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Pig Donations Bring Home the Bacon
December 24, 2007
The average annual income in Lesotho is $100 a year, but a $195 donation to World Vision can buy a family an income-generating piglet that can boost that income substantially. Gretchen Wilson reports.
December 19, 2007
On ABC News Money Matters, Vinita Nair offers some gift-buying tips for those friends who have it all. She talks with World Vision's Devin Hermanson about World Vision's gift catalog.
Got a Goat? Change a Family's Life
December 16, 2007
A gift catalogue from World Vision, an international humanitarian organization, lets you give extraordinary gifts of hope to poor communities around the world.
Smart Santa: Hot Gifts Within Your Budget
December 9, 2007
No matter how fat or thin your wallet is, chances are you want to be able to give some of the most sought-after gifts of the season. Consider the following presents for all types of budgets: World Vision Share of a Dairy Cow (WORLDVISION.ORG; $50): Help boost a family's protein and calcium intake by giving them their very own dairy cow. Capable of producing 120,000 glasses of milk in its lifetime, a cow is a gold mine of health for parents and children alike. You'll also help a family earn money at the local market by selling extra dairy products. The cow's offspring can be sold for extra income, too -- or shared with other families, extending the impact of your gift!
November 30, 2007
On the eve of World Aids Day, NBC's John Larson reports on a young Arizona teenager who raised money for Zambian orphans left behind by the African AIDS epidemic. With the help of World Vision, Austin Gutwein built the first high school for a Zambian community hit hard by AIDS.
He's giving hope to AIDS orphans
November 30, 2007
NBC's John Larson reports on an American student who is going through hoops to raise money and a school for kids in Africa. With the help of World Vision, Austin Gutwein built the first high school for a Zambian community hit hard by AIDS.
AIDS Study: Knowledge Yields Better Policy
November 30, 2007
About one-third of the people in seven countries, including the United States, know little about the HIV or AIDS epidemic, a United Nations-backed survey said.
The Global AIDS Attitudes Survey, published by World Vision, also reported that about 25 percent of the people surveyed indicated they believed the media "greatly exaggerated" problems associated with epidemic, the United Nations said in a news release. The survey was conducted in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States.
New Survey Reveals Frustration That AIDS Assistance Goals Not Met
November 29, 2007
A new global survey measuring attitudes toward the AIDS epidemic revealed that 52 percent of people are "frustrated" or "angry" with their governments for not honoring a 2005 commitment to help those affected by HIV and AIDS. "For those millions of people the disease HIV is simply not real," said Richard E. Sterns, President of World Vision USA, a U.S.-based Christian aid group that conducted the survey with the polling firm Ipsos. "It's not personal, it is somebody else's problem and somebody's else's disease."
One in Three in G7 Ignorant About AIDS: Survey
November 29,2007
One in three adults in the world's top industrial democracies say they know little or nothing about AIDS, a disease thought to have killed more than 28 million people in the past 26 years, a poll showed on Thursday. But the survey, carried out by Ipsos for the World Vision charity, found that in the seven countries studied, 44 percent of respondents would be willing to pay more taxes to combat AIDS, including 50 percent in the United States.
One-Third of Adults in Rich Nations Are Ignorant About AIDS, UN-Backed Study Finds
November 29, 2007
In what should serve as a wake-up call ahead of World AIDS Day, a new United Nations-backed survey shows that about one third of the people in seven wealthy nations admit they know little or nothing about the global HIV and AIDS crisis, and 25 per cent believe problems associated with the epidemic are "greatly exaggerated" by the media. The Global AIDS Attitudes Survey, published by the non-governmental organization World Vision, reveals the awareness and attitudes of populations in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – all members of the "Group of Eight" industrialized nations – towards those affected by HIV and AIDS globally.
November 19, 2007
Gwen Iffel interviews Humayun Kabir, Bangladesh's ambassador to the United States, and Rein Paulson, World Vision's senior director for humanitarian and emergency affairs, to discuss efforts to assist Bangladesh after a powerful cyclone slammed into the South Asian nation, leaving thousands dead.
Aid Agencies Respond to Devastation in Bangladesh
November 17, 2007
Bangladesh is recovering from the biggest cyclone to hit the flood-prone country in years. Relief worker Vince Edwards [of World Vision] speaks with Andrea Seabrook about efforts to recover survivors and repair the damage caused by Cyclone Sidr.
Bangladesh Cyclone Said to Kill 1,100
November 16, 2007
Aid workers struggled Friday to help hundreds of thousands of survivors of a cyclone that blasted Bangladesh with 150 mph winds, killing a reported 1,100 people, savaging coastal towns, and leaving millions without power in the deadliest such storm in more than a decade. ...
Volunteers from international aid agencies, including the U.N. World Food Program, Save the Children and the U.S.-based Christian aid group World Vision, have joined the relief effort.
World Vision is putting together seven-day relief packages for families that will include rice, oil, sugar, salt, candles and blankets, according to Vince Edwards, the agency's Bangladesh director.
Quake Aftershocks Rattle Northern Chile
November 15, 2007
Powerful aftershocks rattled northern Chile on Thursday, startling emergency workers a day after a large earthquake killed two people and injured more than 100 in the mineral-rich region. ...
"People here are pretty afraid. There have been so many aftershocks that start with a big noise, a humming noise, and then the ground starts moving and people start to run away," Paula Saez, an aid worker with World Vision International, said from Tocopilla.
Thousands of Chileans Homeless After Quake, Mayor Says
November 15, 2007
Thousands of Chileans may have to sleep in the streets Wednesday night after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake rattled the north part of the country, killing at least two people, injuring dozens and destroying hundreds of homes. ...
Paula Saez with the aid organization World Vision told CNN she was on a treacherous drive attempting to reach Tocopilla.
"There's no electricity and there's a lot of landslides" covering the road in spots, she said, and the highway was spotted with holes.
For Somali children, Even Soccer Can Be Deadly
November 14, 2007
Abukar Mursal stopped going outside to play after a bullet grazed his back during a soccer game in Mogadishu, the wretched seaside capital where he was born.
Abukar, just 15 years old, simply added sports to his list of banned activities — no joining up with militiamen patrolling the streets. No guns. And finally, no soccer with his friends. ...
"The children from Mogadishu have seen dead people in the streets, wounded people in the streets," said Ibrahim Haji, a counselor for the aid group World Vision Somalia.
Thousands Flee Growing Violence in Mogadishu
November 12, 2007
Violence in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, is forcing tens of thousands of people to flee and creating a growing humanitarian crisis.
News reports from the conflict-ridden capital say that at least 70 people have died in a week of fighting between Ethiopian-backed government forces and Islamist-led militants.
Deadly Tropical Storm Noel Hammers Cuba
October 30, 2007
Tropical Storm Noel moved inland over Cuba on Tuesday after causing at least 11 deaths in the Dominican Republic.
Weather models show Noel could reach Category 1 hurricane status, with top wind speeds between 74 to 95 mph (119 to 153 kph), by Wednesday afternoon, forecasters said. ...
Juliana Pierossi, a spokeswoman for the aid agency World Vision International, said 11 communities in southern Dominican Republic were inundated with rain. Floods have forced hundreds from their homes, drenched fields full of crops and cluttered the roads of the capital, Santo Domingo, with debris and stalled cars, she said.
"World Vision has started to distribute food and water for people who are in shelters, but we're worried about long-term effects," she said.
More Than Dozen Dead as Storm Drenches Hispaniola
October 29, 2007
More than a dozen people died in the Dominican Republic on Monday after Tropical Storm Noel dumped torrential rain on the Caribbean country, sending thigh-high water surging through streets and cutting power to thousands. Juliana Pierossi of international humanitarian agency World Vision said roads were flooded and impassable throughout the Dominican Republic and power cuts were widespread.
State Fire, Aid Workers Head South to Help
October 24, 2007
World Vision, a Christian relief agency with national headquarters in Federal Way, sent a truckload of supplies, including bottled water, face masks and clothing to Southern California.
