And what better way to celebrate coffee than with dessert? That’s why we asked some of our staff, quilters, and kit-makers to share their favorite dessert recipes, which you’ll find below.

In celebration of the one-year anniversary of LWR Farmers Market Coffee, we invite you to enjoy 10% off your next order (individual or wholesale) with discount code CELEBRATE at checkout!

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We hope you enjoy these delectable desserts and, as you do, know that with LWR Farmers Market Coffee, farmers get a strong, up-front price for their beans, and share in the profits once they are sold as coffee — plus, 80 cents of each pound purchased is donated back to Lutheran World Relief to reach out to even more farmers in need.

So without further adieu, we hope you’ll enjoy a delicious cup of LWR Farmers Market Coffee with…

Vicky’s Potato Chip Cookies

Submitted by Vicky Whetstone, Lutheran World Relief’s Senior Associate for Visibility and Engagement, these cookies are a real crowd-pleaser — light, crunchy, and not too sweet. And the best part? Nobody will suspect there are actual potato chips in them!

Get the recipe!

Jan’s Bundt Coffee Cake

This delicious cake has a moist crumb, a crunchy crust, and a surprise in the middle! Submitted by dedicated quilt-maker, Jan Kruger, this recipe is perfect for your next potluck (along with a bag of LWR Farmers Market Coffee to share).

Get the recipe!

Myron’s Cranberry Orange Scones

These zingy scones have just a few ingredients, don’t take long to make, and are the perfect addition to your next brunch. Submitted by Lutheran World Relief staffer, Myron Burkholder, this recipe, along with a cup of delicious LWR Farmers Market Coffee, may become a family favorite.

Get the recipe!

More recipes coming soon!

We got a few more submissions to cook up. Be sure to check back for two more dessert recipes next week! In the meantime, be sure to check out LWR Farmers Market Coffee. This delicious coffee is grown by farmers you support through Lutheran World Relief projects. Your purchases ensure they get a strong up-front price for their beans, and share in the profit from the sale of their coffee — plus 80 cents of each pound sold is donated back to Lutheran World Relief to reach out to even more farmers around the world. That’s worth raising a mug!

In celebration of our anniversary, please enjoy 10% off your next purchase — individual or wholesale — with code CELEBRATE at checkout!

Shop Coffee!

The post Celebrating LWR Farmers Market Coffee…with dessert! appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

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This recipe comes by way of Myron Burkholder, Lutheran World Relief’s Deputy Director for Operations, Latin America.

Myron is an occasional baker, but says he enjoys baking because of the logic, precision and chemistry aspects of it. This recipe, he shares, started out with the sour cream scone recipe on the America’s Test Kitchen website, and he decided to play around with it. “I added the orange and cranberry because I always liked that combination,” Myron says. “I like [this recipe] it because it’s pretty easy to make and very tasty. I mainly make them when I go to potluck brunches at friends houses.”

While Myron was the contributor of this recipe, it was Melanie Gibbons, Lutheran World Relief’s Quilt & Kit Ministry Manager, who baked these. Melanie says the recipe was easy to work with, but warns not to work the dough too much or the scones will get tough. She says a few lumps and spots of flour are ok!  Also, since scones don’t rise much, if you want thicker scones, pat the dough out to pretty close to your desired thickness.

Overall, she said the scones were a hit in her house among all ages (including her three year old daughter) and she’ll definitely be making them again.

The Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup chopped cranberries
• 1 tablespoon orange zest, or orange juice and reduce cream
• 1 cup cream

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Whisk dry ingredients in large bowl (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt).
3. Use pastry blender, or a pair of butter knives and cut butter into dry mixture, you want a slightly lumpy texture but no large lumps.
4. Use spatula, mix in cranberry pieces and orange zest.
5. Stir in cream, just until it starts to form up, don’t mix too much.
6. Empty all the bits onto work surface, knead by hand just until you have a sticky ball of dough, no more than necessary.
7. Press into 8-inch round cake pan or pie pan, even out and then dump out onto floured work surface.
8. Cut into 8 wedges, place on ungreased cookie sheet.
9. Bake on middle rack, 12-15 minutes until tops just brown.
10. Cool on wire rack, enjoy!

