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In September and October 2024, the Southeastern U.S. was struck by two powerful hurricanes, Helene and Milton, causing widespread destruction. The storms left communities in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and beyond struggling with the aftermath: destroyed homes, disrupted lives, and severely damaged or completely destroyed infrastructure.

In these critical moments, World Vision’s swift and steadfast response has made a significant difference. Partnering with 20 local churches, we distributed essential supplies like clean water, generators, diapers, personal care items, and more, ensuring that people in the hardest-hit areas readily accessed the basics they needed.

Rev. Louis M. Murphy, Sr., of Mt. Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church in Florida, shared his gratitude: “To be able to partner with World Vision, a worldwide organization that has that local touch as well, is incredible.”

Our commitment to supporting these communities extends beyond short-term relief to long-term recovery and rebuilding.

“World Vision’s mission is not only to be among the first to respond when disaster strikes, but also to stay long after the headlines fade,” World Vision’s National Director of U.S. Programs, Reed Slattery said. “That’s what we mean by being ‘first in, last out.’ Our commitment is to help families not just survive the immediate impacts of the storm but to thrive long-term by rebuilding their homes. We’re honored to be the Lord’s hands and feet during the most difficult times in the lives of storm survivors.”

Your immediate support and ongoing impact

Thanks to the generosity of our donors and the partnership of churches, faith-based organizations, and community organizations, we’ve distributed 57 truckloads of aid, bringing relief to communities across Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

As of September 2025, World Vision’s response has supported 90,914 people in the hardest-hit communities. Through 20 church partnerships, we delivered:

• Over 83,800 pounds of food, including 4,366 Crisis Relief Boxes and 1,100 turkeys for holiday meals
• 19,248 gallons of clean water
• More than 20,000 toys, books, items of clothing, and holiday gift items to families in need

Pastor Gwen Jones from St. John Baptist Church called World Vision’s response “an answer to prayer.”

A future of hope and restoration

We’re continuing to focus on post-storm clean-up and rebuilding as we move into the recovery phase. Our long-term commitments include supporting our partnerships to rebuild 150 homes with building materials such as lumber, drywall, appliances, and more. Long after other organizations have often left, we will continue to stand by these communities, dedicated to helping them rebuild and restore their lives with dignity and hope.

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When Christian recording artists Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham headed out on tour together, they had one goal: change lives.

Brandon, a Grammy and Dove Award-winning artist, joined forces with Phil, a Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning artist, for the Summer Worship Nights Tour, visiting 17 cities across this U.S. this past August.

At these concerts, the artists wanted to engage Christians and draw them closer to the heart of God through worship.

“These songs are catalysts for that unity in the church to happen in these rooms,” Phil says.

But they didn’t want concertgoers to be the only ones whose lives changed. Brandon has been partnering with World Vision since 2022, helping connect children in need with sponsors, and he got Phil on board this summer too. So at each of their tour stops, they put out a call for their audience to help vulnerable children as well.

“We want to make a lasting eternal kingdom impact with World Vision, and so we want to find the kids who have been waiting the longest for a sponsor,” Phil said at the onset of the tour. “We’ve heard that some kids have been waiting two, three, four years and they haven’t found a sponsor yet. We want to find those kids, bring them into the fold, and make an eternal difference in their lives.”

Concertgoers caught the vision, and because of World Vision’s community-focused solutions where for every child you help, four more benefit as well, the tour along with Brandon’s Tear Off the Roof Tour, helped impact more than 61,300 children’s lives around the world this year!

In addition to helping vulnerable children, as they moved from city to city, the two also opened up their lives to cameras, and later this month, a documentary about their tour called FOR THE ONE hits theaters for a one-weekend-only event October 27–29, 2024. Here are some thoughts from Brandon and Phil about the film, their tour, and partnering with World Vision.

On touring and what motivates them to tour:

Brandon: I want to see the church come alive. I think that’s what fuels me going on tour. It’s brutal on your body. It’s brutal on your emotions, you’re missing your family, but for me it’s worth it.

Phil: Touring is both the most beautiful moment but it’s also the most difficult, because touring usually means we’re away from our family.

How they hope this documentary about touring will impact fans:

Phil: Never in my life did I think I would be a part of telling a piece of my story in theaters. I hope the stories encountered through this movie show everyone watching how much they are loved by the One. I can’t wait to share this with the world, and I hope people are encouraged by it.

