Observations from Missouri’s tornado zone

By Phyllis Freeman, domestic emergency response director, WVUS

Editor’s note: Joplin, Missouri, is a small town in the U.S. Heartland. Its official population is 50,150. But now, it is tragically smaller in every sense, after the May 22 tornado that left 122 dead, 750 injured, and more than a quarter of the town destroyed. Phyllis Freeman, our domestic emergency response director, is on the ground in Joplin.

I went looking for a school and found Irving Elementary School. It was mangled, the bricks blown apart.

You can only think about the children who lived through this, seeing the skies turn black, hearing the roar of 200-mph winds, and watching the tornado chew things up, literally.

Then they emerged to find their home gone, not knowing what’s happened to their friends, maybe their parents.

The worst is yet to come for these children. In several more days, it will sink in what everything means. The emotional toll is immense. People are in such stress.

Churches are pulling together and being the beacon they should be. They are providing supplies as well as hands to remove debris and cut away trees and branches.

In 14 years doing disaster response, I have never, ever seen a weather season in the United States this severe. Natural disasters just keep coming. And the hurricane season doesn’t officially start here until June 1.

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In response to the disaster, World Vision will soon move in a 24-foot trailer with expandable walls, which will be located near FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) operations. The trailer will be used as a Child-Friendly Space.

Meanwhile, we’re providing clothing and hygiene kits, which, along with food, are among the items most often requested by survivors and FEMA.

World Vision response teams also continue helping survivors in Alabama, following the deadly tornadoes that struck there in late April. In the city of Tuscaloosa, World Vision has served 4,233 tornado survivors, including 1,896 children, since April 27.

We’re also closely monitoring the flooding along the Mississippi River, along with the possibility of more tornadoes predicted to strike in Oklahoma this week.

Ways you can help:

Donate to the relief effort: Help Now
Text ‘TORNADO’ to ’20222′ to give a $10 donation
Pray for the victims of these sever storms

Sponsorship 101 — from a child sponsor

By Rachael Dill Boyer, World Vision U.S.

World Vision’s child sponsorship program has been part of my life for nearly two decades. My dad started working at World Vision when I was 9 years old. I’ve worked here for nearly five years now, and my husband and I sponsor three children of our own.

We love getting letters, drawings, photos, and progress reports from the children in our global family. And we love sending them cards, pictures, small packages, and the occasional extra gift.

But even as a staff person and a longtime child sponsor, I’ve still asked myself: What does sponsorship actually do? How does it actually work?

In putting this blog post together, I’ve learned that, in a nutshell, sponsorship connects you with a child in need and empowers the child’s community to become healthy, safe, and self-reliant, breaking the cycle of poverty.

It’s not a handout. It’s more like a hand up. By helping to provide access to life essentials, we, as sponsors, don’t just “give away” our money and cross our fingers. We actually help World Vision in giving the entire community of our sponsored child a “boost” up and out of poverty.

In order for children to experience life in all its fullness, they must have reliable access to all of the essentials for life: clean water, a secure source of food, healthcare, education, etc. That’s why World Vision takes an integrated approach to helping our sponsored children’s communities become whole, because each piece of this puzzle intertwines with the others.

Clean water: This is often where our work starts. Simply providing access to clean water sanitation, and hygiene can cut a community’s child death rate by more than half.

Food security: We help farming families learn better crop cultivation and food storage techniques, provide essentials like seeds and tools, and distribute food aid to help make sure that children get thenutrition they need.

Health care: We help to make basic health care accessible by stocking health clinic shelves with medicine, training parents and health workers to treat illness, and coordinating HIV-prevention education and care for those affected by HIV and AIDS.

Education: When children are educated, they have the opportunity as adults to earn better wages, raise healthier, educated children of their own, and have a voice in their community. This is done by equipping classrooms, training teachers, and providing learning supplies to help children reach their God-given potential.

Economic opportunity: Small loans and business training help parents start or grow businesses so they can provide for their children, while creating new jobs in their community. World Vision microloans have helped to create or sustain millions of jobs worldwide.

Spiritual nurture: We serve those in need because we’ve been inspired by our faith, and by the example Jesus set for us. Every day, children can see God’s love through the care provided by our staff. Where appropriate, we partner with local churches to provide support and training.

Knowing that the whole goal of sponsorship is to help a child’s community become self-reliant makes the experience bittersweet when my sponsored child’s community “graduates” from needing World Vision’s assistance.

I want my sponsored children to be prosperous so that they can turn around and help their neighbors. It’s the ripple effect of sponsorship and the type of community development World Vision nurtures wherever we go, and I love being a part of it.

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The Child Ambassador program enables you to help even more children by providing all of the tools needed to share about sponsorship in your community. Think about it...just by sharing with others why sponsorship is so important can help provide all of these life changing resources to children around the world!

Sign up today to become a Child Ambassador.

Malaria Fast Facts

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In honor of World Malaria Day, observed every year on April 25 as a day of awareness and recognition for global efforts to end malaria, we challenge you to educate yourself on the facts, raise awareness, and take action against this deadly but preventable disease.

Malaria is a disease of massive proportions that disproportionately impacts children. Each year, approximately 780,000 people die from malaria, 85 percent of whom are children under 5. World Vision works in 62 countries affected by malaria, 23 of which are in Africa.

Impact on children and families

• Malaria is the 4^th leading cause of death for children globally. According to latest figures, globally 8% of under-five child deaths are attributable to malaria and in Africa it is 16%.
• More than 1,800 children under 5 die each day from malaria. That’s approximately 1 child every 45 seconds.
• Half of the world’s population is at risk of malaria: There are 106 malaria-endemic countries with 3.3 billion people at risk. Malaria infects approximately 250 million people each year.
• Malaria has been estimated to cost Africa more than U.S. $12 billion every year in lost economic productivity, and can cost households as much as 32 percent of their entire monthly income.
• Insecticide-treated bed nets could prevent as many as 1 million deaths from all causes of malaria for children under 5.

Global malaria prevention

• If universal malaria prevention can be achieved by 2010 and maintained until 2015, an estimated 2.95 million African children’s lives can be saved.
• If current scale-up trends are maintained until 2015, 1.14 million African children’s lives can be saved.
• If funding ceases and prevention levels are allowed to fall, an estimated 476,000 additional children would die.

(Sources: World Health Organization, UNICEF, Malaria Journal, World Malaria Report)

Take action against malaria

• Become a Child Ambassador and inspire your community to help children living in areas affected by Malaria.
• Help provide insecticide-treated bed nets to save more children from the deadly bite of mosquitoes.
• Ask your elected officials to prioritize funding for malaria programs. Use this easy online action form to send an email.
• Pray for the millions who live in the world’s malaria-prone regions, who remain at risk from this deadly disease. Pray for the collective will within the United States and internationally to eradicate this preventable, treatable disease once and for all.