Global Disruption

It was three o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon in 2020 when Laura Fontaine, Director of World Relief Quad Cities, got the call. A woman in the Congolese community had contracted COVID-19. Shutdowns had already begun across much of the U.S., and World Relief followed suit, closing our offices and suspending all in-person programming.

Laura and her team talked with the woman about the things her doctor had told her. They tried to ease some of her fears regarding the virus and hoped this would be an isolated incident.

Unfortunately, the virus had already started to spread, and over the next several weeks, 60% of the Congolese community in Quad Cities would contract COVID-19.

Halfway across the globe, nearly 8,000 miles away, Moses Ndahiro and his team faced a similar situation in Rwanda when, in mid-March, the country went into total lockdown. As the team began working remotely, they turned to mobile platforms like WhatsApp to communicate with partners and disseminate COVID-19 prevention messages to churches and communities.

The sudden change and continued uncertainty were destabilizing, and it didn’t take long for the dramatic impact that COVID-19 would have on the world’s most vulnerable to become obvious. 

Local currencies across the world began losing their value. Staples like bread became scarce. Markets shut down, removing a source of income for many families. Oxfam predicted that the pandemic “could push half a billion more people into poverty, [setting] back the fight against poverty by a decade,” and the World Food Program forecasted a famine of biblical proportions. 

In the U.S., newly arrived immigrants who were still learning a new language and culture were at risk of missing out on critical health messages related to COVID-19. The restaurant and hospitality industries, which employ many new immigrants, were among the hardest hit by the coronavirus, and many of our clients experienced devastating layoffs.

And yet, during a very dark time, when we took a step back, we saw creativity, strength and persistence shine through. Fierce courage and bold love grew amidst our upturned world. Beneath the chaos, resilience bloomed.

By the end of FY20, we had reached over 650,000 individuals with direct COVID-19 preventative messaging and nearly 12 million individuals through radio or community messaging initiated by World Relief. And across our U.S. office network, more than $4 million in food was donated and distributed, allowing us to serve over 624,000 people! 

Made for Change

We, like many other organizations, were really tested by COVID-19. But the events of 2020 reminded us that this is exactly what World Relief was created for — to respond in times of chaos and crisis and to equip communities to thrive on the other side.

When our technical staff across the globe couldn’t travel due to shutdowns, the churches and volunteers that we had spent years training through our Church Empowerment Zone (CEZ) model were well-equipped to share messages and carry out our programs on their own. All that was needed was a communication platform like WhatsApp for staff to coordinate with local networks. 

By using platforms like WhatsApp, we utilized our network of over 3,000 local churches across Africa to rapidly disseminate public health information. Just as we did with the onset of the AIDS crisis in Africa and the more recent Ebola outbreak, we worked extensively with churches to help break stigmas associated with the virus. Faith leaders played a critical role in dispelling rumors, locating and protecting the most vulnerable and educating the community.

And in the U.S., staff, volunteers, church partners, donors and program participants alike stepped up with ingenuity and generosity to serve immigrants impacted by COVID-19. Among our offices, innovation flourished as staff and community partners found new ways to serve. In-person programs such as job training and English as a Second Language (ESL) classes all moved online, and volunteer training became virtual, opening up new pathways for people across the whole country to volunteer. 

Creative Responses

More specific responses varied by country and community, but all showcased a beautiful creativity and innovation that ultimately helped save lives around the globe. 

In Rwanda, churches from across all six CEZs provided food and basic necessities to 4,056 families. In addition to these families, World Relief provided support to 1,346 families throughout the country, as well as support for 350 pastors and their families. 

In the Quad Cities of Illinois, our team converted their food pantry into a drive-thru facility. Twice a month, from March to September, around 300 clients pulled up outside their office and were handed a bag of food through their car door. For clients without cars, food was delivered directly to their homes. 

In Kenya, our volunteers went above and beyond to reach the most remote villages in their area, strapping loudspeakers to their cars and driving through the streets to spread information and prevention messaging. 

In Seattle, Washington, World Relief staff used their drive-thru food distribution to identify clients who owned small businesses. Many of these clients were not aware that they could qualify for government assistance due to the pandemic. Together, staff worked with these clients to fill out paperwork and apply for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, enabling their businesses to survive the pandemic and beyond.  

In Haiti, one of our church networks in Laurent learned how to produce hand sanitizer to supply to local markets at a time when the product was hard to find.

In Texas, local churches, businesses, food banks and other non-profits donated nearly $1 million dollars worth of food to our food pantry, enabling us to serve over 26,800 families across the area.

In South Sudan, our team distributed UNICEF locally made face masks to teachers and Parent Teacher Association (PTA) members at Liech Primary School in the Bentiu Internally Displaced People Camp, a high-density camp housing almost 100,000 people.

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Hope in Disruption

It’s no secret that COVID-19 disrupted our world. But within that disruption, we saw new doors open, and found incredible hope, resilience, innovation and overwhelming love shine through.