October 24, 2007
Ever wonder what happens to that Cleveland Indians ALCS Champions and Arizona Diamondbacks NLCS Champions apparel? In the past, that gear from the losing teams was destroyed. Not this year. The shirts and hats for the teams that don't advance will go to children and families who need it. MLB teamed up with World Vision to make it happen, and "the first shipment will go to the African country of Ghana, which is experiencing severe flooding and has left many poor families in need of clothing," according to World Vision.
All Those T-Shirts of Losing Teams? Off to Africa.
October 24, 2007
In years past, once the victors were decided, Major League Baseball (MLB) required the destruction of all the clothing declaring the losers as champions. But this year Mr. Fields and his colleagues at World Vision, an international Christian humanitarian aid group, will save the erroneously labeled clothing from the incinerators and, instead, send them to impoverished Ghanaians affected by recent flooding.
Caregiver Kits Initiative on the Ning Blog
October 15, 2007
Though World Vision provides an informative home page, the Caregiver Kits Initiative network gives both leaders and participants a place to share news, suggestions, reflections, and ideas! It is a truly interactive extension of their Web site.
Attacks on Aid Groups Rising in Darfur
September 27, 2007
Humanitarian groups are facing a new escalation of violence in Darfur, with more than a dozen of their vehicles hijacked in recent days and several employees abducted or critically wounded. Several aid groups are questioning how much longer they can go on amid the spiraling chaos. Most attacks occurred on roads to refugee camps housing some of the 2.5 million people chased from their homes by Darfur's warfare. But gunmen have also struck within Nyala, capital of South Darfur state. A driver from the Christian aid group World Vision was ambushed and his car hijacked in Nyala this week, as was another the week before. Three of the group's local employees were wounded, one critically, in a separate attack on a convoy Sept. 20.
Aid, Cash Pledged for Indonesia Quake Victims
September 13, 2007
Aid agencies have pledged cash and rushed teams to assess damage and help the injured after a major earthquake and a series of powerful aftershocks shook Indonesia's Sumatra island. World Vision Indonesia said relief teams were due to leave on Thursday to assess the impact of the quakes. "We are sending assessment teams to Bengkulu and West Sumatra today," World Vision Indonesia National Director Trihadi Saptoadi said in a statement, adding that the real impact of the quakes remained unclear.
Felix Weakens to Depression; Henreitte Nears Mexico
September 5, 2007
Felix weakened to a depression from a tropical storm near the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, a day after slamming into the Nicaraguan coast as a Category 5 hurricane, the maximum level. Tens of thousands of people in Honduras were evacuated ahead of the storm's passage, Oscar Chicas, emergency relief director for advocacy organization World Vision, said yesterday. Three people died near the Nicaraguan border, he said.
Health Volunteers/ An International Program to Help Zambia Fight HIV/AIDS
September 3, 2007
CNN World Report looks at helping AIDS patients in Zambia. This is the second story of a three part package reporting on the World Vision-led RAPIDS program, highlighting work with volunteer community caregivers and orphans and vulnerable children. Interview with Bruce Wilkinson, RAPIDS chief of party.
View video at time marker 3:45–5:30.
Curtains Removed From AIDS in Africa
September 1, 2007
"Hello, my friend. Take a moment to step out of your world. Take a few deep breaths. Become a child."
Halimba's smooth baritone voice, spoken with an enchanting African accent, flows through a pair of headphones plugged into a postage stamp-sized iPod.
On cue, visitors are told to push aside a curtain and enter an African village decorated with scuffed wooden chairs, metal bunk beds, and dozens of color photographs.
August 30, 2007 hidden
Thousands of civilians fled heavy fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled North Kivu province after clashes erupted before dawn on Thursday between government forces and renegade soldiers. "Masisi has completely emptied of all inhabitants. They've all run away," Jean Kugaya, an aid worker with the relief agency World Vision, told Reuters.
Hurricane Dean Strikes Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula
August 21, 2007
Hurricane Dean hit the Yucatan Peninsula Tuesday morning, packing winds of 168 miles an hour. The system weakened to 80 mph as it plowed through the Mexican jungle on its way to the Bay of Campeche. "The rains have stopped, but the winds are still so heavy they can almost knock you down; you really have to fight against them," said Aldo Pontecorvo, director of emergency affairs for humanitarian organization World Vision, in an interview this afternoon from Merida, capital of Mexico's Yucatan state. "Traffic lights are down, and there is extreme flooding."
Hurricane Dean Poised to Hit Jamaica
August 19, 2007
In Gonave, an island with no electricity west of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, thousands of people huddled in the darkness in churches and schools and other inland shelters as the storm brought heavy rain and fierce winds, said Samuel Menager, an employee of the international aid group World Vision that helped people evacuate from the coast.
'Step Into Africa' Gives Americans Realistic Look at Continent in Crisis
August 18, 2007
Leaders of World Vision, the nonprofit Christian relief organization, felt something special was needed to get Americans involved in the fight against the African AIDS pandemic.
"We wanted to get them to touch the issue, to have them feel it, touch it, and be able to experience the need in a different way," said Michael Yoder, the agency's director of experiential engagement.
Christian Relief Poised for Quake-Hit Peru
August 16, 2007
One of the world's largest Christian relief and development organizations said Thursday it was ready to respond to the 8.0-magnitude quake that struck central Peru Wednesday night. World Vision reported that its staff and sponsored children in Peru are safe and the international agency is prepared to aid the victims of the quake.
Aid Workers Fight Disease as South Asia Floods Recede
August 6, 2007
Aid agencies warned that hundreds more people across northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal may die from starvation and disease, as South Asia's worst floods in living memory began to recede. "There is a fear when the water recedes that diseases will strike, there is that possibility,'' said Franklin Joseph, director of emergency response and disaster mitigation in India for non-governmental organization, World Vision. "Water sources will be contaminated when the villagers go in, we need to provide clean food and homes.''
August 1, 2007
Airplanes and on-ramps. Talk to Atul Tandon about fundraising, and you get a lot of metaphors about movement.
Whether it's drawing a picture of specific programming as on-ramps to the highway of donor engagement, or comparing the development of an overall donor-centric attitude within an organization while also keeping a variety of strategies robust to repairing an airplane while it's still in the air, the senior vice president of donor engagement at World Vision U.S. is clear about his point: Fundraising is far from a static endeavor and, to keep up, an organization — even one as venerable and stalwart as the 57-year-old World Vision — has to keep moving.
August 2, 2007
Diagnosed three years ago, Esnart was discovered by World Vision workers, on her death bed, covered with sores. But because of U.S. -funded medical aid, Esnart is alive today, an example of what some are calling "The Lazarus Effect."
"It's like coming back from the dead because if you saw me then you would have said I wouldn't live," Esnart said.
Interventions for Depression Symptoms Among Adolescent Survivors of War and Displacement in Northern Uganda
August 1, 2007
This article describes an RCT in 2 camps for internally displaced persons in northern Uganda. We investigated whether a therapy-based intervention (interpersonal psychotherapy for groups, [IPT-G]) and an activity-based intervention (creative play, [CP]) were effective for relieving mental health and psychosocial problems resulting from war and displacement among adolescents.
World Vision was a collaborating partner.
Kenyan Farmers' Fate Caught Up in U.S. Aid Rules
July 31, 2007
As the United States Congress debates an omnibus farm bill, it is considering a small change that advocates say could make a big difference to the world's hungriest people: allowing the U.S. government to buy some food in Africa to feed the famished, rather than shipping it all overseas from America. With the guidance of the Christian charity World Vision, which implemented the project, the families hacked an irrigation system from the barren landscape with machetes, hoes and shovels, clearing 1,000 acres and digging 99 miles of canals along the Kerio River.