Brandon: My hope for this project is that it would not only show what it takes to go on tour, but why the music and touring mean so much to us. Countless lives have been changed, especially ours. Though we’ve had the opportunity to influence many, our focus remains for the One.

Why it was important to them to help children by partnering with World Vision:

Phil: Joining together in the presence of God is amazing. But one of our huge goals was to see these children who have been literally waiting years for sponsors to find a sponsor. [People] showed up in a huge way. We impacted so many children’s lives through World Vision and the sponsorship program. The cool thing through World Vision, as we sponsor a child, you don’t just help the child, which is more than enough, but you help their family and their community as well.

Brandon: Things like healthcare, healthy food, clean water, and the spiritual influence that World Vision is making on all these children’s lives and their families. … It’s been amazing for me and my family to get involved. Each one of my three boys sponsor a child, and it’s an amazing thing to know that with just giving a little bit, it can completely change a child’s life.

A message to their fans (other than “Go see FOR THE ONE”!):

Brandon: I [love] to sing songs with people and tear off the roof, but you guys are tearing off the roof for so many children around the world. … Thank you so much for partnering with me and World Vision.

Get tickets to see FOR THE ONE, in select theaters October 27–29, 2024, and it’s not too late to sponsor a child to help change lives with Brandon and Phil.

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Lopez Lomong has traveled a long way in his life. From a sordid Sudanese prison camp after he was kidnapped at age 6, he went on to the ornate pavilions of the 2008 Summer Olympic games in Beijing. But one thread flows through it all: running.

As Lopez chronicled in his memoir, Running for My Life, he was abducted by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Lopez was among 20,000 Sudanese children, called the Lost Boys of Sudan, who were uprooted from their homes in southern Sudan during the second Sudanese civil war.

For weeks, he was locked in an unsanitary hut in a prison camp with little food. Many boys cooped up with him died during the night.

With the help of three older boys, Lopez escaped. The fugitives ran for three days and crossed into Kenya where they were taken to a refugee camp. Lopez lived in the camp for 10 years.

“We are just living in a place that is a no-man land,” he says. “There is no flag flying over our heads. We do not have any place to call home.”

He also faced ridicule there from other refugees.

“The name calling that you have to go [through] is really hard for a person who just ran away from death,” Lopez says. “And then now you’re being called something.”

But in the midst of his trials, God was working.

A dream is born

As a boy, his first love was soccer, but Lopez developed lightning speed as a runner when boys were required to run around the perimeter of the refugee camp — 18 miles — before being allowed to play on the camp’s soccer field.

“I ran fast because I loved soccer,” he says.

When he was 15, he saw Michael Johnson run in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, and it sparked something new in him.

“That gave me fire,” he says. “I didn’t get to see the golden shoes because it was a black-and-white TV, but I saw him running, and I looked at him, and I was like, ‘I want to be as fast as this human being.’ This man ran with a passion, with a love, with something greater than himself.”

As he watched Michael listen to the national anthem play, he saw a tear roll down his cheek. He saw the American flag being raised, and the emotions of winning a medal for your country touched him. He didn’t know how he could follow in Michael’s footsteps — especially given he was living in a refugee camp — but he just knew that’s what he wanted to do. “I basically put it on God’s hands to help me get there,” Lopez says.

He continues by saying, “A dream cannot happen without a hope and without God involved in it.”

A new life in America

In 2001, Lopez left the refugee camp in Kenya to be resettled in America. About 4,000 Lost Boys came to the United States that year.

Lopez was adopted by Rob and Barb Rogers of Tully, New York, and settled into suburban America, where he marveled at hot and cold running water and indoor lighting.

As a 16-year-old, he spoke only a smattering of English. His native tongue is Swahili, and he simply answered “yes” to everything. But Lopez was eager to learn, and he graduated from high school on time.

And of course, Lopez kept on running. He was the fastest runner in his high school and helped lead his cross country and track teams to sectional and state titles. Through his high school experience, he learned the true meaning of running together and says, “From that moment, another instinct of mine kicked in because I was not running for myself. I am running for my team.”

Then at Northern Arizona University, he won two NCAA championships. Lopez credits Barb and Rob with not only helping him secure a college education, but also regularly attending all his running events — a degree of parental support he says his fellow competitors did not enjoy.

Lopez turned pro in 2007 and became a U.S. citizen in time to qualify for U.S. Olympic trials the following year.

In 2008, as a member of the American team, Lopez carried the United States flag for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he made it into the semifinals of the 1,500 meters. In the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Lopez placed 10th in the men’s 5,000 meters race.

