Lutheran World Relief 2023: Year in Review

2023: Year In Review

ABOVE: Jayantri Kewat (center) with his wife and children at their home in eastern Nepal. Turn to page 10 to read more about his family’s success farming bananas.

ON THE COVER: Staff member Emily Grose stands in front of the remains of a home in Antakya, Türkiye shortly after two massive earthquakes decimated the region.

You are loved.

These words are life-changing and life-giving. And they are even more powerful when they are demonstrated through action.

Because you took action to love your neighbors in faith and generosity this year, this message reached millions of people across 43 countries in 2023.

But numbers alone do not tell the whole story.

In this report, you’ll meet families who live where there are no roads. You’ll read about survivors of war and disaster who have received no help beyond what your compassion provided.

( ( (

You’ll see that your love goes where no one else goes …

You stay when everyone else leaves …

And you do what it takes to reach the people who need it the most.

When you act as Christ’s hands and feet in the world, you are love.

Thank you for proclaiming it in every corner of our hurting world.

Until your love reaches every neighbor.

PERU: TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF

THE SITUATION

The Valley of the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro Rivers (known as the VRAEM) is one of the poorest and hardest-to-reach regions of Peru. It is also notorious for producing the coca leaves used in illegal cocaine production. The drug trade has led to violence and terrorism, and many men have lost their lives. This has left many women behind to manage the land and fend for themselves and their children.

Up to 77% of families live in poverty.

785 metric tons of cocaine produced annually in Peru, 70% of it in the VRAEM

NEW BEGINNINGS

Sonia “Doris” Rodriguez Nyosa is president of the Qori Warmi (“Women of Gold”) women’s cacao cooperative. A few years ago, her family of six lived in a one-room apartment, barely surviving. Cacao changed her life. She says, “Thanks to the cooperative, today, after my daughters graduated from college, two are working as nurses, my son is in the army and my youngest daughter is studying in a U.S. college. I now have a house and have expanded my farmlands.”

The VRAEM

Sonia "Doris" Rodriguez Nyosa (left) and Lutheran World Relief's Elsa Ospino (right) shelling cacao.

YOUR IMPACT

With your support, members of the Qori Warmi farming cooperative have planted a new future and are revitalizing their communities with a new crop: cacao — the seed from which cocoa and chocolate are made. And their products are capturing the world’s attention.

In 2023, a VRAEM-based brand won a gold medal at the Salon du Chocolat in Paris — one of the most prestigious chocolate competitions in the world.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Elsa Ospino, cacao agronomist, on overcoming rough terrain, poisonous snakes and more: YOUR REACH SO FAR

“On my way to a site, when there is a moment I want to be a coward, I tell myself, ‘You have to keep going. There is nothing in this life you can’t do.’”

In 2023, 85 Qori Warmi members were supported through the project (up from 35 in 2018). Looking ahead, there are now 800 more farmers slated for training this year.

Your pilot project paved the way for major USAID attention and support. Individual donors like you invested $645,000 to begin this work five years ago. This year, the U.S. Agency for International Development invested an additional $2.3 million to build on your impact.

Ukraine: THE NEEDS PERSIST,

BUT SO DO YOU

THE SITUATION

Our neighbors in Ukraine have endured the immense hardships of war for two years and counting. As the war continues, the need for more sustainable support is growing alongside the continued need for emergency aid.

6.7 million people forced to flee their homes

There have been 1,336 attacks on Ukrainian medical facilities during the war. Each icon represents 10 attacks. That's over a third of the country’s population. people will need humanitarian support such as food, shelter and medical care in 2024. 14.6 million

BEHIND THE SCENES

Oleksii Bordunov, general manager of the mobile clinic, on why he is committed to taking the truck into hard-hit communities:

“We will support these people and visit them under any circumstances … War is not just about the frontline. It is also about people who stay here and need our help.”

YOUR IMPACT

Compassionate friends of faith like you have rallied to mount the largest humanitarian response in Lutheran World Relief history. Here’s what your investment has accomplished so far:

Mobile medical clinic. Health care has been hard to access near the frontlines. A mobile clinic carries a team of doctors to hard-hit communities — sharing love in the form of essential medical services.

Shelter, supplies and trauma recovery. At the height of displacement, you supported six housing centers to offer safe refuge and meals to extremely vulnerable families. You also distributed supplies, including folding beds, pillows, heaters, cookstoves, firewood, laundry detergent, toilet paper and toys. And

because the trauma of war is so deep and widespread, your generosity offers psychological care and counseling.

