Blog: Emergencies

Thursday, June 22, 2017 - 00:31 by Laura Gemmell

A children’s refugee crisis offers a chance to do things differently

By Kevin Jenkins, President and Chief Executive Officer, World Vision International

A children’s crisis that almost no-one has heard of is unfolding in Uganda, which is now home to half a million boys and girls who have fled terror in South Sudan.

Every day, more than a thousand youngsters are among those crossing the border. About a hundred arrive alone and with tales of...

Main casualties of hunger crisis in Kenya are children

Main casualties of hunger crisis in Kenya are children

You cannot tell a child to vivify an action when that child is hungry and in dire need of just a simple meal or water. It is impossible. When you pay a visit to some of families affected by hunger in Kenya and look at the state of children and their need to have food, you are heartbroken and shaken. The state of affairs at how much hunger crisis is affecting mostly vulnerable children in...

Somalia’s starvation crisis: May he live, may he live… I prayed

I recently visited the town of Baidoa in Somalia that is now ground zero for the aid response to a starvation crisis that has left almost three million people...

Join churches worldwide for the Global Day of Prayer to End Famine

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in…”

- Matthew 25:35 (NIV)

More people face famine today than any time in modern history.

Our world is experiencing a hunger crisis so large that the United Nations is calling it “the largest humanitarian crisis since 1945”. Famine has been declared in areas of South Sudan, with Somalia...

Coping with life away from home

As we drove towards Dhuyacley IDP camp, located between Luuq town and Hanoy village in Luuq district, Southwest of Somalia there was little activity going on. A few men could be seen putting up makeshift shelters with available sticks while women and children were seated next to their temporary homes. As soon as we pulled over, a large crowd gathered around, probably hoping or wishing that we had brought something for them. The new camp is hosting 200 families who migrated...

Surviving Nock-ten

It was around four in the afternoon when the rain started pouring. Like any other rainy day, it was just light showers at first and the restless wind whistled. But at 8:30 in the evening, the electricity was cut off and the rain became more persistent while the wind fearlessly roared and kept getting louder. I started praying really hard.

Prior to the Nock-ten’s landfall, my father and my eldest child installed straps to secure the roof. I’m proud to have...

Aid worker’s diary: A mother’s prayer for Christmas day

It was the same day last year when my colleagues and I were trying to finish the relief distribution in Sorsogon and Albay then head home for Christmas Eve.

After typhoon Nona (international name Melor) battered the Bicol region, thousands were left displaced. It was a sad December because many families had to either stay in the evacuation centre or in makeshift houses. Personally, I was also hoping to spend some quality time with my family during the Christmas break....

Refugees do not live a life of luxury

REFUGEES DO NOT LIVE A LIFE OF LUXURY

On the 18th of May, 2016, we left the World Vision Kakuma Area Development Program (ADP) at around 10:00 am. I was heading to Kakuma refugee camp zone four to gather stories from the refugees living within the camp. As we passed by a primary school located inside the camp, a group of about eight or ten young girls were in a semi circle carrying something suspicious.

As a child focused organisation...

Light up Syria’s dark days with a message of hope

‘Heartbroken’ is a word you hear a lot in our office – particularly with all that's happened in Aleppo over the past few days. For our staff, many of whom still have family inside Syria, this is personal.

The sad truth is that although Aleppo’s destruction has left Syrian children facing some of their darkest days yet, we know that Aleppo is only one of many besieged cities in Syria and another 400,000 people may be living in similar, if not worse situations....

I can go home, why can’t they?

Last year I was given the incredible opportunity to work on World Vision’s Syria crisis response in the Middle East. At that time, the crisis had already been going for over four years and there were almost four million refugees. Now, as my time working on the Syria crisis response comes to a close, the number of refugees is nearly five million and the crisis has continued for over half a decade. Lately, as I prepare to head home to Australia, I’ve been reflecting on the...