Lopez continues to train and travel extensively, both as a competitor and pacer for major international distance competitions.

Giving others a chance

What powers Lopez even more than his passion for running is an even deeper passion to help the most vulnerable people in South Sudan. It’s a passion he shares with his wife, Brittany.

“I was given an opportunity; I was given a chance to tell my story,” Lopez says. “It’s no longer about me. It’s about them. It’s about people going through all these things as we speak: the children who don’t have education, the kids who are dying every day … the poverty that people are going through right now.

“And clean water. Have you ever gone without clean water or even water? And yet there’s people walking 15 to 20 miles to just fetch two gallons of clean water somewhere, and it’s not enough.”

While establishing his career as an outstanding middle distance runner, Lopez started the Lopez Lomong Foundation in late 2011 to give back to his native country of South Sudan. The foundation joined with World Vision to launch the 4 South Sudan campaign to raise money and awareness to bring clean water, basic healthcare, access to education, and life-saving nutrition to children. Recognizing his advocacy work, Lopez was named the Visa Humanitarian of the Year in 2012.

Since 2013, through the Hood to Coast Relay race — a fundraising venue in which participants run 199 miles from Oregon’s Mt. Hood to the Pacific coast  — Lopez and Team World Vision have raised $10.2 million.

Lopez says, “God is with us, and God wants us to be able to continue doing this, providing clean water for the innocent people, women, children, and elderly in South Sudan and around the world.”

Lopez has seen World Vision’s work up close and has seen the impact it’s making on people and their communities.

“I found World Vision because I know that they do noble work, amazing work, in all of the world,” he says. “I saw this in Kenya. I saw this also in South Sudan.

“You see the actual work be done, and they actually are helping people. Wherever World Vision goes to work, they will work for 10, 15, 18 years, and this is changing people’s mindset to be self-reliant and teaching people to be able to provide for themselves when World Vision leaves — giving them those powers and the way for them to be able to sustain themselves.”

Barb, Lopez’s adoptive mother, says he appreciates how difficult it is when people don’t have choices and opportunities.

“I think that’s why he is trying to make a difference and help others,” Barb says. “Some people want to be known for the sake of being known, that’s not where he is at; that’s not his drive.”

His desire to help others extends to his family as well. Lopez is also proud of his two brothers, Peter and Alex, who are also runners, and brought them to the U.S. to pursue their dreams. They were some of the fastest U.S. collegians for their age. Peter ran for the national champion Northern Arizona cross country team that won the 2018 NCAA Championships. Lopez jokingly chalks up their success to great genes and the fact that they had three square meals a day, unlike his one meal per day in the Kenya refugee camp.

He’s grateful that his adoptive parents took a chance on him and welcomed him into their home. He also encourages others to learn more about refugees and support them.

“Refugees bring in different perspectives in life — different stories,” Lopez says. “And we should be able to embrace that. And we should be able to really encourage people, especially Americans, to go back and really get to know a refugee somewhere and talk to them and ask them where they came from. Why are they here? Because they didn’t just show up to come here. There is something that caused them to come here. … I hope we have people open their hearts the way they opened their heart for me and welcome these refugees and help them and care about them.”

Guiding the next generation

On November 8, 2023, Lopez visited the students of The Woodlands Christian Academy near Houston, Texas, where he shared his story with students ranging in age from kindergarten through twelfth grade. He came in partnership with World Vision’s Ignite program. Ignite works with Christian schools to help raise students’ awareness of global issues, helping them understand that they’re not too young to make a difference.

What better way to do that than hearing from one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, a former U.S. Olympian?

Lopez urged the Woodlands students to be change makers in the world. He told them about the many “angels” he’s felt surrounding him throughout his life, implying that the young people could also serve in the same way for others.

One young man asked Lopez, “How were you able to maintain mental clarity and emotional control in a situation where you could die any time?” Lopez responded, “God was with me. God showed me a way. He opened the door for me and said, ‘Follow me this way.’”

The incredible fruit of following where God led: Lopez has found a way to forgive the soldiers who kidnapped him, forcing him to flee his home and his country as a boy. And it’s brought him all over the nation telling his story, including here at The Woodlands, encouraging the students “to be engaged in their community; to do something bigger than themselves; to use their platforms.”

Steve Haas, Kristy J. O’Hara-Glaspie, and Laura Reinhardt of World Vision’s staff in the U.S. contributed to this story.