Prep time: 10 minutes. Baking time: 15 minutes. Yield: 8 scones

Try it with LWR Farmers Market Coffee!

We were on the fence about which flavor of LWR Farmers Market Coffee would work best with this recipe. In the end, we are going to recommend the Medium Roast, to offset the sweetness of the fruit and ever-so-slight bitterness of the cranberries. But in reality, these are a delicious accompaniment to whichever flavor you like!

And as you enjoy this spectacular scone, know that with LWR Farmers Market Coffee, farmers get a strong, up-front price for their beans, and share in the profits once they are sold as coffee — plus, 80 cents of each pound purchased is donated back to Lutheran World Relief to reach out to even more farmers in need.

By purchasing this delicious coffee, you are becoming part of farmers’ success stories.To celebrate the anniversary of LWR Farmers Market Coffee, please enjoy 10% off your next order (individual or wholesale) with discount code CELEBRATE at checkout!

Shop Coffee!

The post LWR Farmers Market Coffee and…Myron’s Cranberry Orange Scones! appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

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This recipe comes from Jan Kruger, one of the many hard-working men and women who assemble LWR Quilts & Kits to go around the world to people in need. Because quilters tend to gather together to do their work, we thought they’d have particularly good ideas of desserts to share — and Jan did not disappoint!

Melanie Gibbons, Lutheran World Relief’s Quilt & Kit Ministry Manager, took on this recipe with just a few modifications (see below for details). She also took on a recipe by a fellow staff member — Myron’s Cranberry Orange Scones — so be sure to check that out as well!

By day, Melanie helps Lutherans across the United States put their faith into action by making and donating LWR Quilts and Kits of Care. At home, she’s an avid baker! Melanie loves to bake all sorts of things, but she especially excels at cakes and breads. She says she loves baking because it “helps my brain slow down and focus one the thing at hand. And it doesn’t hurt that it provides great aromatherapy for me and my family!”

The Recipe

Melanie decided to substitute the butterscotch pudding for banana pudding in this recipe, which worked out great! She also advises bakers to grease their bundt pans very, very well!

Ingredients:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, *optional
• 1 tablespoon milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan, or a 10-inch Bundt cake pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, and butterscotch pudding mix. Add the eggs, oil and water, mix until well blended. In another bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts.** Pour half of the batter into the pan, spread evenly. Sprinkle with half of the nut mixture. Cover with the rest of the batter, and sprinkle with the rest of the nut mixture. **If using a bundt pan, you can add the cinnamon layer first so this layer ends up on the top of your cake instead of the bottom. If you’re going to use a glaze, this reversal isn’t critical.
3. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn the oven down to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes.
4. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto rack. Cool completely.
5. Combine powdered sugar and milk in a ziplock bag, cut off corner, and drizzle over cooled cake.

Prep Time: 10 minutes. Bake Time: 55-60 minutes. Passive time: 10 minutes. Yield: 1 bundt cake.

Try it with LWR Farmers Market Coffee!

The rich taste of this luscious cake makes a great complement to LWR Farmers Market Coffee Dark Roast. And the crunchy sugar on the inside and outside of this cake make it perfect for dunking!

And as you enjoy this beautiful bundt (with coffee!) know that with LWR Farmers Market Coffee, farmers get a strong, up-front price for their beans, and share in the profits once they are sold as coffee — plus, 80 cents of each pound purchased is donated back to Lutheran World Relief to reach out to even more farmers in need.

By purchasing this delicious coffee, you are becoming part of farmers’ success stories.To celebrate the anniversary of LWR Farmers Market Coffee, please enjoy 10% off your next order (individual or wholesale) with discount code CELEBRATE at checkout!

Shop Coffee!

The post LWR Farmers Market Coffee and…Jan’s Bundt Coffee Cake! appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

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If you’ve ever called Lutheran World Relief with a question, or a request for resources, you may have spoken with Vicky Whetstone. She is a beloved staff member at Lutheran World Relief headquarters and each day she helps countless Lutherans put their faith into action. She’s always got a smile, and is always willing to help.

That’s why it came as no surprise that when we put out the call for recipes to celebrate the anniversary of LWR Farmers Market Coffee, Vicky was among the first to respond!

