Stories of Change

Top: Michael Kendagor stands next to rations, Middle: Local officer gives rations to resident, Bottom: Children laugh next to food rations

8,000 Lives Changed

In countries around the world, we are seeing the close connection between climate change and hunger. The ability to grow food is largely dependent on the environment. If the environment lacks stability, so does our ability to put food on the table. This tight-knit, cause-and-effect type of situation describes the current state of many communities in Kenya.

With our generous partner, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, we have been monitoring the historic drought in Kenya and providing food assistance to those most affected. You may recall our recent project in Tana River County. Thanks to our partner, we are moving north and providing similar assistance to communities in the town of Lasiabis in Marsabit County.

In Laisamis, all are feeling the effect of hunger on their day-to-day lives. Local officer, Charles Mbole, shared, “several students have dropped out of school in this region due to starvation. Some have moved with their animals in search of pastures and others are too weak to walk to school.” Julieta Sumper, a local resident and program participant added, “our children were malnourished. Some were only surviving on nuts.”

The assistance provided has been the much-needed relief many families needed to regain their strength. Michael Kendagor, CWS’ Emergency Coordinator explained, “we are here to reach out to about 4,000 households, which is about 26% of the entire population of Laisamis sub-county. For each household, we are giving about 50 kilos of maize, 7 kilos of beans, 3 liters of cooking oil and half a kilo of salt.” (That’s about 110 pounds of corn, 7 pounds of beans, almost 1 gallon of oil and a little over a pound of salt!)

In response to the assistance, Julieta said, “we are thankful for the food assistance from CWS.” Our current goal is to reach about 8,000 people within the sub-counties by the end of the project. These 8,000 individuals represent a child who can go to school again, a parent who no longer has to worry about their children going hungry and a neighbor who can choose to stay in the place they call home.

We would like to thank our partners, Canadian Foodgrains Bank and the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, as well as Global Affairs Canada for allowing this assistance to be possible. 

Stories of Change

Top: Ali at a U.S. military base in Kabul, Bottom: the day of the fall of Kabul

A Year of Reconstruction

Afghanistan was in the news this time last year. We can all remember the chaos inside Kabul airport as crowds gathered desperate for departure to save their lives. Ali was one of those lucky ones to escape. When I asked Ali to describe his feelings on the first anniversary of the fall of his city, Kabul, he looked calm and relaxed with his hands folded. This gesture tells it all. “I am safe here. It was a year of reconstruction.” Ali’s journey to the United States came with some luck and effort. In Kabul, Ali worked with the United States Special Forces. Like many other Afghans who worked with the United States Army, Ali never expected the day would come where he had to destroy all important documents and leave his office with documents burned or destroyed (including his government ID’s and other paperwork that could have exposed who he was and who he worked with). The day to depart Afghanistan arrived when Ali’s former friend–someone he thought he trusted–called him on the phone to tell him that he would come to kill him. This was a final warning for Ali and his family of a wife and seven children. A reminder that his country had changed dramatically. The only option left for him was to leave immediately. 

At 10pm on August 22nd, 2021, he offered a driver $200 to take his family to the crowded Kabul airport, which was a few miles from his house. They were turned around that day, so they went back the second day to try to enter the airport gate. With only $400 of cash in his pocket, he spent all of it on a ride to the airport with his family, this time only with his wife and five of their kids. His mom kept the other two of his kids. He remembers there were over 20,000twenty thousand people at the airport desperately trying to leave for a safe place. With connections within the U.S. Army, and after spending two days inside the Kabul airport, Ali and his family were able to board a flight for Qatar.  

With a bag of clothes and no money left, Ali, his wife and five children Ali’s wife, five kids and him left Afghanistan and thus were separated from the rest of their family. They left with a broken heart. The week in Qatar left him a memory of humidity, exhaustion and uncertainty. “You could fry an egg in the Qatar heat,.” Ali said. His family then boarded a flight to a U.S. military base in Germany. The 49 days in Germany brought some glimpse of hope for the future. Ali immediately started English classes to improve his proficiency in writing and speaking. The only way is the way forward, not the way backwards, he thought. Afghanistan is forever his home, but it may not be the place to build his new life and support his family. 

Nearly a year has passed since Ali moved to the United States. The difference now is that Ali has built a life in the United States; he and his family have a community and friends of all kinds. The team at Community Refugee and Immigration Services–CWS’s Resettlement and Welcome Services affiliate in Ohio–is one part of Ali’s newly-found family. He is thankful for the support in their resettlement into Ohio. “What I have now is freedom–it is what I had not had this time last year.”  