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Stephen Queen lost his father, a Baptist minister, to COVID-19 in November 2020. “He was a great man,” says Stephen.

More than a year after his death, the thought suddenly struck Stephen that he should get his dad’s Bibles — the ones with his preaching notes written in the back — and read through them. Stephen lived near his mom so he could get them any time. But he felt an urgency to get them that day. That was Wednesday, December 8, 2021.

Two days later, a tornado ripped through western Kentucky leaving devastation in its wake.

A couple of days after the storm, Stephen read these handwritten words in the back of his father’s Bible: “God has purpose in His plans. God is present in our pain.”

Crisis in Mayfield

To Stephen, a school principal at Central Elementary School in Mayfield, Kentucky, those words resonated deeply. Mayfield was one of the hardest-hit communities, with few buildings in the downtown left untouched by the storm.

The school sits on the outskirts of town and was undamaged. That allowed Stephen, teachers, and members of the community to congregate there and provide supplies to the devastated community. One of the teacher’s husbands connected with a church in nearby Paducah, Kentucky who said to reach out if the school needed supplies.

After finishing up the first day of distributing supplies, the team knew they needed more nonperishable food items so they called the Paducah church. World Vision worked with the church to send supplies.

During times of disaster, World Vision relies on the local church and community organizations like Central Elementary to distribute relief supplies such as cleaning items, shelf-stable food, water, and children’s toys. Through a network of partners, World Vision can reach the most vulnerable.

Stephen sees God’s hands working to knit all these people together in a time of crisis.

Being a servant leader

And he wants to live into the example his parents both set for him — that of a servant leader. “We’re not here for a long time and so we need to do the best we can to be servants because that’s what we’re called to,” he says. “We’re to be the hands and feet of Jesus and everybody has their own gifts.”

Some of those gifts include being able to provide for others, especially during times of disaster.

“Thank you for being obedient,” he says to the people who donated. “God puts things in people’s heart. Not everybody can go, but everybody can do something.”

For Stephen, that something meant being there to help his hurting community. He greeted the truck filled with supplies when it arrived early in the morning. He marveled at the things they’d never even considered that they might need like solar lights and heaters. He hasn’t lived through a natural disaster of this magnitude. “World Vision knows this is what would be needed during that time,” he says.

The team of volunteers arrived and put together packages for people from the donated supplies and items they already had on hand. “It can leave you a little bit speechless what all’s come in,” he says.

In fact, he worried at first that they might have too many supplies. But that didn’t turn out to be the case. They were able to distribute almost all they received within a day. But there are still more needs.

A lasting impact

As people continue to sort through what’s left of their belongings and begin the long process of rebuilding, the supplies and support needed will change.

Stephen thinks about his students. “Kids won’t forget that. If you lived through it, you’re never going to forget it,” he says. “Of course, you’re going to remember the tragedy, but you’re also going to hopefully remember the response. How the community came together. How people from all over the world reached out to help.”

And for Stephen, that might just be his dad’s words taking physical shape: God’s presence in our pain and His purpose in His plans.

He says. “There’s tragedy and there’s devastation, but I mean if you look hard enough, you can always find the good.”

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Disasters — manmade and natural — rattled parts of the world in 2021. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that about 235 million people — one in 33 people worldwide — required life-saving aid in 2021. While the need for humanitarian aid increased, food insecurity and poverty also continues amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

World Vision works to protect the well-being of children and their families affected by all forms of disasters and crises — from the continuation of the coronavirus pandemic and conflict to devastating earthquakes and hurricanes. In 2021, we responded to 72 disasters in 52 countries, helping more than 30.1 million people with relief aid they needed to survive. This is in addition to our ongoing global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learn more about 10 of the top disasters of 2021 and join us in inspiring hope for children and families affected by these tragedies.

Afghanistan: Hunger and thirst

Vulnerable children and families in Afghanistan are in crisis: An estimated 8.7 million Afghan children and adults will be on the brink of starvation by March 2022.

A widespread hunger emergency, mass child starvation, and near-collapse of the health system are being fueled by conflict, poverty, and drought. Overall, an estimated 22.8 million people — 55% of the population — are facing acute levels of food insecurity and malnutrition.

More than half of Afghanistan’s population lives below the poverty line. Families are also facing a water crisis, which has limited their access to get enough water for livestock and agriculture, as well as for drinking and hygiene.

What is World Vision doing to help people in Afghanistan?