Rising Food Prices Curb Aid to Global Poor
July 24, 2007
Rising food prices are threatening the ability of aid organizations to help the world's hungriest people. …World Vision, another Christian charity, is closing a six-year pilot project in Kenya where the group saw family incomes grow from around $235 a year to $800 a year as cultivation techniques improved.
Building Reminders of a Global Crisis
July 24, 2007
For leaders of World Vision, the Christian humanitarian organization with anti-poverty and human rights efforts in nearly 100 countries worldwide, the effects of AIDS and HIV are particularly ravaging for children. More than 90 percent of the world's HIV-infected children live in sub-Saharan Africa, including 15 million who have already lost one or both parents to the virus. The organization hopes to bring stories like Fred and Emmanuel's to life through "World Vision Experience: AIDS," a free, traveling exhibit that debuts this weekend at Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church in Gig Harbor. The two-day stop launches a two-pronged, national tour that will see 80 cities by the end of next year.
Stolen Innocence: Inside the Shady World of Child Sex Tourism
July 17, 2007
The tales of child victims of the sex tourism overseas are heartbreaking and disturbing, and as the international industry booms its legal effects are being felt right here in the United States.
Laura Bush on Africa Trip, AIDS Epidemic
First Lady interview: "On the Record"
June 9, 2007
BUSH: ... I did have a wonderful trip to Africa. And Jenna went with me, our daughter, which made it especially fun for me. And we had four great countries that we got to visit, from the west coast, Senegal, where we started, all the way to the Indian Ocean just above South Africa to Mozambique, and then to Zambia, which is close to Mozambique, and then all the way back to the west coast again to Mali, our last stop before we flew home.
First Lady Talks Up Aid Successes in Africa
June 29, 2007
First lady Laura Bush toured the Zambian capital of Lusaka Thursday as part of a four-nation swing through Africa, visiting a unique U.S.-funded project that taps a network of 12,000 Zambian HIV/AIDS volunteers to distribute mosquito nets designed to fight another major challenge: malaria. But the $2.5 million program is also unique in another way — half of it is being funded by American corporations, including Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and the NBA. The companies are part of an alliance that calls itself the Global Business Coalition, which is working with the U.S. government and a consortium of non-governmental organizations, ranging from World Vision and CARE International to local church groups throughout this largely rural and poor country of 11.5 million people.
U.S. Strings Rankle Some in AIDS Fight
June 29, 2007
While the U.S. is widely hailed for spending more than any other nation on a commitment already costing $15 billion -- and with President Bush seeking a doubling of that to $30 billion over the next five years -- Americans also are criticized for attaching strings that some relief advocates insist render the aid worthless.
As First Lady Laura Bush completes a four-nation tour of Africa this week to showcase the U.S. campaign against AIDS and malaria on a continent where 1 million children die of malaria each year and where an estimated 30 million people are HIV-infected, she has touted the comprehensive approach to fighting AIDS and staunchly defends abstinence as a strategy. Bush also has touted church-affiliated programs involved in counseling and treatment of AIDS patients, such as a World Vision-supported and U.S. government-funded program outside Lusaka that trains caregivers for patients.
June/July 2007
Seated in the front row of a crowded classroom, squeezed between a host of other students dressed in white head scarves and black uniforms, Khalida, 9, shares her Dari language exercise book with a classmate. Her dark brown eyes move between the text and her teacher, as students take turns reading aloud, and the teacher, a woman in her 30s, corrects their errors. Outside a bell clangs. Class is over. Students quickly close their books, deposit them in their backpacks and handbags, and hurry for the door. ...
World Vision's programming in Afghanistan concentrates on the integrated well-being of families and includes efforts in health, food security, water and sanitation, gender equality, and a particularly strong education component.
South Korean President to Visit
June 29, 2007
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun will make his first trip to Seattle on Saturday, talking with community leaders before departing the next day for an Olympics meeting in Guatemala. Roh, 61, will arrive Saturday morning and meet with Korean Americans later in downtown Seattle to discuss U.S.-Korea relations, trade and a possible visa waiver for Koreans who want to visit the United States. Before that 300-person meeting, first lady Kwon Yang-suk will meet with non-profit and foundation groups in downtown Seattle. Participants will include representatives from the Bellevue Seattle Korean School, Korean Women's Association, World Vision and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, officials said.
Laura Bush: Religious Groups Key to Aid
June 28, 2007 hidden
First lady Laura Bush promoted the role of faith-based organizations in combating disease in Africa as she launched an anti-malaria campaign in Zambia on Thursday. "Religious institutions bring a personal healing touch to the fight against AIDS," Mrs. Bush said, adding that Zambian health caregivers "know very well the healing power of faith." Faith-based aid groups like World Vision and Catholic Relief Services are partnering with local Zambian groups to distribute 500,000 insecticide-treated bed nets throughout Zambia in a $2.5 million anti-malaria partnership. Half of the money is coming from a coalition of American corporations.
Laura Bush Visits Zambia to Highlight U.S. Efforts to Combat Disease
June 28, 2007
U.S. first lady Laura Bush will tour an AIDS treatment center and launch an anti-malaria campaign in Zambia on Thursday as she highlights U.S.-funded efforts to combat disease in the southern African nation. Mrs. Bush began a tightly orchestrated day with a brief courtesy call to Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa and first lady Maureen Mwanawasa. The American first lady has also used her trip to support the role of faith-based organizations in foreign aid efforts, a role that local health practitioners say is important but only part of a larger strategy. She will visit two such efforts in Zambia, where the vast majority of people are churchgoing Christians. Faith-based aid groups like World Vision and Catholic Relief Services are partnering with local Zambian groups to distribute 500,000 insecticide-treated bed nets throughout Zambia in a US$2.5 million (€1.8 million) anti-malaria public-private partnership. Half of the money for the project is coming from a coalition of American corporations.
City Teens Bound for D.C.
Youths to Discuss Gang violence
June 28, 2007hidden
Sharlisa Brooks almost lost her cousin to gun violence. Breanna Hearon saw a man shot on her front porch. Leslie Hunter had a church friend gunned down, and she knows another who is in a wheelchair with a bullet lodged near his spine.
The three Chicago teenagers are in Washington this week to speak with members of Congress and legislative aides as part of a nationwide campaign to address youth violence. Chosen from hundreds nationwide, the 90 teen participants have completed a 15-week training program leading up to the Youth Empowerment Summit on Thursday. While the meetings may not change the country's approach to gang violence, organizers at World Vision, a Christian relief organization, hope the experience will produce community leaders.
Domestic Violence Has Roots In Teenage Years: Study
June 28, 2007
Domestic violence has roots in the teenage years but may be prevented if the behavior is detected early in adolescence, researchers said.
They argue that adolescents who steadily engage in violent behavior and those who become increasingly violent in their mid-teens are significantly more likely to engage in domestic violence in their 20s. "Violence leads to violence" Todd Herrenkohl, the lead author of the study from the University of Washington said in an interview. "What this study, hopefully, suggests to people is that by intervening with youth at an early point, when we see the development of violence in the early adolescent period, that may have an enduring effect on their behavior over time", he added. Corryne Deliberto, domestic policy adviser at the relief organization World Vision in Washington, D.C., which is launching a campaign against youth and gang violence, agrees that prevention is the key.
June 27, 2007
Laura Bush is in Africa to raise awareness about HIV and malaria. Story features World Vision Caregiver Kits.
Laura Bush Touts Aid successes on Africa Tour
June 27, 2007
When first lady Laura Bush tours the Zambian capital of Lusaka Thursday as part of a four-nation swing through Africa, she'll visit a unique US-funded project that taps a network of 12,000 Zambian HIV/AIDS volunteers to distribute bed nets designed to fight another major challenge: malaria. But the $2.5 million program is also unique in another way – half of it is being funded by American corporations, including the likes of Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, and the National Basketball Association. The companies are part of an alliance that calls itself the Global Business Coalition, which is working with the US government and a consortium of non-governmental organizations, ranging from big players like World Vision and Care International to local church groups throughout this largely rural and poor country of 11.5 million people.
