relief staff this year!
Clemence Nkulikiyinka, Integral Mission Technical Advisor, Rwanda: I am thankful that God’s grace has sustained us in 2021. World Relief has been able to keep human resources, despite the challenges brought by the pandemic. I am grateful for the ability to virtually connect with colleagues and opportunities to visit and support in-person as the world reopens. I am grateful that we have access to vaccines, and that they are reducing the mortality rate.
Matilda Matitha, Country Director, Malawi: I am thankful to God because he continues to protect WR Malawi staff and their families from Covid 19 as we serve vulnerable communities. I am also grateful to God for the opportunity to be part of the great mission in WR Malawi where we are reaching close to 1.9 million people.
Abby Ray, Communications & Advocacy Coordinator, High Point, NC: I’m extremely thankful that God provided a job for me at World Relief. Working for an organization that aligns with my personal mission and values, and working with people who care about me as not only an employee but a neighbor and sister of Christ, is so encouraging. I’m incredibly thankful for all of the people in our office who take such good care of our clients and church partners.
Katie Love, Preferred Communities Program Manager, Baltimore, MD: We are grateful that God has provided through government grants and private donations to meet the needs of thousands of Afghans arriving in America. With these funds, we will be able to support housing and mental health needs, provide one-one-one case management and help pre-literate Afghan women build community and gain access to resources through literacy training.
Andualem Mekonnen, Program Quality Specialist, South Sudan: I am very grateful to God Almighty for keeping me and my family protected from the horrendous COVID-19 pandemic. I am also grateful for the opportunity God has opened for me to serve the marginalized and neglected communities in South Sudan through World Relief.
Bailey Clark, Communications Coordinator, Memphis, TN: We are so grateful for our host families and their incredible hospitality toward refugee families. Hearing their sweet, encouraging stories has been a huge blessing.
Ileana Gómez, CYRUS Support, Nicaragua: I’m thankful for the opportunity to get to know our staff in South Sudan and Kenya while living with and learning from them. Their work is amazing! I saw the commitment of each of them to our vision at World Relief — that was a blessing and is still a blessing. I’m grateful that I could have this wonderful experience, and I thank God that he returned me home safe and sound in 2021.
Megan Ashley, VP of Marketing, Chicago, IL: I’m thankful for the commitment to excellence each member of the World Relief team brings to their work. It seems to be in each person’s DNA to bring our best to those we’re working with and for — even when it can mean extra hours, tough conversations or adapting overnight to an unfolding need somewhere in the world. Whether it’s our best writing, design, client care, policy, program, etc., we’ve been blessed with people who care.
Jeff Walser, Senior Director of Development, Tampa, FL: I am so thankful for the presence of God through his people in my life. It’s been a chaotic year of ups and downs, hopes gained and hopes lost. As I’ve struggled to keep buoyant, God’s people — with steady loving hands, patient words of encouragement and faith-filled prayers — have redirected my gaze to the One who calms the winds and waves and leads us forward into the work he has given us to do.
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.
We Move Together
Compounding Crises
In my 14 years of working at World Relief, I have never felt the weight of compounding crises quite like I have this last year.
The same week I stepped into my new role as President and CEO, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti and Kabul fell to the Taliban, putting thousands of Afghan allies and civilians at risk.
Like many of you, I watched heartbroken and angry at the sight of such injustice as women and men chased after U.S. aircraft carriers, desperate to get to safety. And all of this on top of a global pandemic, on top of a global economic crisis, on top of unrest in places like Tigray and Geneina, a food crisis in DR Congo and a multitude of other crises that never make headline news.
We are living through some of the greatest humanitarian crises of our lifetime. It’s a lot to take in, and certainly too much for any one person to hold alone.
And yet, there is hope.
Called to Be the Church
In Acts chapter 17, the Apostle Paul writes that God himself gives life and breath to everyone, that he has marked out the appointed times in history and the very places where each of us exists. In other words, the church — that’s you, and that’s me — was created for such a time as this!
I will never cease to be amazed at the way God can move through his church and his people.
In my time serving as Country Director of World Relief Rwanda, I saw church members from our local Church Empowerment Zones come together in incredible ways to care for those suffering from AIDS, build peace among families who had harmed one another and lift their communities out of economic poverty.
Similarly, over the last few months, churches across the globe have responded greatly to the crises in Haiti and Afghanistan. Many of you have generously reached out with prayers and donations.
Together, we have welcomed and resettled more than 600 Afghan refugees since August. Our staff in the U.S. are currently working their way through 4,128 volunteer applications that have been submitted since August — that’s more volunteer interest in a six-week period than the total number onboarded for the entirety of the fiscal year 2020.
And with the help of 300 local volunteers, our team in Haiti has distributed kits of food and hygiene items to over 4,400 families affected by the August earthquake.
The wave of generosity has been inspiring. It has reminded us that while creating change that lasts isn’t easy, it’s possible when we move together.
Moving Together
How powerful it is to know that you and I were created for such a time as this? And what responsibility does this place on us, I wonder?
Today, the local church in Haiti is leading the way as we help the communities of Les Cayes rebuild. In the U.S., roughly 50,000 Afghans are living at U.S. military bases awaiting their resettlement assignments. Our U.S. office network of staff, churches and volunteers is preparing to receive as many as 7,000.
We have the opportunity to respond together as God’s church — to not be overcome by evil and injustice, but to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). Across the globe, men and women just like you are rising up to meet the needs of the most vulnerable among them, and you can join 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?
Move with us this season by signing up for this four-part Advent series delivered right to your inbox. You’ll receive an invite to a virtual gathering plus updates on how to stay involved and make lasting change at home and around the world.
Myal Greene has a deep desire to see churches worldwide equipped, empowered, and engaged in meeting the needs of vulnerable families in their communities. In 2021, he became President and CEO after serving for fourteen years with the organization. While living in Rwanda for eight years, he developed World Relief’s innovative church-based programming model that is currently used in nine countries. He also spent six years in leadership roles within the international programs division. He has previous experience working with the U.S. Government. He holds B.S. in Finance from Lehigh University and an M.A. from Fuller Theological Seminary in Global Leadership. He and his wife Sharon and have three children.