Agriculture support. Your generosity has launched a new effort to help more than 7,000 families restore small farms in the Kharkiv region, where significant farmland was destroyed during Russian occupation.

CARING FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE

Frosia Aksenova, 96, (below) is from a small village near the Russian border. For months, occupying Russian soldiers used her village as a base for attacking nearby Kharkiv. Abandoned by her family, Frosia was found huddled in a basement — alone, malnourished and suffering from multiple broken bones.

Rescuers evacuating the area transported her to a Lutheran World Relief-supported housing center. This is where you surrounded her in Christ’s loving care. Safe and warm, Frosia receives food, shelter and medical care.

Because of your compassion, Frosia is no longer alone. She is being loved like the child of God that she is.

YOUR REACH SO FAR

50,000

UKRAINIANS

have been impacted by your loving support. Each icon represents 1,000 people.

12,400

PATIENTS

have been seen in the mobile medical clinic. Each icon represents 1,000 people.

43,443

MEDICAL SERVICES

have been provided through the mobile clinic. Each icon represents 1,000 services.

141,512 QUILTS & KITS

distributed across Ukraine

1,624 displaced families have found safe refuge in housing facilities for a year or more.

9,636 people received trauma counseling and psychological care.

295,117 safe nights of sleep provided to those af fected by the war.

Türkiye: FINDING

HOPE AND A FUTURE AMID THE RUBBLE

20 million people affected

90% of buildings in Antakya destroyed 1.9 million people homeless

THE SITUATION

Survivors have described the devastation of the February 2023 earthquake as “apocalyptic.” Entire cities were reduced to rubble, and losses were immense. Even over a year later, many are still struggling to meet physical and emotional needs like food, safe shelter and healing from grief.

YOUR IMPACT

Your quick action meant emergency supplies reached the epicenter in record time. But you didn’t stop there. You went beyond urgent immediate needs to provide longer-term food, shelter and counseling to help families

get back on their feet — even when the rest of the world has turned their attention elsewhere.

A year later, your impact continues. Jobs remain scarce and families still struggle to buy food. To ease this burden, your generosity is launching a new initiative to help women start and operate small businesses to provide for their families.

A SHELTER IN THE TIME OF STORM

Çağla Sağlam (below) is still in mourning. In a single night she lost her husband, her mother and her pregnant sister. “In the disaster of the century,” she weeps, “I lost my dearest ones.”

ANTAKYA , TÜRKIYE

Yet Çağla had to move forward: her four young children needed her to be strong.

For nearly six months, they survived in a tent. There was no running water. “There was filth everywhere,” Çağla recalls. Many times, she thought about giving up.

Imagine her relief when her application for a container home was approved. The 226 square-foot home came fully furnished and has electricity, plumbing, heating and air conditioning. There is a small kitchen and full bathroom, allowing for some semblance of a normal life.

Although Çağla and her children are still facing many challenges, you have given them a home where they can start anew.

“Thank you very much for making my children happy,” she says. “God bless you.”

YOUR REACH SO FAR

Quilts and kits are being distributed to families without electricity or basic supplies:

5,760 Baby Care Kits

11,880 Mission Quilts

14,440 Personal Care Kits

Each icon represents a quantity of 1,000.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Deniz Sila Beemsterboer, humanitarian response coordinator for Lutheran World Relief, on the importance of ongoing support for earthquake survivors in Türkiye:

“Unfortunately, global government funding is over for Türkiye. So, for earthquake survivors, life is dependent on the compassion of people like you. [Your] support is helping LWR and our local partners to be agile and respond to changing needs on the field quickly. We are a model for other [organizations] in Türkiye."

Provided to 10,610 people

35 families are housed in their own private 226 square-foot container homes.

South Sudan: BRINGING

HEALTH CARE

TO FAMILIES STRANDED BY FLOODING

YOUR IMPACT

Basic health care is an urgent need for displaced and isolated families. You are standing in the gap to ensure the most vulnerable in four counties in Jonglei state have access to essential medical services. This looks like treating malaria and other illnesses, delivering vaccines like tetanus and polio, ensuring children and pregnant women have adequate nourishment; and much more.

The highest maternal mortality rate in the world

THE SITUATION

1 million people affected by extreme flooding each year of the country’s land becomes covered by floodwaters.

South Sudan continues to endure one of the world’s worst and longest-lasting humanitarian crises. Two-thirds of people experience poverty. Due to ongoing violence, millions live their lives on the run.