US House Takes First Steps on Long-Term Food Aid
June 26, 2007
A U.S. House of Representatives committee approved a bill on Tuesday to boost food aid for the world's poor, adding a $600-million minimum for long-term hunger programs lawmakers say are needed to prevent future famines. That proposal is unpopular with agriculture and shipping groups, and with some charities that sell U.S. food aid on developing country markets to fund development work. Instead, the bill increases the funding ceiling for the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, which purchase crops abroad to deal with food emergencies.
The amount, and kind, of food aid that the United States, the world's largest provider of food aid, is just one of the issues lawmakers, interest groups and civil society are fighting out as Congress prepares the new farm bill. "It's an incredibly strong statement on the importance of food aid, both for development and emergencies. It's not just about handing out food aid," said Ellen Levinson, who heads a group of nonprofit organizations like World Vision.
A Student, a Teacher and a Glimpse of War
June 21, 2007
Nicholas D Kristof's Op-Ed column describes how student traveling with him in Africa, Leana Wen, saved life of starving woman in eastern Congo; says starvation and disease are result of warfare that has already claimed four million lives in Congo since 1998; notes war there is heating up again; laments shortage of aid groups there, saying it reflects international indifference; says this war in Congo should be international priority.
Growing Iraqi Refugee Crisis Threatens to Destabilize Mideast, Aid Group Warns
June 20, 2007
Displaced Iraqis are becoming one of the world's "largest and fastest-growing" refugee crisis, and their outpouring threatens to destabilize the entire Middle East region, a U.S.-based aid group said in a report Wednesday.
... The "economies of the Middle East, its societies, religions and regional security are in jeopardy if this crisis remains unaddressed," warned the U.S.-based World Vision aid group in a report.
Forged in Grief, New Mission Drives Parents
June 16, 2007
Jim and Lynn Kelly think of their daughter, Taryn, as a young woman of 27.
Though Taryn was 19 when she drowned in 1999, she remains a force in her family's life. Taryn, athlete, National Honor Society student, committed Christian, set high expectations for herself. Since her death, her parents have re-evaluated their lives based on their faith and Taryn's standards.
This month, they are selling and giving away most of what they own, packing the rest into their fifth-wheel trailer and setting off on a life as volunteers for Federal Way-based World Vision.
Tsunami Relief Aid Targets Malaria in Solomon Islands
April 5, 2007
Emergency teams in the Solomon Islands are trying to prevent outbreaks of malaria and other diseases, after a tsunami killed 34 people and left 50,000 others needing aid, the United Nations and relief agencies said.
"If we cannot address the sanitation issue quickly it is going to be more disastrous than the tsunami itself,'' Frieda Kana, acting program manager for the humanitarian aid organization World Vision, said by telephone from the capital, Honiara, today. "The tsunami claimed some lives, but diseases could claim more.''
Disease Breaking Out After Solomon Islands Quake
April 5, 2007
Aid workers battled an outbreak of diarrhoea on Thursday among Solomon Islanders who fled their homes after an earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 34 in the tiny Pacific nation. ...
Scores of people were still missing, aid agencies and the United Nations said, and up to 5,400 people were crammed into makeshift camps in hills behind their coastal villages, too scared to go home.
"There have been many false alerts and warnings and people who have been back in the town have run back to the hills. The tremors have been quite strong," World Vision aid worker Tanya Rad told Reuters from the provincial capital, Gizo, which bore the brunt of the magnitude 8 quake and tsunami.
Leaps of Faith
What business execs are learning as they lead Christian nonprofits.
March 7, 2007
On his first day as CEO of the Christian relief agency World Vision, Rich Stearns sat down in a conference room, bowed his head in prayer, and wondered, not for the first time, what exactly he'd gotten himself into.
In 1998, after a successful corporate career, Stearns left behind his corner office and company Jaguar at Lenox—a high-end tableware company—and entered a world he knew nothing about. He was convinced that God had called him to the job—and nearly as certain that he would fail.
Survivors Describe Horror of Plane Crash in Indonesia
March 7, 2007
... Survivors said the plane shuddered before landing, hit the ground with a hard jolt and slid off the end of the runway into a rice field, filling with smoke and darkness before erupting in flames and explosions. ....
Ruth Meigi Panggabean, a passenger on Wednesday's flight who works for the aid group World Vision, said passengers had been warned that the trip would be bumpy.
"As we approached the ground and I could see roofs from our window, the plane was still swaying and shaking," she said. "Then the plane was slammed to the ground and skidded forward and slammed once again before it came to a stop."
Half Child Refugees in Africa's Great Lakes Abused
February 26, 2007
More than half the children in refugee camps in Africa's troubled Great Lakes region have been victims of some form of sexual abuse, a report by aid agency World Vision said on Monday.
Some of them are forced to have sex just to get food because conditions in the camps are so wretched, the charity said.
Time Spent Hungry, Time Well Spent
February 25, 2007
Busy teens stressed over studying or after-school activities say they often skip lunch or dinner with ease.
But when they forgo food a bit longer -- say, 30 hours -- it's another story. ...
Kinkel took part yesterday in the 30-Hour Famine, coordinated by the international aid organization World Vision, along with 120 other teens from 10 churches in Northern Virginia. The teens ate lunch Friday and then consumed only water and juice until yesterday evening when they had potlucks at area churches. They spent the day learning about hunger issues and taking part in community service events.
Uganda Govt, Rebels Want to Restart Peace Talks-Agency
February 13, 2007
Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels say they will not restart a brutal 20-year war and remain committed to peace despite a near collapse of talks with the government about ending the conflict, a charity said on Tuesday.
The report comes a week after LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti threatened to order his fighters into Uganda from the Sudanese border and attack Ugandan army positions unless the government agreed to a new venue for talks, outside Sudan.
The rebels walked out of talks in the south Sudanese capital Juba last month, citing security fears after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir threatened to "get rid of the LRA from Sudan".
Delegates representing the LRA have said they want a new venue for talks, in South Africa or Kenya, but have refused to return to Juba under any circumstances.
Aid agency World Vision, which runs rehabilitation programmes for former LRA child soldiers, said it had organised a teleconference between the rebels and the Ugandan government.
Families Here Are Reeling at Indonesia Disasters
February 10, 2007
Story provides "how to help" information
With each new disaster in his home country of Indonesia, Adron Yusuf becomes a little more hardened, a little more stoic.
Mudslides, airplane crashes, sinking ferries and floods — the catastrophes since the 2004 tsunami have occurred in dizzying succession, exacting a devastating human toll.
With each tragedy, Yusuf's thoughts turn to family members still living in the Southeast Asian country — brothers and sisters in Medan and the Aceh province of Sumatra Island, and in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. ...
Scientists warn rougher days may be ahead as global warming lifts sea levels and triggers more frequent and deadlier storms. Johara Boukaa, a disaster expert at the global relief agency World Vision, said these tragedies have occurred with such frequency that victims haven't had time to grieve. "And that can be destructive," she said.
Bears "Championship" Hats En Route to Africa
February 5, 2007
After the final moments of the Super Bowl, when the Indianapolis Colts' coach was showered in Gatorade and hoisted atop his burliest players' shoulders, the winning players engaged in another time-honored ritual and immediately tossed on championship hats and shirts, which seemingly appeared out of thin air.
These are official Reebok-sponsored, NFL-approved hats and shirts that declare to the world that the Colts are the Super Bowl winners. ...
Thanks to World Vision, a relief organization that helps provide food, clothing and shelter to developing nations, residents of preapproved towns in Uganda, Niger, Sierra Leone, Romania and other struggling countries will receive these coveted championship leftovers.
Far Away, Super Bowl's Losers Will Be Champs
February 4, 2007
The Super Bowl will end about 10 p.m. Sunday, and by 10:01 every player on the winning team — along with coaches, executives, family members and ball boys — could be outfitted in colorful T-shirts and caps proclaiming them champions.
