In addition to World Vision being featured in Relevant magazine’s Impact Week (Aug. 27-31), last month’s issue of Relevant featured an article on the country of Somaliland and the unique and difficult challenges its people face, including drought and famine.

World Vision has been working in the country for years, and as the magazine notes, we’ve shifted our strategy from focusing on disaster relief to long-term development projects:

“Relief focuses on serving those who are most vulnerable in the case of a rapid-onset disaster like a hurricane or a drought, but the goal with development is to help communities become self-sufficient,” Brian Duss of World Vision explains. “In the case of Somaliland, this includes diversifying their income sources so they can be more resilient in terms of changing weather or even sudden shifts in market forces. Emergency humanitarian response is usually more intense and lasts for a shorter period of time, but with a place like Somaliland, what was thought to be a one-year drought is coming up on eight years.”

Some of those long-term programs that build resiliency include livelihood training and constructing medical clinics. But you can make a difference, too.

Organizations like World Vision are working on the frontlines to help people lift themselves out of poverty and survive in some of the planet’s harshest conditions. These organizations need your support providing direct assistance to the people who need it most.

However, we also need to push for greater foreign assistance. The average American thinks the United States spends about 20 percent of its budget on international aid… but it’s actually only one percent. And that one percent does a whole lot. U.S. aid programs are carried out by partner organizations — including World Vision — that have experience you can trust. Because of foreign assistance:

  • Each year, more than 3 million lives are saved through immunization programs.
  • 1.3 billion people have received safe drinking water.
  • Literacy rates are up 33 percent worldwide.
  • And in the past 25 years, infant and child deaths have been cut in half.

This funding is critical for helping to provide sustainable development, whether it’s providing a way to get clean water, making education accessible for children, helping mothers and babies thrive, distributing vaccines, or funding humanitarian responses during disasters. As former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice says, “Supporting international development is more than just an expression of our compassion. It is a vital investment in the free, prosperous, and peaceful international order that fundamentally serves our national interest.”

Take action today:

Use the form below to email your member of Congress and tell them that you support foreign assistance. Ask them to reject any budget packages that cut total funding for this tiny percentage of the federal budget that saves so many lives.

Photo: A woman affected by cyclone Sagar in Lughaya District, Somaliland, holds some of the items she has received. World Vision emergency response team distributed hygiene kits, shoes, and clothes to families affected in Somaliland. ©2018 World Vision, Adbirahman Abdilahi Muse.

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