The generosity we experienced throughout the pandemic and beyond was nothing short of a miracle — a  miracle made possible by thousands of staff, volunteers and partners across the globe who sacrificed their time and resources amid great uncertainty.

As we look to the future and continue to move ahead, we see new strength in the communities we serve — in church volunteers who fought back against harmful beliefs and stigmas in their villages; in immigrants who learned to use technology to help them stay connected; in staff who felt renewed confidence that they could, with God’s help, move mountains; and in a growing diversity of people from all walks of life stepping up to serve. We are forever grateful to everyone who walked with us through this part of our story.

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What story will you write?

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At World Relief, we long to build flourishing communities where families and individuals thrive long after our programs have ended. In places like Cambodia, savings groups are equipping women like Sros with the tools they need to manage their finances and lead their communities toward flourishing.

Sros is a 31-year-old wife and mother of three daughters. She lives in Cambodia and sells ice to make a living. Although she earns enough to meet her daily needs, it was hard for her to keep track of her finances and save for the future.  

In 2016, Sros joined a World Relief savings group where she found community and support among the 20 women that were in the group with her. While in the group, she attended a business development training and took on the role of record keeper for her group. 

As she continued learning and building up her savings, she began to imagine ways she could help others in her community. Her neighbors often shared their struggles with finances and money management. Was there some way she could help them the way World Relief’s savings groups had helped her?

In 2022, it was known that World Relief’s savings program would be coming to an end in Sros’ community. Her desire to help her neighbors became more urgent. Sros spoke with the savings group team leader who encouraged her to take what she had learned and share it with her neighbors. She could start a savings group on her own, even if World Relief wasn’t there to facilitate. So, Sros took action.

She formed two savings groups — one with 12 members and the other with 22 members. World Relief staff mentored and offered technical support to Sros while they remained in her community. When the official project came to a close, Sros continued leading her groups and sharing what she learned with others in her community.

“I am so proud of myself that I can help others in my village — especially the women,” she said. “I enjoy sharing my experience and a little knowledge about business development to change the savings group members’ mindset and help them save and manage their money…I am happy to say that they got benefit from it.”

In 2021, our team embarked on an intensive two-year discernment process that culminated in God leading us to open a new office in the West African country of Chad. There were many reasons that suggested launching a new World Relief office in Chad would not be easy. Yet, our research and hearts kept being drawn to this country.  

Located in the middle of the Sahel desert, Chad is surrounded by countries that have experienced some of the most challenging geopolitical situations of our times. Chad, too, has a history checkered with political upheaval and coups, and today, it's one of the poorest countries in the world.

Despite its deep need, Chad hosts the largest number of refugees among African nations. Its population is an unlikely mix of Christians and Muslims, with an almost 50% split between the two. We saw a heart of welcome and a desire among local churches to bring a holistic gospel to local and refugee communities. 

In January 2023, World Relief signed an office lease and hired our country director, Dr. Justine Nagornar. We began meeting key government, church and NGO stakeholders as we sought to understand needs and how World Relief could intervene. After many consultations, we applied for government approval to serve communities inside Chad, and on April 7, 2023 we secured approval and began preparing to serve in partnership with local churches in the Christian-majority southern region of Chad. 

Exactly one week later, our team woke up to notifications of a war breaking out in Sudan. Immediately, the lives of millions of people were in jeopardy, including over 300 World Relief staff serving just across the border from Chad. Within days, 75,000 people had been internally displaced and over 33,000 people had fled to neighboring countries, including Chad. 

It was difficult not to be overwhelmed in those first days of the Sudan war. We supported staff who were evacuating and sheltering in place, secured our offices and supply warehouses and analyzed how to serve those whose lives had been upended. It became clear that our operations inside Sudan would be severely compromised, with many of our offices having to pause programs to keep staff and affected populations safe. 

At the same time, God’s miraculous provision also became abundantly clear. He had positioned us directly across the border with all the necessary paperwork to serve in this dark hour of need. While other NGOs displaced from Sudan poured into Chad and tried to set up operations and seek government approval, we already had everything we needed. 

Within a few weeks, we were able to set up a suboffice near the Sudan border. There, we received our Sudan staff, who had become refugees themselves -- several of them lived on the office compound for days. Over 500,000 refugees are believed to have entered Chad from Sudan. We began conducting needs assessments as well as distributing food, essential items and clean water.

Working in close collaboration with the Chad government and U.N. authorities, we were able to provide services to  more than 15,500 refugees by the end of 2023. From our base in Chad, we’ve also been able to return to Sudan, serving over 65,000 people in the most heavily affected parts of Darfur with health camps, water, food and essential items.   

In the midst of our urgent refugee response on the Sudan border, we did not forget our plan to work with churches in southern Chad. In October 2023, we formally began work on our first Church Empowerment Zone (CEZ) in the country. The CEZ is a signature World Relief model for engaging the church to respond to needs in both word and deed. This model equips local churches to come together to be an agent of lasting change.

The welcome we’ve experienced from churches and community members continues to encourage us as we forge a path and write a new chapter in the World Relief story through our office in Chad.

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