The other set of championship gear — the 288 T-shirts and caps made for the team that did not win — will be hidden behind a locked door at Dolphin Stadium. By order of the National Football League, those items are never to appear on television or on eBay. They are never even to be seen on American soil.
They will be shipped Monday morning to a warehouse in Sewickley, Pa., near Pittsburgh, where they will become property of World Vision, a relief organization that will package the clothing in wooden boxes and send it to a developing nation, usually in Africa.
USOC Honors Three Athletes, Curling Team
January 16, 2007
Speedskater Joey Cheek and snowboarder Hannah Teter, who are using the platform of their 2006 Winter Olympic wins to promote humanitarian causes, were named the U.S. Olympic Committee's sportsman and sportswoman of the year Tuesday.
Teter is donating proceeds from "Hannah's Gold," a maple syrup produced in her home state of Vermont, to World Vision to help alleviate the ravages of AIDS and poverty in Africa.
Zimbabwe issues new flood warnings
January 16, 2007
Officials in economically ravaged Zimbabwe issued new warnings Wednesday of floods, as fears grew that flooding in neighboring Mozambique would be more extensive than in 2001 when 800 people died. ...
The charity World Vision noted the peak of the rainy season was due in mid-February.
"Disaster prevention work is helping to reduce the likelihood of a high death toll like we saw in 2001," World Vision emergency officer Amos Doornbos said. "But those affected are the very vulnerable whose crops were wiped out last year and who have now lost their livelihood again."
Child Sex Tours
The average victim is 14, and Americans make up 25 percent of the customers.
December 29, 2006
With the ease of international air travel, arranging sex tourism—including sex with under-age girls—is almost as simple as clicking on a website. By taking trips to areas tolerant of prostitution, American tourists or business travelers can easily take advantage of the estimated 2 million prostituted children in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Economically depressed or politically unstable regions are especially vulnerable to commercialized sex.
According to World Vision, some predators travel specifically for "sex tours," expecting anonymity, low-cost prostitution, ready access to children, and immunity from prosecution.
Diamonds Are Not Everyone's Best Friend
December 14, 2006
The holiday season is prime fundraising time for charities. So I wasn't surprised to get a message the other day from World Vision, the Federal Way-based humanitarian aid organization. But this message didn't ask for a financial gift; instead it was advice for people who may be buying diamonds.
Diamonds and charitable causes are on opposite ends of the giving spectrum, but there is a reason World Vision cares about diamond purchases.
Diamonds can take lives just as surely as hunger can.
World Vision and other groups, concerned about the role diamonds play in worsening the lives of millions of people in Africa, have latched onto the opening of "Blood Diamond," a movie that deals with the illegal diamond trade that funds some rebel groups on the continent.
Diamonds Are for Evildoers Too
note: The web version of this article can only be accessed by Chicago Tribune subscribers but the editorial was also featured in the Houston Chronicle.
Clarence Page
December 13, 2006
note: The web version of this article can only be accessed by Chicago Tribune subscribers.
Nothing concentrates your mind out in the back roads of rural Africa like having a kid from some rebel army hold you up at gunpoint with a large Russian-made assault rifle.
Rory Anderson, a senior Africa policy adviser for World Vision, a Washington-based Christian aid and development organization, knows that experience. It happened to her and a carload of colleagues in 2003 in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo near Uganda's border.
"Suddenly I was both frightened and brokenhearted," Anderson recalled in an interview with me. "He was a kid. He could have been my baby brother. I could have turned him across my knee and spanked him. Except that he had that gun. And the power."
'Hoops of Hope' for African Orphans
December 8, 2006
MESA, Ariz. - When Austin Gutwein was 9 years old, all he really wanted was to make his school's hoops team. He didn't make it. But he did rebound.
You see, Austin had an African pen pal, a little boy whose letters encouraged Austin to learn more about Africa — which he did, including the really tough stuff. Here's what he knows about AIDS.
"Art Raid" to Benefit Patients with AIDS
December 8, 2006
note: The web version of this article can only be accessed by Chicago Tribune subscribers.
As part of a mission to help the underserved, students at Trinity Christian College will hold an art sale Friday to raise money for the Lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago, which serves AIDS patients in Lawndale and Garfield. The sale includes up to 20 student paintings, photographs, handmade scarves and a Native American artwork collection that was donated to the college several years ago.
The Social Justice Chapter at Trinity helped organize the "art raid." Members got the idea of helping the health center, at 3680 W. Odgen Ave., from Acting on AIDS, a student chapter of World Vision, an international Christian relief and development organization.
"Our Pick": Diamond Industry, Government Still Not Preventing the Import of "Blood Diamonds"
December 8, 2006
Five years ago, World Vision and other humanitarian organizations urged diamond wholesalers and retailers to stop the sale of so-called "conflict diamonds" — stones mined illegally and sold to fuel wars in Africa.
Five years later, despite legislation and promises of oversight by the diamond industry and U.S. government, diamond companies still don't do enough to prevent the stones from being used to purchase weapons, fuel wars and create havoc in countries where most people live on less than $1 a day.
Pitching in to Fight AIDS Pandemic
December 6, 2006
note: The web version of this article can only be accessed by Chicago Tribune subscribers.
About 325 volunteers and parishioners from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Naperville assembled HIV/AIDS kits last weekend that will be sent to caregivers across the world who take care of AIDS sufferers. The 414 kits will be shipped to World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization that will distribute them, said Rev. Greg Wenhold, pastor of Good Shepherd.
"The response to help with the kits was way beyond any of our expectations. It was an introspective, spiritual adventure," Wenhold said. Wenhold visited Africa 2 1/2 years ago with World Vision and learned about the AIDS pandemic. "To see people struggling against something that ravages humankind in that part of the globe, my heart was broken in two," Wenhold said. Earlier this year the planning began for the caregiver kit assembly event, which just happened to come together on World AIDS Day 2006.
Hitting Up the Guests
Holiday-Party Hosts Seek Donations. For Pet Causes; 'Frankly, It's Distasteful'
December 1, 2006
note: The web version of this article can only be accessed by WSJ subscribers.
Pat McGuire of Palo Alto, Calif., is looking forward to the holiday party she'll be attending at a friend's house in a couple of weeks. But one thing is giving her pause, and it isn't the sausage appetizers or mince pies the host is planning to serve.
Ms. McGuire says she's expected to come bearing a gift -- not flowers or a bottle of wine, but a check for the Palo Alto Area Red Cross, as spelled out in the invitation. The party with a cause is a great idea, she says -- but she has her own favorite charity. "I would prefer to be giving to the Salvation Army." ...
At least five of the 25 largest U.S. charities, including World Vision, Feed the Children and Habitat for Humanity, are now encouraging donors to host such gatherings.
Imagine a World of Givers
November 29, 2006
Discussing the issues are conservative columnist Cal Thomas and liberal strategist Bob Beckel.
Bob: Like any other parent, I love to see the excitement in the eyes of my kids on Christmas morning. I overdo decorating inside and out and in the process award my electric company with a big bonus. But it seems not only the meaning of the holidays fades more and more each year, but so does the spirit. I don't mean holiday party spirit, but the spirit of a family together; the spirit of reaching out to those who are alone during the holidays and bringing them into our homes; the spirit that comes with collecting toys for poor children, or playing Santa at a nursing home and not charging a fee. Those are the gifts of the human spirit, and they are priceless.
Cal: I have rarely agreed on anything with you as much as this, Bob. Last winter, I discovered an intriguing program run by the humanitarian agency World Vision. For small amounts of money, you can buy a goat ($75) for a man in a poor African country that will allow him to sustain his family.
Life-Changing Gifts Ennoble Our Spirits
November 25, 2006
Thanksgiving - that most family-oriented holiday - is over. Now, the countdown to Greedmas begins in earnest.
