The Thank You Edition
A word from Tim Costello Christmas – a time to celebrate and be thankful As the festive season approaches, we come together with friends and family to celebrate the year that has been and look forward to the year ahead. You should be incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved together in 2013. Your commitment and generosity have brought hope to hundreds of thousands of children and families around the world. You can find out how many projects, countries and sponsored children your support has reached, and read about the difference your support has made through our appeals and campaigns, on pages 4-5. In Bangladesh, for instance, funds from Australian sponsors have provided Tania’s family with agricultural support and training, empowering them to grow their way out of hardship. While in the past they had to rely on others, they can now stand on their own. You can read about their journey on page 3.
Where do World Vision funds go? Our Financial Statements for 2012 can be viewed at: worldvision.com.au/annualreports
At Christmas it’s important to be thankful for what we have – especially the basic things we often take for granted; essentials like access to clean water, something 768 million people in the world go without. Diana, a mother of 10 living in a remote part of Kenya, once prayed for a miracle, dreaming of a stream of water flowing into her village. With your help, her dream has now become a reality. Find out more by turning to page 6. I’m thankful for all of our amazing supporters. I feel privileged to have such caring and dedicated people like you working alongside us. I am inspired by people like Jeanette and Ron Schofield, who have been fundraising for World Vision for over three decades to help the less fortunate (see page 7). Please join me in celebrating the successes you have all helped to make possible this year. You have transformed the lives of children and families in need so that they too can look forward to the coming year with hope. I wish you a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Shalom, Tim Costello World Vision Australia Chief Executive
All figures in this publication are correct at the time of printing. If you wish to unsubscribe from World Vision News, please email service@worldvision.com.au If you wish to receive World Vision News Online, please subscribe at worldvision.com.au/news/newsonline © World Vision Australia. World Vision Australia ABN 28 004 778 081 is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. Ref # 7217 Send all correspondence to World Vision News, GPO Box 399, Melbourne 3001 © 2013 All material contained in this magazine is subject to copyright owned by or licensed to World Vision Australia. All rights reserved. AC F I D
Above photo: Tim Costello meets with Syrian children at Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan. Photo: Stephen Levitt Cover photo: Deepak and Shivam are thankful to be able to attend remedial reading and writing classes in Delhi. Photo: Annila Harris/World Vision
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World Vision Australia is a member of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and is a signatory to the ACFID Code of Conduct. The Code requires members to meet high standards of corporate governance, public accountability and financial management.
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You’re helping Tania’s family grow their way to self-sufficiency Tania’s family used to struggle with food shortages. They always had to rely on others for help. As Tania’s mother Momena reflects, “Previously we didn’t have a life like this – food and cows ... I was always looking for support from others. This made me always feel guilty – that time was not good.” Without
food, the family not only struggled physically; their dignity was stripped away too.
Now that’s all in the past. With support from Australians like you, Tania’s family – along with others in their community in southern Bangladesh – have been part of an agricultural project providing them with vegetable seeds and animals. Most importantly, the project also trained them in making the most of these essential resources. “I received training ... on vegetable gardening, and how to rear cows and goats and how to produce grass to feed the livestock,” explained Tania’s father, Joynal. “My eldest son also completed the training,” he said.
362,125 – total number of children sponsored in 2013
Above: With agricultural training and support funded by Australian sponsors, Tania’s family has created a whole new life. Photo: Ken Duncan Tania shows off a letter from her sponsor. Photo: Suzy Sainovski/World Vision
Joynal and Momena grow a range of fruit and vegetables, including cucumbers, potatoes, basil, mustard seeds, ochra, mung beans, bananas and mangoes. They also have goats, cows and chickens. “After I learnt how to produce vegetables and crops, the family income increased,” Joynal reported.