What’s more, heavy seasonal rains cause widespread flooding — leaving entire communities stranded for months at a time.

A BOAT TO GO THE EXTRA MILE

Imagine needing emergency care, but the closest hospital is a five-hour canoe ride away. This is the stark reality for remote communities in South Sudan.

Nyaluit Chuol and her children live in a camp for displaced families. This year, 4-year-old Nyayien and 2-year-old Mar got very sick from measles. Health workers at a Lutheran World Relief-supported clinic determined they were extremely malnourished and would need treatment at a larger hospital.

The problem? Nyaluit didn’t have access to a canoe. Your compassion offered a unique solution. To bring health care within reach, donors like you purchased a motorboat. This boat carries medical supplies between sites and serves as an ambulance to rush emergency cases to the hospital — cutting a fivehour journey down to one.

This means that fewer women are dying from complications during labor. It means affordable transport is available when needed. And it means little Nyayien and Mar got the lifesaving treatment they needed, just in time.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Crystal Stafford, communications manager, on a camping in remote South Sudan in order to interview Nyaluit:

“I lay awake, scared and alone in my tent, listening to automatic weapons blasting through the night. I thought to myself, ‘This is what she has gone through so many nights of her life, lying there awake and scared, holding her children close. I can do this for one more night.’”

YOUR REACH SO FAR

4

17

Nyaluit Chuol and her children Nyayien and Mar.

Nepal: GENERATING INCOME

THAT WON’T WASH AWAY

4TH MOST VULNERABLE COUNTRY to climate disruptions

THE SITUATION

Nepal is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, and the poorest families often live in the most affected areas. For example, seasonal rains are becoming more intense — causing frequent flash floods that wash away crops, livestock, homes and even people in already poor communities.

2x people in Nepal could be affected by flooding in 2030 vs. 2010, if trends continue

YOUR IMPACT

A decade ago, Lutheran World Relief began educating disaster-prone communities about disaster preparedness and flood-resilient agriculture.

Today, you are building on this success by supporting vulnerable families to grow their incomes through livelihoods and business skills training.

YOU PLANTED THE SEED.

HE TURNED IT INTO

A FOREST.

Jayantri Kewat (above) spent season after season cultivating vegetables, only for them to rot beneath two feet of floodwater. “When the flood came, we were not sure we would survive,” he recalls. Jayantri, his wife and their eight children had to sleep in a tent on higher ground when their house flooded.

ABOVE: Jayantri Kewat's only son, 10-year-old Jay, amongst the banana trees. He helps on the farm when he isn't in school. Jayantri hopes Jay will one day run the family farm.

In 2014, Jayantri began attending Lutheran World Relief trainings on flood resilience. He also received 1,500 flood-resilient banana saplings and training on farming and business. With hard work, Jayantri started turning a profit. And by reinvesting those profits, over time he increased his farm to 20 times its original size.

In 2021, Nepal experienced record-breaking floods and crop losses. But that year, Jayantri made $43,000 USD from his banana farm — an amazing 43 times his original income — because of the training donors like you provided.

YOUR REACH SO FAR

60 flood-prone communities have been supported through your generosity.

Today, Jayantri has more than 7,000 banana trees and a sturdy house above the floodplain. He hosts his own trainings to help his neighbors increase their incomes through farming. His oldest daughter studies at a university, and he hopes the others will be close behind.

“I wouldn’t have made it this far if I didn’t get the training,” he says. “What makes me happiest is that I can adequately provide for my family now.”

BEHIND THE SCENES

Bishnu Nepali, project coordinator for local partner Dalit Feminist Upliftment Organization (DAFUO) in Nepal on helping her own community:

Each icon represents 10 communities.

people received livelihoods training and support

“I am a Dalit and a woman and a mother. An outsider might not understand our community the same way I do … I thank all of our donors, big and small. We can’t do anything without them.”

financials:

Pre-audited financial data and subject to change

Program Expenses

Health: $98,534,306

Emergency Response: $24,582,833

Agriculture and Livelihoods: $18,370,895

Total: $141,488,034

Revenue Sources

Grants and Contracts: $102,490,334

Individual and Church Contributions: $36,225,526

In-Kind Contributions: $26,010,977

Total: $164,726,837

THANK YOU.

Every blessing shared. Every life changed. It all begins with your compassion and generosity. Because of you, the hope of Christ is felt on the hardest days and in the hardest-to-reach places.

Thank you for entrusting Lutheran World Relief to steward your gifts — and share this hope — with those who need it most...

Until your love reaches every neighbor.