Since 2001, I've written an annual protest, urging readers to spurn the commercial frenzy that profanes the day once known as "Christmas" and return to the spirit of the gentle carpenter who urged us not to swell the fortunes of the Wal-Mart heirs but to reach out to the less fortunate…
That final, and highest, level of charity is embodied by many non-profit groups. Two that work tirelessly in third-world nations to help the poor become self-supporting are World Vision and Heifer International.
How to Help Darfur (requires log-in to view)
November 20, 2006
One of the most common questions I get is also the hardest: What can I as an individual do about Darfur?
I try to address that in my Tuesday column, but I know it isn't that satisfying to talk about writing one's member of Congress or calling the White House. Still, remember what former Senator Paul Simon of Illinois said after the 1994 Rwandan genocide: If each member of Congress had received just 100 letters urging action, that would have been enough to get the political system lumbering into action. And then Washington would have done what it took.
As I noted in the column, aid groups are doing heroic work in Darfur. I hesitate to name any, because there are so many and any list is going to be very limited. If you have a favorite group, my bet is that it is working in Darfur or in Chad with Darfuris. But examples of those doing a great job include Care, Doctors Without Borders (the gutsiest physicians around; they have no right to tell people to stop smoking, since they're all taking crazy risks themselves.), International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam and World Vision. Then there are the U.N. folks. On this trip I was with some people from UNHCR and stayed at their guest house. There are hundreds of thousands of people alive today in camps in Darfur and Chad who wouldn't be if it weren't for UNHCR and World Food Program.
The Vanishing Donor
November 20, 2006
Aggressive fund-raising tactics increasingly alienate contributors
Karen L. Medicus made her first $25 gift to Greenpeace a few years ago, followed by another $50 six months later. Then she stopped giving — not because her concern about the environment had lessened, but because she didn't like the way the charity solicited her.
"They started bombarding me with direct mail," says Ms. Medicus, who happens to be a fund raiser for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in Austin, Tex.
"It left a bad taste in my mouth, and I stopped donating," she says. "I threw all the mail pieces in the trash without looking at them."
Like Ms. Medicus, a majority of people who give once or twice to a nonprofit group never go on to become loyal donors. For example, last year 30 of the 60 big national charities examined in a major study won repeat gifts from less than a third of the donors they had recruited in 2004. The study was conducted by the Target Analysis Group, a Cambridge, Mass., consulting company.
The AIDS Evangelists
November 15, 2006
On a recent Sunday morning, Steve Haas arrives at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to meet a group of Seattle pastors and church members. Haas, a former cleric at one of the country's best-known evangelical megachurches, Willow Creek Church in Chicago, is leading the group on a trip to Africa. Milling about the KLM ticket counter with him are several people from University Presbyterian Church carrying long thin black bags that make a clanking sound; inside are pipes for a well pump they are bringing at the request of a missionary in Kenya.
This trip isn't a typical relief effort, though. Haas is a vice president with World Vision, the giant Christian charity whose American headquarters are in Federal Way, and he plays a central role in one of the organization's most challenging missions: waking Christians to the fight against AIDS.
Let's Stop Stereotyping Evangelicals
November 8, 2006
Editorial by By Joseph Loconte and Michael Cromartie
It was in 1976 — the "year of the evangelical," according to Newsweek — that conservative Christians burst upon the political landscape. Critics have been warning about the theocratic takeover of America ever since. Thus the plaintive cry of a Cabinet member in the Carter administration: "I am beginning to fear that we could have an Ayatollah Khomeini in this country, but that he will not have a beard ... he will have a television program."
Guest: World Vision Africa Policy Advisor, Rory Anderson
October 27, 2006
Rory Anderson, World Vision's Africa policy advisor and former child soldier Grace Akallo talk with popular NPR radio host, Tavis Smiley. Anderson, Akallo and Smiley discuss the conflict in northern Uganda and what more the U.S. government can do to support ongoing peace talks between the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army.
A Year of Big Gains
October 26, 2006
Donations to America's largest charities grew by 13 percent last year, to $62.7- billion, according to The Chronicle's annual Philanthropy 400 survey.
The relief organization World Vision (No. 13), which raised more than $37-million online out of its total $647.9-million last year, says the amount it collects online has grown by more than 2,000 percent in the past five years. The charity attributes the increase partly to its concerted effort to collect e-mail addresses from donors and potential supporters, 800,000 of whom have now agreed to receive its electronic communications.
"When you have 800,000 e-mail addresses, you can communicate at a very low cost," says Atul Tandon, World Vision's senior vice president for donor engagement. He says many donors find the online communications far more compelling than mass mailings.
At Congress, Group Urges U.S. to Act on Ugandan Violence
October 13, 2006
Activists spent a day on Capitol Hill this week, lobbying the United States to take a stronger position to support a fragile peace process in Uganda. Among the activists in Washington was Grace Akolla (a World Vision spokesperson), who is marking a grim anniversary this week. Ten years ago, she was abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army, a brutal rebel movement that turns children into killers.
Among themselves, Akolla and her colleagues debate what should come first -- peace or justice -- and how best to save children caught up in the war. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.
This segments aired on "All Things Considered."
Uganda's Plight Pressed on Capitol Hill
October 11, 2006
Donning yellow and orange T-shirts, 700 activists from across the country pressed legislators and Capitol Hill staffers yesterday on the need for high-level American involvement to bring peace to northern Uganda, a region that has experienced wartime atrocities, abductions of children and widespread displacement for more than 20 years.
A number of nonprofit civic groups participated in the two-day gathering in Washington, which included a symposium Monday. The participants included Physicians for Human Rights, Africa Faith and World Vision, as well as policy experts from the International Crisis Group, mediation specialists from the Carter Center, and policy advisers from Oxfam America, Refugees International, the International Rescue Committee, the Brookings Institution and Mercy Corps.
Students on a Mission to Help Africa
September 29, 2006
The summer before Christy Peed's senior year at Wheaton Academy, a Zambian workman who had been like an uncle to her died. Peed had lived her first 12 years in Zambia, and the man worked at her missionary parents' home. She was a flower girl at his wedding, and he used to help her pick pineapples ripening in their yard. He left behind a wife and two daughters. He died of AIDS.
So when Peed and other student leaders at the private Christian high school searched for a charitable project that year, they settled on raising money for a schoolhouse in a Zambian village ravaged by AIDS. The cost was $53,000, a goal many of their elders considered unreachable.
World Vision Helps Students Go Back to School with the Basics
August 31, 2006
In an annual back-to-school poll by Kelley Blue Book, the number one choice car young drivers would like to arrive on campus in was a Ford Mustang. Meanwhile, more than 500,000 children in New York are living at or below the poverty line, according to World Vision.
This fall, an estimated 17.5 million children from low-income families will go back to school without basic supplies. In response, the Christian relief and development organization will place about 35,000 backpacks and other supplies in the hands of children nationwide. The annual distribution will occur in 11 cities across the states including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Dallas and hurricane-stricken Picayune, Miss.
Evil Trade:Invest Equal Energy in Child-Sex Tourism and in JonBenet Case
Commentary by Joseph Mettimano, World Vision director of public policy & advocacy
August 24, 2006
The recent arrest in connection with the sexual abuse and murder of JonBenet Ramsey is a chilling reminder of the threat facing children around the world. There are millions of children beyond our own borders who are systematically raped on a daily basis in the commercial sex trade, some by American men. Many of these children are forced to service a dozen or more men a day in brothels, while others are the unwilling subjects of the pervasive child-porn industry.
In Lebanon, Even Peace Is a Battle
August 22, 2006
Victory in the latest war in Lebanon will not be won on the battlefield, but in the race between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government to rebuild homes and lives. Despite President Bush's pledge yesterday of an additional $230 million for reconstruction, Hezbollah is far out front
Thailand, Cambodia Are Havens for Predators Seeking Child Sex
August 21, 2006
Thailand and its neighbors including Cambodia are favored by child predators and other sex tourists, attracted by their vulnerable populations, lax laws and reluctant enforcement, aid organizations say.