Tania and her two siblings now have a healthy diet, grown by their own hands, and there’s enough money to educate all the children. Momena now envisions a good future for her children. “I’d like to see my children ... be well-educated and provided with a good job and be self-reliant.” Even when severe flooding hit their area last year, the family was able to pull through. They lost almost everything and had to borrow money from relatives. Before they wouldn’t have been able to repay the loan, but their training and hard work enabled them to get back on their feet and continue producing food. They have already repaid a good portion of the loan, and are proud they can stand on their own. “I express my gratitude to World Vision for this support. Long live World Vision as we are able to pull our family out [of hardship]...” Joynal said. 3
Thank you for your support Without you, our passionate and dedicated supporters, our work would not be possible. Your generosity is improving lives around the world. You made a difference to children and their families in: 66 countries 203 Area Development Programs 923 projects at home and overseas
You came through in a crisis! You donated over $1.49 million to the West Africa Food Crisis Appeal to help save lives and improve communities’ resilience to drought and future disasters.
Your support is critical to families like Yasmin’s. When life in Syria became too dangerous, their home became a park in Lebanon. Photo: Patricia Mouamar/World Vision
You donated over $1.47 million to the Syrian Refugee Crisis Appeal, offering urgent relief to people fleeing the bloody conflict. Your support helps to provide basic life essentials like shelter, clean drinking water, sanitation, healthcare, and emotional support and education for children.
You stood up, spoke out and spread the word! Were you one of 89,789 Australians who signed a petition calling for increased efforts to improve child health? The petition was tabled in Parliament in early 2013.
In Zimbabwe, your donations provide Sandra and her family with life-saving food aid. Photo: Ilana Rose/World Vision
Nestlé heard you ask for ethical chocolate. In all Australian products they now use cocoa approved by UTZ Certified, a sustainability program working towards better outcomes for farmers and the planet. For three years you campaigned against human trafficking, and this year the government announced its commitment to ensure “no firm providing goods or services to the Commonwealth is tainted by slavery or people-trafficking anywhere in the supply chain”. Abolitionist Sunday events saw over 200 churches and 25,000 Christians speak out against trafficking and slavery. 88,500 of you signed the Movement to End Poverty petition. 2,300 attended 15 electoral forums to talk about aid with political leaders. 6,000 participated in six Justice Sunday church services across Australia.
October 2012 - September 2013
You made a real difference in: 66 countries 203 Area Development Programs 923 projects at home and overseas 4
You donated over $1.47 million to the Syrian Refugee Crisis Appeal
You donated over $1.49 million to the West Africa Food Crisis Appeal
88,500 Australians signed the Movement to End Poverty petition 6,000 participated in Justice Sunday services 2,300 attended 15 electoral forums
You gave generously to change lives! Last Christmas you bought $5.6 million of meaningful gifts for your family and friends. The items you bought supported activities such as education, training programs or emergency relief – improving the lives of children, families and communities around the world.
Munguntuul from Mongolia loves receiving her sponsor’s greetings. “I feel nice when I get the cards,” she says. Photo: Suzy Sainovski/ World Vision
Your contributions to the Multiplying Gift Appeal, totalling $5.8 million, were multiplied many times through our partnership with the United Nations. Your generosity helped to provide life-saving food aid for millions of people through food distribution, school feeding and food for work programs. You donated $1.7 million to our May/June Donations Appeal, giving children and their families access to clean water – something 768 million people go without. Over 180,000 of you Tacko from Senegal collects sent birthday and clean water for her family. Photo: David duChemin/ Christmas cards to World Vision your sponsored children and many of you included donations with your cards. In doing so, you raised $13 million to give other children access to the same life-changing opportunities as sponsored children.
