”Busy” is a word that often comes to mind when we think about the Christmas season.
For World Renew volunteers currently serving as International Relief Managers (IRMs), December is also shaping up to be a busy month, even if for very different reasons! IRMs have served in Haiti, Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and Nepal. The IRM program is composed of a team of highly skilled volunteers who serve alongside World Renew’s International Disaster Response team in a management capacity.
This month, IRMs are coordinating food and emergency distributions to those affected by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti; overseeing the distribution of food, seeds and cash to those affected by severe drought in Zambia and Malawi; managing a latrine construction project for South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda; supervising a team of local staff in Nepal during a project constructing earthquake resistant shelters; working with a local partner to write a proposal for a drought response project in a district of Kenya’s south-east. Across these programs, over 58,000 people in the local communities are being helped! And this is just a snapshot of what one – albeit busy – month can look like for IRMs.
Frank and Brenda Folkema, from Mount Forest, Ontario, are currently in Zambia on an IRM assignment. World Renew is providing monthly food distributions to 31,500 people in Mwandi, a district in south-western Zambia. This food is vitally important for these families, who have experienced two consecutive years of crop failure. With minimal food and cash reserves, families in Mwandi have few places to turn. This food is providing the support that families need to get through until spring, when they have crops to harvest. Frank and Brenda play a key role in ensuring the success of this project. They are grateful for the chance to serve in this capacity.
“Within our church community, we are often asked to help people that are hungry and suffering in various parts of the world. We help with our prayers and financial donations, but coming to Zambia has allowed us to see firsthand the faces of the people that are struggling and be able to develop relationships,” said Frank. “Please pray that the food and seeds will meet the needs of the people, that the right amount of rain will fall on the newly planted seeds and at the right time, and that people will continue to trust that God will provide for their needs.”
George and Toni Fernhout are another set of IRMs currently on assignment, helping people in need. They are in Uganda, where they are providing important management experience to a latrine construction project in the Bidibidi Refugee Camp. Every day, this refugee camp sees more than 2,500 new arrivals of South Sudanese refugees fleeing the conflict in their country. With such an influx of refugees, the need for proper sanitation facilities is massive, yet grossly underfunded. World Renew is constructing 770 latrines, which is enough for 38,500 people.
As World Renew pursues its mission of coming alongside communities around the world to renew hope, reconcile lives, and restore creation, IRMs play an important role.
World Renew is thankful for the IRMs who are willing to give of their time and skills in service of others—and often volunteer on very short notice. For example, less than 10 days after Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti, IRM Harry Bergshoeff was on the ground with World Renew staff helping to coordinate the response.
Through the generous donations of people around the world, World Renew has been able to reach out to Haitians affected by Hurricane Matthew, providing emergency food and tarps to 400 families in the first week after the hurricane. Now, World Renew is providing 1,600 families with three months of food assistance and seeds to plant, and plans are underway to address the needs for shelter through distributing housing repair and reconstruction kits. The leadership and assistance of IRMs is crucial to this work going forward, and great a way to show God’s love and care for the Haitian people in their time of recovery. IRMs Mary and Tony DeKoter have been in Haiti since early November, managing the food assistance program.
As World Renew pursues its mission of coming alongside communities around the world to renew hope, reconcile lives, and restore creation, IRMs play an important role. They are a continual reminder to community members who have been affected by disasters that people in North America care and want to help in whatever way they can. As they walk with disaster survivors, they do so in God’s name, and so bear witness to his love and power.