Hope for Uganda's Child Soldiers
August 14, 2006
As he marched for days through the bush without food or water, armed with an AK-47 to loot and to kill, Bosco Ojok dared not dream of going home. Just 14 when he was abducted near his northern Ugandan house by the Lord's Resistance Army, he never said a word to anyone about escaping from the rebels' world-renowned campaign of terror, which included cutting off the lips, ears and noses of civilians as they fought the government. If anyone heard, the frightened teen knew, it would mean his swift execution.
Success in Raising Funds Depends on Aid's Destination
August 4, 2006
After an earthquake rocked the Indonesian island of Java in May, donors responded. World Vision U.S., a Christian aid organization, quickly received hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to help those left devastated by what nature had wrought.
To aid the more than 700,000 displaced in Lebanon during fighting that has raged between Israel and Hezbollah over the past three weeks, the call has gone out again.This time, donors have been "lukewarm," a senior official says.
Lebanese Relief Effort Hits Roadblock
August 3, 2006
Desperately needed food and supplies for trapped and displaced Lebanese are piling up undelivered because Israel won't guarantee security for aid convoys, relief workers said Wednesday. "We, like most agencies, have supplies and staff backed up," said Dan Kelly of World Vision, a Christian relief organization.
Aid Has Dangerous Road to Reach Most-Isolated Refugees
August 3, 2006
Zayrour is luckier than many other displaced Lebanese. In southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, thousands of people are stranded or in temporary shelters. Many are afraid to leave because of the danger of traveling on roads that Israel is bombing in an attempt to kill or limit the movement of guerrillas.
Child Soldiers Wake Up From a Nightmare
July 31, 2006
For nearly two decades, northern Uganda has faced the terror of an army of child predators. The children live in a wilderness of towering elephant grass and attack at night. They have been known to attack villages -- killing all but the children between 6 and 15, whom they take away.
Glimpses of God in Africa
June 23, 2006
Congo's multi-state conflict officially ended in 2003, but the fighting persists. The cost to the Congolese has been staggering, with the conflict-related loss of life estimated at no less than 1,200 per day. Tens of thousands of rebels, soldiers, and UN troops are active inside Congo, making missions work extremely hazardous.
In the Goma region along Lake Kivu, Isaac discovered ordinary Christians undertaking life-saving ministry at extraordinary risk. Arlette Yepdjuo, a World Vision staffer stationed near Goma in Nyabiondo, is one such person. A Cameroonian hydrologist, she works to deliver clean water to villagers. Unsafe drinking water is one reason why many Congolese children die in infancy.
Helping 'Witches' Who Live in Exile
June 22, 2006
In Ghana, isolating widows branded as witches is a custom in this superstitious region. A few groups are trying to help. Some groups, use education to fight superstitions, while others are offering loans to these women to help them develop skills and earn income.
It Takes a Village (They Hope)
June 20, 2006
INSIDE Grand Center Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall - but miles away, emotionally - is a thatched-hut chapel with crude benches and a few boxes of tissues. You'll need them.
The "AIDS Experience" - organized by the Christian relief group World Vision - lets you see that world through the eyes of four children via a self-guided audio tour through a 3,000-square-foot village, where, as the voice on your MP3 player tells you, "life can be abundant and full but also heart-breakingly difficult."
Robust Economy = Robust Giving
June 20, 2006
According to Giving USA Foundation, which released its 2005 report Tuesday, disaster relief is but 3 percent of total giving - which grew to an estimated $260.3 billion. The report and other recent surveys paint a healthy picture for US nonprofits.
Overall, Americans gave 6 percent more last year than in 2004, with the greatest growth occurring in donations to human services, environment and animal welfare, and international affairs organizations. Close to 60 percent of US charitable groups reported growth - even before adding relief donations. That's the highest percentage in five years.
Interview: World Vision on the Indonesia Quake Response
June 4, 2006
A 6.3-magnitude quake hit the sleeping rice-farming district of Bantul on May 27, 2006, leaving more than 5,800 people dead and displaced some 650,000 survivors. James East, World Vision Asia-Pacific Communicator, spoke with The Christian Post on June 1, just days following the group's initial disaster response in the affected area about the conditions of the survivors and coordination of relief efforts.
Averting Our Eyes from African Horror
May 12, 2006
Editorial by Reneé Stearns after her trip to Northern Uganda. She is married to Richard E. Stearns, the president of World Vision, U.S.
Perhaps only those children who have had their childhoods so horribly stolen away in Northern Uganda can really understand what it is like to live in the clutches of a madman like Joseph Kony and his LRA. But I think we should still try. I don't think we should use the incomprehensibility of his evil as an excuse to ignore it.
Deliver Us from Kony
December 30, 2005
World Vision operates the Children of War Rehabilitation Center in Gulu that ministers to escaped LRA children, giving them medical treatment, counseling, and the gospel. Desperate parents arrive at the center each morning looking for their missing children. If they do find them, their joy may turn to shock, seeing sons without limbs or daughters holding their own infants.
Also from Christianity Today:
> SIDEBAR: Brutality Therapy by J. Carter Johnson
> SIDEBAR: Peace Not Out of Reach by Timothy Morgan
We All Can Help Ward Off Poverty's "Silent Tsunamis"
December 29, 2005
Industry experts expect 2005 to be a record year for charitable giving, topping the 2004 total of nearly $250 billion to churches, schools and health organizations. That's the good news. The bad news is that 2005 was a deadly year in other ways. One million people, mostly children, died of malaria. More than 3 million died from AIDS. And a shameful 11 million babies and young children died of preventable causes such as hunger and diarrhea. Lives lost through "silent tsunamis" caused by extreme poverty.
Update: Sri Lanka's Coast, After the Tsunami
December 28, 2005
Steve Inskeep talks to Steve Matthews of the relief organization World Vision. Morning Edition talked with him last year, just after the deadly tsunami struck Sri Lanka. Matthews has returned to the region repeatedly over the last year, and is currently in Galle, Sri Lanka.
World Vision Mexico Supports Campaign Against Child Sexual Exploitation
December 28, 2005
Civil organizations and World Vision gathered late last month in Tijuana – a city a few meters away from the Mexico-US border – to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation affecting about 900 children in the city. "The idea is to create awareness that children are not objects and do not belong to somebody so they cannot be objects of commercialization or abuse," declared World Vision Mexico National Director Josue Gonzalez .... Tijuana is considered a "city of risk" for children, with the third highest city cases of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Mexico, preceded by tourist cities of Acapulco and Cancun.
Tsunami Update: A Thai Family, Haunted by Their Loss
December 26, 2005
The struggle to create a semblance of normalcy goes on in many coastal areas one year after a tsunami devastated much of southern Asia. One Thai family is still haunted by the loss of their infant daughter to the natural disaster.
Dazed by Disasters
December 21, 2005
We can fight compassion fatigue by planning ahead.
Christian workers in far-away Pakistan report that giving for earthquake relief is inadequate. Perhaps 80 villages in hard-to-reach Kaghan Valley have yet to see an aid worker, and the tent shelters and hospitals hastily set up in other areas provide the homeless with scant protection during the onset of winter .... "Some people probably are becoming numb to these tragedies," Richard Stearns of World Vision told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "What we call 'compassion fatigue' may be setting in."
"I Won't be Home for Christmas"
December 21, 2005
Millions of Americans will celebrate a "holiday for one" away from family. Many find ways to cherish the spirit of the day.
Christmas will be a workday for Stephen Matthews. Instead of celebrating with his family in Toronto, he is in Sri Lanka. As director of a global rapid response team for World Vision, he is helping 700 journalists who are expected to cover the first anniversary of the Dec. 26 tsunami .... A month ago, when he learned that he would be away for Christmas, he says he and his children "talked about whether it's time for me to pursue a job that would let me be home more. They said, 'No, this is fine."