“A friend you trust wants to kill you, but a stranger becomes your new friend.” Ali says. He now enjoys traveling around his new country with his family. “From New York to Chicago, I am exploring this beautiful country,” he says. In Ohio, Ali works as a case manager with CRIS and he helps members of his community navigate their new life. During the weekends, he takes his family to the parks, community events or swimming. On holidays, he drives his own car long distances to see friends and celebrate Afghan holidays. “For weeks I struggled to find a place to call home. Now I have one,” he told me.

Ali has a message for the Americans on this first anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan:. “I worked with the U.S. Army and USAID. Treat me as one of you. Not as a foreigner.” For Ali and others like him, this anniversary of the fall of Kabul brings back memories of turmoil, it also becomes the motivation to do more for his community and family. The chaos at the Kabul airport may be over for now, but the efforts to reunite and reconstruct lives continues for Ali and millions of Afghans, including our clients. 

This story was written by Abdi Iftin, CWS Communications Specialist, Welcoming Communities.

Stories of Change

Najiba, Naser and their daughters in Pennsylvania.

What a Difference a Year Brings

One year ago, Najiba, a young mother of 6-month and 3-year-old girls, was preparing to leave the mountainous hamlet in Afghanistan, where she’d lived her entire life. Left behind would be her widowed mother and a brother who has a disability. Another brother would soon escape to Iraq.

Soon Najiba would be joining her husband, Naser, a security guard for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, in a desperate attempt to flee Afghanistan before being detained by the Taliban.

The family made it through the chaos at the airport and onto a flight to Qatar. After a short stay in that nation, they arrived in a foreign country — the United States of America. The next few months, the family was in a holding pattern, housed at a military base as they awaited resettlement.

As they waited, the wheels were turning in central Pennsylvania. Three Protestant churches in Mechanicsburg united in September to form a Church World Service Welcome Team. As they were ironing out their organizational structure, they began collecting furniture, household goods and other items for the unknown family they would be supporting.

Meanwhile, Church World Service was hiring staff to open a new office in nearby Harrisburg. In early February, the team learned their family of four would arrive shortly. When Najiba, Naser and their children met members of their welcome team at Harrisburg International Airport on Feb. 5, they became the first sponsored family arranged by the Harrisburg office.

A lot has changed since then. Najiba, who spoke no English when she arrived a year ago, is thriving and happy in her ESL class, with a vocabulary that is growing daily. She’s also provided some family income by baking her delicious flat bread and selling it at festivals.

Naser has just started a new job, having upgraded from the one he landed shortly after arriving in his new hometown, Carlisle. Two weeks ago, Naser passed his driving test on the first try and is planning to soon purchase a car with money saved from his work and donations from the three churches. The eldest daughter excitedly pranced into her first Head Start class in the spring and is eager for the start of the new school year.

Most importantly, Naser and Najiba met with a pro bono immigration lawyer on Monday to sign the federal forms needed to receive Special Immigrant Visas for the family — which will be their pathway to U.S. citizenship.

Despite the sorrow they feel at leaving their families and home village behind, the family has adjusted well to the upheaval in their lives. They have the friendship and support of other Afghans who also settled in Carlisle — as well as the forever support of their friends on their Church World Service Welcome Team. 

One Year Later, Haiti Continues to Heal


August 12, 2022

Scroll through the photos to learn about our Haiti recovery response  In 2021, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, killing over 2,000 people. The quake added to the existing instability in a country that had already been reeling from political violence and pandemic-exacerbated hunger and poverty. When a disaster of this magnitude affects a region, it not only harms the structure …

Stories of Change

Veronica and her fellow neighbors attending a CWS chicken info session

Veronica Cares for Her Chickens to Care for Her Family

Veronica de Sousa and her husband Joanico Pereira live on the very top of a mountain in a town called Faulebo in Timor-Leste. Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, is a mountainous country on the island of Timor in Southeast Asia. A large part of Timor-Leste’s population lives in remote areas and relies on agriculture and livestock to make an income. 

Like many of their neighbors, Veronica and Joanico rely on the income they generate from their vegetables and chickens to care for themselves and their two young children. Due to outdated practices, however, Veronica and Joanico used to leave their chickens outside of their coop to find their own food. This has led to many of their chickens dying because of diseases they pick up when searching for food. 

When Veronica was invited to attend a CWS chicken info session, she saw an opportunity to modernize and improve her poultry practices. At the training, Veronica learned how to feed and vaccinate her chicken and other updated practices to ensure longer and healthier lives for her chicken. She elaborated, “we never had the opportunity to attend any training. This time we got new knowledge about raising chickens and also got materials, such as nails, to make chicken coops.” 

Through the support of our partner, Latter-day Saints Charities, we have invited 25 other families like Veronica’s to attend training sessions and improve their ability to raise chickens. By providing these families with the tools that they need, we are helping build a more stable future for themselves and their children. 