We’re aiming to help 1 million people, half of which are children, through programs in areas such as food and nutrition assistance, healthcare, child protection, and access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. We’ve restarted our life-saving food assistance and mobile health and nutrition projects. Also, we’re operating 14 mobile clinics focused on feeding malnourished children and responding to urgent health concerns.

In 2020 alone we:

• Reached 642,761 people, including 299,605 children, through development programs including health and nutrition, water and sanitation, and education
• Responded to the humanitarian emergency needs of 286,951 people, including 171,574 children
• As of August 2021, we’ve helped protect 663,672 people, including 314,492 children, through our COVID-19 response — scaling prevention measures to slow the spread of the virus and supporting health workers

Learn more about the Afghanistan crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic: Public health crisis enters another year

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact the world. Entering another year, more than 272 million people have been sickened by the infectious disease, and another 5.3 million have died worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The pandemic has reversed years of progress in the fight against extreme poverty and threatens the future of a generation of children. Children have faced food insecurity, disruptions in education, and strained access to healthcare. There’s been an increased risk of violence, forced labor, and child marriage to offset financial hardships among affected families.

What’s World Vision doing to help people made more vulnerable by the coronavirus pandemic?

We’ve done everything we can to inspire hope for an entire generation. We launched our COVID-19 response on the same day the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic — March 11, 2020. Around the world, we have dedicated teams helping prevent COVID-19 and helping reduce its negative impacts — like extreme poverty, hunger, and limited access to education — on the world’s most vulnerable children.

Worldwide, we’re working with partners in our sponsorship communities to help protect children and their families from the effects of the coronavirus. We’re playing a key role in ensuring communities are accurately informed on the nature and purpose of vaccines. We’ve trained 192,800 faith leaders, who are highly trusted by their communities, so they can quickly reach kids and families with the right information and tools to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

So far, we’ve served over 72 million people, including more than 31 million children, in over 70 countries, including the United States.

In the United States, in partnership with the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box program, we’ve distributed more than 3.6 million Fresh Food Boxes to nearly 14.3 million people across the U.S through a network of over 1,300 churches between May 2020 and May 2021. Also, 80,221 Family Emergency Kits, serving more than 291,000 children and adults, were distributed through 51 church partners.

Learn more about our global COVID-19 response and its four objectives.

Northern Ethiopia: A state of emergency

In northern Ethiopia, rapidly declining humanitarian conditions have pushed northern Ethiopia into a state of emergency. Even before conflict erupted in November 2020, families faced serious challenges to their lives and livelihoods: food insecurity, inflated food and fuel prices due to recurrent drought, desert locusts, and the spread of COVID-19.

The affected population has now increased to 5.2 to 7 million, with more than 2.4 million people internally displaced, according to reports by the United Nations.

What is World Vision doing to help people affected by the northern Ethiopia crisis?

We’re coordinating with other humanitarian organizations to provide displaced families with food, emergency shelter, and non-food items, access to clean water, and sanitation facilities. We’re also partnering with healthcare facilities to ensure families have necessary supplies, providing support to rehabilitate damaged schools so children can learn in safe environments. So far, we’ve helped more than 1.5 million people, including 628,100 children, in northern Ethiopia with services such as access to clean water, food supplies, and emergency shelter.

Syria refugee crisis: Nowhere to go

War has devastated the lives of Syria’s children. Since 2011, Syria’s civil war has torn apart the Middle Eastern country and sent 13.5 million people — more than half of the country’s population — fleeing for their lives. The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people, ripped the nation apart, and set back the standard of living by decades.

About 6.8 million Syrians are refugees and asylum-seekers, and another 6.7 million people are displaced within Syria. Nearly 11.1 million people in Syria need humanitarian aid. And about half of the people affected by the Syrian refugee crisis are children.

Many Syrian children don’t remember a peaceful life before war. Like 17-year-old Raghad and her family who fled Syria in 2016 and made their way to a Jordanian refugee camp. “I dream of the reconstruction of my country, of Syria, so I can live in safety,” says Raghad, who attends one of the few “safe places” she knows through child protection activities offered by World Vision.

What is World Vision doing to help people affected by Syria’s refugee crisis?