A Cry in the Night ... on World AIDS Day
December 1, 2005
Exhibit brings the horror in close
The 3,000-square-foot exhibit was produced by World Vision, a Christian agency dedicated to helping the world's children. The intent is to put visitors in the children's shoes in displays that re-create the sounds and sights and smells of Africa. The only false detail, said Bwalya Melu, walking the exhibit at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center on Wednesday, is electricity. There was none in villages he visited as World Vision director in his native Zambia.
World Renews Effort Against AIDS
December 1, 2005
New HIV infections have surged to a record high: an estimated 40,300,000 people. That's 5 million more than last year. An estimated 2.2 million of those infected are children, according to the United Nations, which is marking World AIDS Day with a new campaign to fight the disease in children. Rich Stearns, president of World Vision, Inc., a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide, says unlike a hurricane or tsunami, AIDS is a "constant, insidious disaster" stalking the globe.
Expatriates Go Under Cover to Trap Sex Predators on Paradise Island
November 29, 2005
Britons living on a Thai resort island that was damaged by the tsunami have joined an undercover team of volunteers to help to trap sex tourists preying on youngsters who survived the disaster .... There are concerns among aid organisations that the anniversary of the tsunami will attract a wave of bogus charity workers. World Vision has produced a series of posters for schools, children's groups and refugee centres, advising youngsters, their parents and teachers what to do if strangers come offering gifts.
Local Donors Still in Top Form – No Fatigue Here
November 28, 2005
In the checkout line, shopper Doug Delin said he'd avoided lugging turkeys by logging on to www.sharenw.org and buying two extra holiday food packages that Share Northwest will give out through a food bank. In December, he said, World Vision, service clubs and Portland Avenue neighbors plan to give out toys and presents to 800 kids. It will be quite a party, thrown largely by East Siders – not generally the most affluent bunch in Tacoma.
World Vision Animal Gift
November 22, 2005
Donate an animal in their name to a family that needs it. Choose from several, including the environmentally friendly alpaca in Peru and Ecuador.
Raising the Compassion Bar
August 2005
How 575 suburban teens underwrote a medical clinic, schoolhouse, and a year's supply of food for a village in Zambia — with money to spare.
Native Son Works for a Better Sierra Leone
May 29, 2005
Ramond Scott is working with World Vision to ship at least one tractor, along with a 10-ton generator donated by an Everett family, to Sierra Leone.
> About product donation
Rock Star's Cause is to Erase Poverty
April 22, 2005
Editorial by Rich Stearns, Jim Wallis on ONE campaign to End Poverty
Two decades ago, an Irish singer, while working a month at a feeding center in famine-ravaged Ethiopia, met a father who begged him to take his son. The man was afraid his son would starve to death. "At that moment," said Bono, lead singer of the group U-2, "I became the worst scourge on God's green Earth: a rock star with a cause."
Today, Bono's cause is nothing less than to make poverty history through the ONE campaign.
Bono and others announced this effort last May. It is supported by a broad coalition of humanitarian organizations, including Sojourners and World Vision.
Children Forced To Become Killers, Sex Slaves in Forgotten Uganda War
April 1, 2005
It is much harder, Nelson Oyet explains in a monotone, to hack a child with a machete than to shoot him with a gun. He is 16.
Jennifer Atira recounts in a halting voice how she was given as a "wife," at 13, to a commander twice her age who would beat her if she refused to sleep with him. She is glad he was killed. She is now 15.
These children and thousands like them are the most poignant legacy of a little-noticed civil war that has shattered the lives of the Acholi people of northern Uganda for almost two decades.
The Colossus of Care
February 24, 2005
Sometimes big is beautiful. When the tsunami devastated South Asian shorelines the day after Christmas, 2004, World Vision's far-flung partnership already had 3,700 staff in five of the most affected countries: Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and Myanmar.
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text:
By TOM RINGO
Published May 4, 2007
Every day, without fail, I see the warning "Viewer discretion advised" in one fashion or another, on television shows meant for entertainment. Many times, these shows are on in prime time.
My children are now grown and have families of their own, so my concerns about what they watch are minimal or nonexistent. They are adults now, and their decisions are their own.
However, I do wonder about families with small children at home and the various shows to which they are exposed. Yes, I know that everyday life is what these shows are depicting, but that is precisely my point. We have way too many "everyday experiences" that we exposed to, and our children in turn, just by living our daily lives. Why do we have to have them replayed for us in the name of entertainment?
Not that she favors these shows, either, but my wife tells me the generation gap has manifested itself in me. She actually leaves the room when they get too graphic. But for the life of me, I can't see television shows that require a disclaimer of "may be too graphic for young viewers, " or "Due to the nature of this program, viewer discretion in advised, " being classified as entertainment.
I grew up with The Andy Griffith Show and The Red Skelton Show, Leave it to Beaver and The Dick Van Dyke Show; I am sure many of you can name many more. Never once did the network have to precede the show with a disclaimer that watching might damage my psyche.
These shows were entertaining. I don't know about you, but to me entertainment should take my mind off the worries of everyday life, not reinforce the incredible stress already forced on each of us by daily living.
When did graphic blood and guts splashing across the TV screen become entertainment? When I was a kid, blood and guts were shown to us in driver's education to deter us from doing something stupid, not for us to get our jollies from watching it.
Maybe my wife is right; maybe the entertainment industry has passed me by. Perhaps the world has gotten too sophisticated for The Life of Riley, December Bride, I Love Lucy, Car 54, Where Are You? and the like. It just seems to me that when we were watching these shows and others like them, even the evening news didn't seem to be so full of violence.
Tom Ringo lives in Brooksville. Guest columnists write their own views on subjects they choose, which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.
[Last modified May 4, 2007, 06:16:40]
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0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Yeah, I'm going to try KASL. I've got a place within a 15 minute drive of me that can get me the 50 lb. sack for $30.00. I also grind my own flour, so the extra gluten will help out with the mixtures I do of whole and white.We'll see how it goes. Thanks Ev and AimlessRyan for your advice.


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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Paneer Tikki
Another paneer starter from veg junction!!!!When you have panner and bread in your refrigerator, what would you plan to do????I tried this Paneer tikki and .....it is YUMMY!!!!!
Paneer 1 cup(crumbled)
Bread 3-4 slices
Onion 1
Potato 1(boiled)
Garam masala 1 tsp
Chilli powder 1 tsp
Oil for shallow frying
Salt to taste
Boil the potato and mash well
To this add the bread pieces whose crust has been roved. Knead well.
Add the crumbled paneer, cut onions, chilli powder, corn flour, garam masala and salt.
Mix everything well.
Make small balls from these, flatten a little and shallow fry them till they brown on both sides
Linking these to Blogging Maraton#12
Posted by veena krishnakumar at 9:55 PM
Labels: Blogging Marathon, paneer tikki, tikki
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Sex Discrimination in Education: Overview of Title IX
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Date: April 10, 1998
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Get the most for your money by using every last drop
To get the very last drop of paint out of a 1-gallon can, try this tip from Club member Russel Monroe of Orange, California. Use a stir-stick to lock two paint cans together. The spring action of the handles will keep the cans braced against the stick, and gravity will allow the paint to flow from one can to the other. Brought to you by: American Profile


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Chart 2: Taiwan's worldwide market share, 4Q12-1Q14 (k units)
Chart 3: Taiwan LCD monitor production value, 4Q12-1Q14 (US$m)
Chart 9: Taiwan and worldwide LCD monitor shipments, 2012-2016 (k units)
China December mobile communication user base grows to 1.322 billion, says MIIT
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text:
While doing a little groundwork for a down the road article, I reviewed the 1870 census for the Frame family in Chicago, Illinois.
Husband Thomas is not enumerated and Elizabeth is listed as living in a $10,000 house. For a woman who was married a painter (and not the "artistic" kind, the house value seems a little high to me). I'm not certain what the story is here, but I'm hoping to get to the bottom of it for an upcoming issue of Casefile Clues.