Stories of Change

Adel and her family next to their chicken coop

How Adel Turned Two Hens and One Rooster Into a Brighter Future

What can one rooster and two hens do for a family in Indonesia? We found the answer to that question when we met Mrs. Adel Regina Piut in the small town of Oelbiteno. 

Through our Giving Machine Program, which is supported by Latter-day Saints Charities, Adel received cash assistance and three chickens. Using the cash assistance they received, Adel and her husband built a coop for the chicken. She told us, “we also made the roof and door of the coop so that the chickens can lay eggs safely.” 

Adel and her husband had owned chickens before but struggled to keep them alive. The chickens would usually sleep outside and search for their own food which led them to die from various diseases. By attending our info sessions, Adel learned about modern methods for caring for chickens including the importance of vaccinating them. She explained, “I didn’t know that chickens also needed to be vaccinated. We also didn’t know there were officers who came to vaccinate them. I thought only cows need to be vaccinated. ” 

Adel now plans to maximize her resources to develop a better future. She said, “we will take good care of the chickens so that they can breed a lot. In the future, we will build a bigger cage.” Adel plans to use the chickens she breeds to feed her family and increase her income. Her goal is to use the money she earns from her chickens to buy pigs and pay for her children’s education. With her one rooster, two hens, and hopeful perseverance, Adel is paving the path for a better life for herself and her family. 

Stories of Change

Anh with her chickens.

Ms. Anh Learns a New and Valuable Skill

In the green mountains of Vietnam exists a small town known as Pa Chit Tau. This town is inhabited by 25 families who are all from the Thai ethnic minority group and make their living off of agriculture or livestock. These families all live spread out, which means that many do not have access to electricity. Due to the nature of this town, most residents live in poverty and struggle to maintain a stable income.

Ms. Lo Thi Anh lives in Pa Chit Tau with her family and makes a living from cultivating rice, maize and cassava. Others in her family have attempted to raise livestock but have struggled to care for the animals and prevent them from getting diseases. Due to these difficulties, Anh and her family have been unable to maintain a stable income. 

When Anh heard about the CWS chicken-raising project that is supported by Latter-day Saints Charities, she became interested and excited about the opportunity. She explained that, unlike the other families who didn’t want to join due to their lack of knowledge on how to raise chickens, she was excited to learn. 

Anh and her family attended info sessions, where they learned how to build proper chicken coops, how to select breeders and how to raise baby chicks. Excited by her new knowledge, Anh hurried to gather the materials she needed to start raising her new baby chicks. She shared with us, “now I understand that the new way to raise chicken is not as complicated as I thought. In fact, we can use materials available in my family like bamboo and wood to save money for our initial investment. Now I know how to raise newly hatched chicks and how to vaccinate them properly to avoid diseases.”

Filled with excitement and knowledge, Anh is generating a new source of income that will help create stability for herself and her family. Her confidence and eagerness to try new things have allowed her to lead her family towards a better quality of life. 

Stories of Change

Top: Niño Gómez. Middle: Monte Alto’s new water tank. Bottom: Odilda Gómez stands in front of local garden

Water and Opportunity Spring Up For Local Farmers in Paraguay

Over the past year, Paraguay has faced record-breaking heat waves and severe droughts. This has been especially devastating for local farmers who produce crops such as yuca, watermelons and pumpkins. Inaccessibility of water has affected farmers’ ability to produce crops and has forced them to walk far distances daily to reach clean water. 

 Niño Gómez and his neighbor Odilda Gómez live in the Paraguayan Gran Chaco in a town called Monte Alto, which has been severely affected by the unpredictable climate. (Nino and Odilda are not related- Gómez is the most common surname in Monte Alto). Niño recalls, “we had to spend the day walking very far to get water.” Odilda added, “we suffered a lot from floods and droughts. There was nothing. There were no fish or other food sources.”

Niño and Odilda’s families were two of the 136 families in our program in the Gran Chaco which aims to support indigenous communities’ food security. Through her participation in our program, Odilda received seven sheep and attended our training on water use, consumption and vegetation care. Odilda shared, “I am very grateful to you [CWS]. Now there are more sheep to raise them for consumption.” 

The Monte Alto community also received a 2,600 gallon storage tank (for a mental picture, that’s about 5x the size of a standard hot tub) for water, and the community has been invited to training sessions on safe water consumption. Now, water is easily accessible for consumption and crops. “Now we have water to drink and for our plants and vegetable gardens. The children have clean water too. We want to say thank you,” Niño shared. 