Since the start of the Syrian refugee crisis, World Vision has provided aid to children and families in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq, which has also suffered from conflict and humanitarian crises. We’ve helped more than 6.5 million children and their families in the region. Programs by country:

• Syria: Healthcare; emergency food; clean water, improved sanitation, and promotion of safe hygiene; shelter repair kits; and Child-Friendly Spaces and child protection training
• Lebanon and Jordan: Food assistance, clean water and improved sanitation, education and recreation, Child-Friendly Spaces for kids and child protection training for adults, livelihoods support, and psychosocial support for women and children
• Turkey: Child-Friendly Spaces for kids, child protection training for adults, livelihoods support, and psychosocial support
• Iraq: Food aid, health services, clean water and improved sanitation, livelihoods training; for children — education, recreation, and programs in life skills, peacebuilding, and resilience

Learn the facts you need to know by reading our Syria FAQs.

Haiti: Upheaval and unrest

On August 14, 2021, a deadly magnitude 7.2 earthquake devastated Haiti and further exacerbated an already difficult situation shaped by political turmoil, fuels shortages, rising food insecurity and malnutrition, violence, and the pandemic.

At least 2,200 people died and another 12,200 were injured in the earthquake, which is believed to have occurred along the same fault line as the devasting tremor that struck January 12, 2010.

At least 4.4 million people, including 2.2 million children, needed humanitarian aid before the 2021 quake.

What’s World Vision doing to help people recover from the 2021 Haiti earthquake?

We’re working with partner organizations to address the needs of the most affected families in the hard-hit area of Les Cayes. While World Vision’s programs weren’t near the southern quake-hit zones, we’ve distributed life-saving food supplies and hygiene kits to 6,000 people and helped another 240,000 in the affected regions. Our response includes coordinating with partner organizations to help families along with children in orphanages that lacked access to water, food, and electricity.

We’ve helped 240,000 people, 60,000 of whom are children, through:

• Access to clean water and purifiers to prevent infectious diseases like cholera and COVID-19
• Tents to provide shelter for people who lost their homes and are exposed to the elements
• Food supplies to families, prioritizing those with children
• Child protection efforts to ensure the well-being of vulnerable children, especially those in orphanages, making sure they’re safe and cared for amid the prevailing social unrest.

Central America: Mass migration crisis

Forced migration from Central America has increased over the years, despite the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. Poverty, violence, food insecurity, and lack of economic opportunities and sustainable livelihood are among the top reasons migrants cite for traveling to the U.S.

“We see more families and unaccompanied children risking their lives seeking and opportunity, pursuing the dream of a better future for their children and themselves,” says Michele Gonzales, World Vision’s senior regional manager for Latin America and the Caribbean.

There’s no clear count of how many people migrate to the U.S. from Central America. But the Migration Policy Institute says of the 3.4 million Central Americans living in the U.S., about 85% of them are from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. At any given time, there could be thousands of people journeying north from their home countries.

What is World Vision doing to help migrant families affected by the Central America crisis?

At the Mexico–U.S. border, World Vision staff have been working with local faith-based organizations to help migrant families. We provide food, basic household items, and school supplies.

Our Hope at Home: Building Resilience in Central America framework supports the work of communities and governments in repairing relationships at different levels to anticipate — and tackle — the root issues of poverty and fragility. It fosters resilience through efforts around violence prevention, social inclusion, sustainable livelihoods, food security, water and sanitation, quality education, health, and more.

Rohingya refugee crisis: Another year of turmoil

2021 marks the fourth year of the largest, fastest movements of people in decades, the Rohingya refugee crisis. The United Nations has described the crisis as genocidal violence that has followed decades of persecution and human rights abuses.

Refugees have been flooding into Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh, where they joined 200,000 Rohingya who fled years before. Since August 25, 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have fled to Bangladesh. Today, about 913,660 stateless Rohingya refugees live in refugee camps, including the world’s largest and most densely populated — Kutupalong. More than half of the refugees are children.

Bangladesh, including Cox’s Bazar, is one of the most disaster-prone nations in Asia and the Pacific, where it is exposed to cyclones and severe flooding from monsoons.

What is World Vision doing to help Rohingya refugees?

World Vision has served in Bangladesh since 1970, following the Great Bhola Cyclone that killed at least 300,000 people across the country. Today, World Vision’s work in Bangladesh reaches about 5 million children and adults.

We’re caring for about 500,000 people in 21 camps and 150,000 in neighboring host communities through food; nutrition; water, sanitation, and hygiene; and education.

World Vision has installed deep wells, latrines, handwashing stations, and bathing cubicles to benefit more than 200,000 refugees in 11 camps. We hold hygiene promotion sessions and support some 1,000 water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) committees in communities that manage and maintain facilities.

