World Relief

World Relief is the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals. It works in 20 countries to help churches work with victims of poverty, disease, hunger, war, disasters and persecution. World Relief offers assistance in health care, child development income generation, agricultural assistance, anti-trafficking, refugee care, and emergency relief and rehabilitation. It is supported by member denominations, churches and individual donors, as well as through grants from USAID^[1]. World Relief is headquartered in Baltimore, MD.

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History

World Relief began in 1944 when American Christian denominations, with sister churches in war-torn Europe addressed the great needs of some of the post-war region of the continent. The National Association of Evangelicals established the War Relief Commission to send clothing and food to victims of World War II. After the war, evangelical leaders decided that the War Relief Commission should continue because the human need was still great in post-war Europe and around the world. In 1950 the agency was renamed World Relief, and began to work in economic development (providing sewing machines and training so war widows could earn a living), setting up TB clinics, supporting orphanages and land reclamation projects. In 1961, World Relief’s former chairman, C.N. Hostetter, Jr., served as a member of President Kennedy’s “Food for Peace” committee to help distribute more food to destitute regions of the world. World Relief moved beyond providing emergency relief in response to disasters in the 1960s, working to foster long-term development to help the poor rise above subsistence. World Relief began to offer "life loans", which have turned into modern day microenterprise development opportunities

Mission Statement

"World Relief's mission is to work with, for and from the Church to relieve human suffering, poverty and hunger worldwide in the name of Jesus Christ."

World Relief Projects

Development

• Amidst horrific ethnic strife in Europe’s Balkans, World Relief distributed medical supplies in Bosnia-Herzegovina, aided thousands of refugees, and launched a microfinance program that has helped promote reconciliation and healing as people trade together.
• In the face of yet another famine in Africa – this time in southern Sudan – churches initiated an emergency response followed by development programs in Lietnhom and Pochalla.

Aid in Conflicts

• In 1969, United States Marines in Vietnam turned over the Hoa Khanh Children’s Hospital in Da Nang to World Relief. It provided care for more than 125,000 patients before 1975 when World Relief was forced to evacuate.
• Bangladesh’s bloody war for independence produced more than one million casualties and 10 million refugees. World Relief provided emergency supplies to refugees in India and other neighboring countries.
• In 1972, Pastor Paul Munshi and World Relief established the Christian Service Society in Bangladesh – launching a ministry that continues to help thousands of impoverished families.
• World Relief set up health and sanitation programs for Afghan refugees in Pakistan after the Soviet-led invasion of Afghanistan.
• In Somalia, World Relief provided medical supplies, emergency food and clean water. In Liberia, it supported local churches as they cared for victims of war. Its Rwanda post-genocide response included reconciliation ministries, trauma counseling, and roofing for widows’ homes.

Aid for the Hungry

• By 1963, World Relief’s feeding stations were serving hot meals daily to more than 57,000 people in Korea. In 1968, food-for-work programs provided meals for 94,000 vulnerable people in Chile.
• During famine years in Africa, World Relief provided food and other aid to the hungry in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Niger, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Ethiopia and Sudan.
• In 1977, World Relief’s feeding centers were supplying 7,000 hot meals a day to malnourished children in Haiti.
• In 1984, World Relief launched a three-year, $7 million relief program to feed 90,000 malnourished and starving Ethiopians through a church-based delivery system.
• As famine swept through southern Africa in 2002, World Relief mobilized local Christians to distribute food.

Refugee Resettlement

• In 1979, World Relief mobilized churches in the United States to helped resettle the Vietnamese boat people, the genesis of World Relief’s church-centered refugee ministry that has since helped more than 200,000 victims of war.

Disaster Relief

• After the San Salvador earthquake in 1986, World Relief spearheaded efforts to help families recover and rebuild, and along with local churches, it built more than 5,500 homes for families who had lost everything.
• Massive earthquakes in El Salvador (2001), India (2001) and Iran (2003) followed by the Asia tsunami (2004) led to an outpouring of aid from U.S. churches and individuals.
• After 9/11, World Relief supported the trauma counseling and relief ministries of churches in New York City. World Relief funded trauma counseling continues today.
• When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, local churches delivered emergency supplies, comforted the grief-stricken and provided refuge. World Relief supported church teams in the rebuilding and rehabilitation of homes in the devastated Pass Christian area along the Mississippi coast.

Helping in Increasingly Complex Crises

• World Relief has expanded its church-based HIV/AIDS ministries that reach hundreds of thousands of people with care, support and AIDS education. One project addressing this need is a program focusing on the child survival crisis in Malawe USAID.

References

1. ^ http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/cross-cutting_programs/private_voluntary_cooperation/ngograntees.html#wrc