Last month, seven active gardens were established in Niño and Odilda’s community and three more will be developed in the next few months. Through the support of our local partners, we will have also invited other nearby communities to participate in our program. By the end of this year, we hope to reach 240 families and help them have better access to water, resources and knowledge on food security and crop production. Little by little, we hope to build stronger communities that can adapt and thrive in our changing environment. 

Our program, “Rural Development in Indigenous Communities of the Lower Paraguayan Chaco,” is implemented alongside our partner Pastoral Social Diocesana Benjamín Aceval. It is supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Growing Hope Globaly.

Stories of Change

Top: Wilda Fortilus and her aloe vera soap. Middle: Carnette Darius and her aloe vera soap. Bottom: Melida Charles and her aloe vera jam

Creating New Opportunities with Aloe Vera

What comes to mind when you think about aloe vera? Perhaps you think of that one painful sunburn you got recently, or maybe you think back to summers you spent outside as a child. For our program participants in Haiti, this slimy green plant represents relief during difficult times and hope for a better and more stable future. 

Through our local partners, we hosted a series of training sessions to teach members in small communities in Haiti, how to create soap using aloe vera. Wilda Fortilus, who lives in Pichon with her husband and four children, attended these training sessions. Before attending the training session on aloe vera, Wilda didn’t know there were multiple uses for aloe vera. Now, Wilda learned how to convert aloe vera into soap and learned about its medicinal uses. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Wilda’s family has been struggling to generate a stable income. Her new business has allowed her and her family to get back on their feet. She explained, “this is the only business activity in our household, which helps us in these moments. Thank you.”

Carnette Darius, another program participant, lives in nearby Fond Saint Luc with her son and husband. She shared, “this activity works well for me. On average, I sell 6 gallons per week…I make a good profit with this activity.” Carnette was able to use the income she made from selling soap to buy chickens. She hopes to expand her sales and eventually sell her soap at the local market. 

In Sou Mòn, Melida Charles learned about another use for aloe vera: jam! After attending training sessions on how to make aloe vera jam, Melida joined a savings group in her community and started her own jam-selling business. Melida told us, “When I have sold everything, I purchase other ingredients to continue to make jam and I participate in a savings group. The training is very useful and important to me.” Mixed with ingredients that include ginger, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, Melida’s delicious jam and participation in a savings group has allowed her to become more financially stable.

By discovering new ways to use aloe vera, these three women have also discovered new ways to support their livelihoods and families. Their participation in savings groups also gives them the opportunity to save money with their neighbors and start their own businesses.

We are thankful for the support of our partners Week of Compassion and Organisation des Planteurs de Fond Saint-Luc pour le Développement Intégré de Baie-de-Henne for making these stories possible.

Stories of Change

Top: Sadira Jeanty. Bottom: Sader Saint Juste

Farmers in Haiti Adapt to Climate Change

If you have ever owned a plant, you’ll know that one of the most important factors in ensuring that your plant survives is the health of its soil. Too much water and your plant might turn yellow. Too little and your plant might slouch over. As temperatures and CO2 levels increase due to climate change, farmers around the world know this challenge well as they struggle to create the necessary soil conditions for their crops to thrive. 

In Haiti, we are working to withstand these effects by teaching local farmers soil conservation techniques. These workshops teach members of the community how to build contour canals and rock walls that protect the soil, reduce the risk of erosion and increase the fertility and productivity of crops. 

Sadira Jeanty, 76, lives in Nabou with his wife and five daughters. Sadira, who has been struggling with financial instability, joined our training sessions to learn a new way to generate income and care for crops. He shared, “at that training, I learned how to build rock walls and contour canals to diminish the force of the water descending onto our fields so that the soil can remain in place.” By participating in our program, Sadira was also able to earn an income that he can use to pay off existing debts and focus on his crops.  He shared, “the money I earned was very useful for me because I owed money, so I paid the debt I had.” Sadira has now built contour canals and is preparing to start growing crops that he knows will be well protected. 

Sader Saint Juste is another program participant who lives in nearby Diondion. When he was just 12 years old, he began growing crops on his family’s land. As a young boy, he would collect rocks found on his land and place them in small piles to make space for his crops. Sader, who is now 39, continues to grow crops. He recently attended one of our training sessions on soil conservation and learned how to use rock walls to protect soil. He told us, “I now build rock walls with the rocks, instead of making small piles in the middle of the land.” Sader also used the money he earned while working in our program to buy new seeds to grow crops. 

As our planet undergoes extreme changes due to climate change, we are working to equip farmers like Sader and Sadira with the tools they need to withstand these effects. Their resilience and ability to adapt have given them the capacity to continue growing despite the challenges our changing environment brings.

We are thankful for the support of our partners Growing Hope Globally, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Association des Groupes Évangéliques d’Haïti pour la Prédication du Monde et le Développement d’une Nouvelle Génération for making these stories possible.