Looking Forward – Looking Backward
By JoAnne Lyon, Executive Director

January 2006 was World Hope’s 10th anniversary. What World Hope has accomplished these past 10 years is the result of our 14,000 partners, volunteers and a committed staff who caught the vision of sharing Opportunity, Dignity and Hope with the hopeless of the world.

The first day of January 1996 I wrote an operational budget for the first year. This budget was conservative, yet a dream. I was reminded that in October 1995 doors opened with the funds to start a computer school, ice plant and nursing school in Haiti.

At an appointment with friends, Tom Philippe, Sr. and his daughter, Towana Cranor, we talked about the programs for Haiti. There was a Presence that came around our table and they decided to share in funding the first year’s operational budget.

Hope for Children, the child sponsorship and education programs of World Hope started immediately. Today there are sponsorship projects in 16 countries with nearly 3,500 children individually sponsored as well as thousands attending World Hope sponsored schools.

Soon after beginning operations WHI indentified the critical role of microfinance in alleviating poverty. Our first project was in Indoneisa and then the Philippines. Today we have microfinance programs in five countries with nearly 50,000 clients and an on-time repayment rate above 95%..

All of our major programs are led by nationals, our goal from the beginning. S.D. Kanu, Sierra Leone; Frevia Kaluba, Zambia; Sharlini Rodrigo, Sri Lanka; Thony Querette, Haiti; and many others are some of the most proficient, capable leaders I’ve met.

During these 10 years two world issues required our serious attention: HIV/AIDS and human trafficking. A major grant from the League of Prayer in 2002 enabled us to work with victims of forced prostitution. Another grant that year helped us to lay the ground-work for responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Zambia through a community-based approach known as Orphan Trusts. HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives are happening in Mozambique, South Africa, Haiti, and Guyana too.

The Hope Corps Program took shape in the aftermath of “Hurricane Mitch.” The program continues to expand as volunteers have opportunities to contribute significantly with their gifts and abilities to World Hope’s programs.

Relief response to disasters and victims of war has been phenomenal, because you cared and responded.

Numbers of children under age five are alive today because of access to clean wells, latrines and the health practices taught by our local health professionals.

Looking forward, World Hope’s goal is to see:

• HIV/AIDS decreased dramatically and eventually abolished

• Human Trafficking diminished until abolished

• Every child provided the opportunity for education

• Every adult enabled to support their families through micro-finance or other economic development means

• Every community given the opportunity to know the transformation that comes through Jesus Christ.
  

“Transforming Communities” continues to be the vision of
World Hope International for the next decade.