We’ve provided informal education for 3,840 children ages 3 to 14 in our 21 learning centers, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund. Youth ages 15 to 18 also benefited from training in vocational skills, as well as basic literacy and numeracy.

South Sudan: Famine-like conditions and floods

Conflict and natural disasters have greeted South Sudan for most of its 10-year existence as an independent country. The brutal conflict has displaced 4.3 million, including 2.2 million who fled the country as refugees.

South Sudan faces “catastrophic” levels of acute hunger, according to the “Hunger Hotspots” report from the WFP and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. About 8.3 million people needed emergency aid in 2021 alone, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). Globally, World Vision is the WFP’s largest implementing partner.

The region has experienced devastating flooding and has forced about 780,000 people to flee communities along the Nile and Lol rivers, and in the Sudd marshlands since May.

What is World Vision doing to help people in South Sudan?

World Vision, in partnership with the WFP, has deployed mobile response teams to reach the hungriest people in the most remote, isolated areas. Traveling by helicopter, mobile response teams register people for food aid and deliver food supplies by road, river, and airdrops. Through this partnership, 193,131 displaced people living in 19 different locations across three counties in South Sudan’s most remote corners have received the nutrition supplies they need to survive the lean season.

We’re also providing life-saving food supplies and cash assistance to about 1.7 million people to prevent the spread of hunger in famine-like conditions in four South Sudanese states: Warrap, Upper Nile, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, and Central Equatoria.

Venezuela: Collapsed conditions

Venezuela’s deteriorating economic conditions, political unrest, food insecurity, and collapsed healthcare system have driven more than 6 million people from the country.

“Even as some pandemic restrictions ease, most Venezuelans still struggle daily to make ends meet,” says Peter Gape, World Vision Colombia national director and Venezuela crisis response director. “A recent national study shows more than 76% of Venezuelans are now living in extreme poverty. More children are malnourished, more parents are out of work, and more people continue to leave their homes seeking a better life in neighboring countries. Families are facing impossible choices as they try just to feed their children and survive. We have to pay attention to this crisis, or it will only get worse.

What is World Vision doing to help people affected by Venezuela’s crisis?

Since January 2019, we’ve maintained a multicountry response to the Venezuela migrant crisis. We’ve reached more than 834,100 people through programs focused on child protection, education, and food security and livelihoods in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many Venezuelan migrants are struggling for employment and live in poor conditions. Their needs are increasing and are now at high risk for contracting COVID-19 and suffering its economic and social effects. World Vision’s cash transfers and food aid have become a vital lifeline.

Hurricane Ida: Unprecedented storm

Hurricane Ida, the deadly and destructive Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, became the second-most damaging and intense hurricane to hit Louisiana. It made landfall on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Ida lashed Louisiana on Sunday, August 29, making landfall near Port Fourchon as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 mph. A storm becomes a Category 5 at 157 mph. Ida then churned inland, bringing catastrophic winds, heavy rainfall, and tornadoes, along with flash and urban flooding plus life-threatening storm surge along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

What is World Vision doing to help people affected by Hurricane Ida?

World Vision rushed truckloads of critically needed supplies to the hardest-hit communities ravaged by Hurricane Ida. Working closely with our church partners in Louisiana, we’ve reached 12,000 people with resources including food, clean water, tents, sanitizing wipes, generators, flashlights, diapers, and clothing.

Discover more worst disasters of the year:

• 8 of the top disasters in 2020
• 6 of the top disasters in 2019
• 7 of the top disasters in 2018

The post 10 of the top disasters in 2021 appeared first on World Vision.

In 2020, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for its efforts to combat hunger, promote peace in conflict-affected areas and prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.” For more than a decade, WFP and World Vision, its largest implementing partner, have been working on the front lines of emergencies, inspiring hope for millions of people around the world.

World Vision President and CEO Edgar Sandoval Sr. interviewed WFP Executive Director David Beasley on fighting hunger during the COVID-19 pandemic, WFP’s partnership with World Vision, and what faith in action means to David.

The first question, right off the bat: What was it like for you when the World Food Programme was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

It was an amazing day because literally, I was in the middle of Niger. We were negotiating access to reach a certain people group because if we couldn’t reach them, then you would have extremist groups using food as a weapon of recruitment. If we get access, they won’t fall prey to the extremists. So, we were in very intense discussions, negotiating this access, and all of a sudden someone comes busting into the room [saying], “Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel Peace Prize.” I was “Great who won it?” [He said,] “Well, we did! The World Food Programme; you did.” It was literally a speechless, “wow, wow, wow” moment.