Season’s greeting
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You gave over $5.6 million in life-changing gifts from our Gift Catalogue
You contributed over $5.8 million to the Multiplying Gift Appeal, helping to provide millions with life-saving food aid
You donated over $1.7 million to our May/June Donations Appeal, giving children and families access to clean water
180,000 child sponsors sent birthday or Christmas cards to their sponsored children
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You have made Diana’s dreams come true Diana happily carries clean drinking water straight home from her village. Photo: Kenneth Kibet/World Vision
“I dreamt about water all the time,” said Diana, a mother of 10 living in a remote part of western Kenya, where fresh water is scarce. “I once dreamt of a stream flowing outside my homestead ... I kept asking God to help us get water so that we do not suffer anymore.” To her amazement, Diana’s dreams became real. With your support, a pipe now carries clean water to her village from a source several kilometres away. Before, she arose at 4am to walk three kilometres, taking her an hour each way, to the community’s only freshwater well. Once there, she could spend another four hours queuing for just one bucket of water – hardly enough for cooking, let alone her family’s other needs. When the well ran dry, she had to go even further. The daily search was all-consuming. “I could not sleep at night. I could not sit down to share a meal with my children ...
All we could do was to look for water,” Diana said. Below: Children in Diana’s community no longer have to worry about getting sick from dirty water. Photo: Kenneth Kibet/World Vision
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During the wet season there was some sense of relief, as rainwater collected at a nearby dam. But convenience had its price. “My children would develop high fever and begin to vomit, and I would know they had typhoid,” she explained. “The food we ate also tasted bad because the water we were cooking with was saline.” Due to illness, Diana’s children often missed school. “They kept repeating one class after another. I never imagined they would ever succeed in life.” But now, with clean water to drink, her children are well and progressing through school once more. Her children also have access to clean water at school.
Storage tanks have been installed in primary schools, benefiting over 5,600 students. These developments are part of a region-wide program, supported by Australian donors like you, improving livelihoods and health through access to clean water. Diana’s dreams are now filled with hope. She plans to establish a kitchen garden and replace her donkeys – which she no longer needs for fetching water – with dairy cows to earn income and provide milk for her children. “The most difficult burden in my life has been lifted [from] my shoulders,” Diana declared. “I believe this is the beginning of change...”
Thanks to you, 15,000 people in Diana’s area now have access to clean water.
Long-time supporters Ron and Jeanette will continue giving by including World Vision in their Wills. Photo: Ron and Jeanette Schofield
The Schofields’ legacy of giving For New South Wales couple Ron and Jeanette Schofield, helping people in need is a way of life.
plan to provide a lasting legacy for those in need by including World Vision in their Wills.
They have been dedicated supporters of World Vision for over three decades, having first joined a World Vision Community Group in Sydney in 1981. They’ve helped raise money in shopping centres and markets, street stalls and dining rooms – teaching their local community and their own children about the importance of helping others.
“It’s a way that we can still help where it’s needed, and continue the work we’ve been able to do,” Jeanette says. “It’s just a continuation of what we’ve done all our lives.”
Since 1995 alone – when they relocated to the Southern Highlands and started their own community group with family members – they’ve
raised more than $120,000 for World Vision. Their support has
assisted children, emergency appeals, projects, and a fistula hospital in Ethiopia. More than just helping people during their lives, the Schofields
If you would like to find out more about including World Vision Australia in your Will, please contact Charlotte Bernhard on 03 9287 2334 or bequests@worldvision.com.au
“[Giving] is an ongoing thing and we don’t want it to stop if there’s some way we can keep going,” she adds. Their gift ensures they can continue helping people to overcome poverty and injustice in some of the world’s most disadvantaged areas. Jeanette says they have always had a strong desire to help people who don’t have the same opportunities as they do, understanding that it’s only by chance that they were born into such a fortunate life. Ron and Jeanette’s children also grew up understanding the importance of helping others, with their eldest son regularly hosting five-course dinner parties for friends in his university days to sponsor three children.
The Schofields have lived a life that’s been all about giving to others; and it’s a gift that’s set to continue for many years to come. 7
Naseem, who wants to be a police officer when he grows up, thanks you for supporting his education. Photo: Annila Harris/World Vision
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