I think the [Nobel] Committee was sending two very clear messages. One was a thank-you to the women and men out there putting their lives at risk every day to bring peace and stability by using food as a weapon of peace around the world. Number two was that the hardest work is really coming around the corner, and we’ll talk about that—how COVID-19 has created a dynamic rippling, devastating effect on already extenuating circumstances in many countries around the world.

You have been a consistent voice for the most vulnerable around the world. In fact, you sounded the alarm of the potentially devastating effects of COVID-19, saying that it could create a famine of biblical proportions. What were the signs you were seeing?

Prior to COVID-19, the number of people marching to the brink of starvation was 135 million. Now with COVID-19, that number has doubled to 270 million people. These aren’t just numbers. These are real people. And if we don’t reach those people, you’ll have mass starvation, destabilization of nations, and mass migration. I can assure you from historical experience, it is a thousand times more expensive to react after the fact than it is to avoid the icebergs when we’re heading to the open seas like the Titanic.

Both World Vision and the World Food Programme have a lot of staff on the front lines. Could you share with us about the current situation?

I got COVID-19 a year ago. I recovered from it, and I was then able to travel. We have millions of people who are dying out there, on the brink of starvation, and that has an impact globally. As I began going to these countries and bringing the attention and the awareness, people were like, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

I know the American people. Historically, when they know there’s suffering, they respond. But if they don’t know, then they don’t respond. This is why we’ve got to get the message out about the reality of what we are facing and how bad it is.

We survey people [we serve] all the time—what are they thinking, what are they doing—and we get the reality. In fact, in the past few months, the number of people in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua now thinking about migrating has doubled from 7–8% to 15–16%. That’s 39 million people in that four-country area. Do the math: 15%, 6 million people.

The good news is if they get food security and some degree of hope, they don’t want to leave home. But if they don’t have food for their children, and they don’t have hope, they would do what any mom and dad would do on God’s green earth, and that is head to a place where they think they might survive.

That is so true. I like to say, David, that people don’t want to leave the places they know and the people they love. They do so out of desperation. Can you drill deeper on the relationship between hunger and extreme poverty?

It was one of the reasons that we received the Nobel Peace Prize, [the] relationship between hunger and peace and stability. If you have hunger, you’re not going to have peace and stability. And if you don’t have peace and stability, you’re going to have hunger. They feed on each other. Poverty is in the middle of all this. And, on average, where there is poverty, you generally do have hunger.

For every 1% increase in hunger, there’s a 2% increase in migration. When you look out in the world today, 80% of our operations today are in areas of conflict. Imagine that. And that’s 60% of the people. Conflict is driving so much poverty, so much destabilization, displacement—unprecedented numbers around the world.

When you look at 200 years ago, there were 1.1 billion people on earth [and] there was 95% extreme poverty. Today [it’s] less than 10%. We’ve built systems, programs, and organizations over the past many decades that have reduced extreme poverty below 90%. That is very, very good news. Now, try telling that to the 10% we have not reached. That’s over 700 million people that still go to bed hungry. The answer is not tearing down the system that’s helping the 90%, because that would be catastrophic. The answer is continuing to improve, to reach those that we have not reached yet. That’s where we’ve got to be fixated, focused, and literally drive it home to reach every single person who is in need out there.

How do you combat the thinking that there will always be hungry people in Africa and the poor places around the world?

I don’t go to bed at night thinking about the children we saved. I go to bed at night weeping over the children we could not save.

Every human being is created in the image of the Almighty. Every single person on the planet. Jesus said “when you did not feed the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did not feed me.”

When any child suffers, we have a moral obligation. Jesus said to love your neighbor as your equal. Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s a moral imperative. That’s not a suggestion. That is what our life is all about if we truly are disciples and believers in the Almighty, who said love God, love your neighbor. When you love your neighbor, you are loving God. That’s what inspires me every single day.

If we could see things in that light—love your neighbor as your equal—it would end racism, discrimination, and so many of the other –isms.

I’ve been in some pretty hard places. You can be in the middle of a [war]-torn country and out from that rubble will come this child with bright eyes and so much energy and life that it’s like a flower in the desert. That is what we’re fighting for. To give that child some degree of hope so that they can have a future and hopefully a relationship with the Almighty.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length. 

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