Vicky loves to bake, and considers baking for others a way of sharing love. “Baking makes people happy so I love to bake for others. People generally like to eat but not cook, so eating a home-cooked meal or special treat is a way to give out a little love and make someone feel warm and fuzzy.”

For Vicky, these potato chip cookies were love at first bite. “I first tasted the cookie where I was working in my late teens. Someone brought a plate of Christmas cookies to share, and potato chip cookies were among the treats. I couldn’t wait to get home and bake them for my mom, who loved them too, but wasn’t as enraptured as I was.”

In a word, these cookies are unforgettable! They are light, crispy, buttery, but not too sweet. In fact, we had trouble keeping our hands out of the cookie tin to take pictures!

The Recipe

Vicky says, “These cookies are so flaky and delicious. It’s fun not to tell people what they are until they taste them and fall in love! No one believes they have potato chips in them.”

Ingredients:

• 1 c. butter
• 1 ½ c. flour
• ½ c. sugar
• ½ c. crushed potato chips
• 1 egg yolk
• ½ c. chopped nuts
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions:

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add rest of ingredients.
3. Drop by teaspoonful onto un-greased cookie sheet and press lightly with a fork.
4. Bake 15 minutes in 350-degree oven.

Prep Time: 5 minutes. Baking time: 15 minutes. Yield: About two dozen cookies.

Try it with LWR Farmers Market Coffee!

We suggest you try this recipe with LWR Farmers Market Medium Roast. It’s wonderfully balanced and, if you really try, you just might be able to pick up on the delicious notes of citrus, caramel, and nougat.

And as you enjoy this creatively crunchy cookies (and coffee!) know with LWR Farmers Market Coffee, farmers get a strong, up-front price for their beans, and share in the profits once they are sold as coffee — plus, 80 cents of each pound purchased is donated back to Lutheran World Relief to reach out to even more farmers in need.

By purchasing this delicious coffee, you are becoming part of farmers’ success stories.To celebrate the anniversary of LWR Farmers Market Coffee, please enjoy 10% off your next order (individual or wholesale) with discount code CELEBRATE at checkout!

Shop Coffee!

The post LWR Farmers Market Coffee and…Vicky’s Potato Chip Cookies! appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Or at least it’s not only your grandma’s quilting group.

Visit a quilting session and you’ll see middle school-aged workers alongside seasoned members, producing quilts that will make their way to Lutheran World Relief and, from there, people in need around the world.

This effort started around 2000 as a way to bring older and younger members of the congregation together. It has since blossomed into a full-on, inter-generational passing of the sewing machine.

Students work with their counterparts to produce quilts while simultaneously getting lessons on how those quilts will impact people around the world and where they end up.

Laura Abrahamson, a co-coordinator of programs at St. Luke said she observed the children watching a video about quilts that had gone to Angola. The people receiving them were living in extremely harsh conditions. “I watched the kids as they watched. They were all very moved by it.”

“It was a great feeling in my heart,” said Christopher Luna, 13. “You’re helping someone across the world.”

“People feel like you really can’t make a difference when you’re younger.  But you can,” said Raluca Giurgiu, 14.

In their first year the students get instructions on how quilts are made. By the time they leave they can create their own.

“I was at the hunger fast [Planned Famine], but this was the first time I did something with my hands that would help people,” said Giselle Escamilla, 13. “I know other people would be using it to keep warm.”

Laura said boys tend to be good on the machines because she tells them manipulating the pedals is like driving a car. “The downside is from month to month they forget the procedure,” she laughs.

“The students seemed to enjoy learning a task that was not ‘regular school,’” said Irene Borg, who started quilting about 30 years ago, when she turned 40. She said her favorite part of working with the children was “The laughter, the sharing, the sewing. It helps me learn. I learned on a sewing machine from the children.”

The group has averaged at least 10 quilts a year since they began years ago. The running total is close to 200, Laura said.

Some of the quilts have gone to India, others to the Philippines and others to Syria and Peru.

For Laura, watching the young sewers brings back memories of her own work decades ago when she was an unwilling student in a sewing class who wanted to take drafting. She came to love it. “Maybe one of them in another 50 years will be turning around and teaching other kids.”

The post Not your grandma’s quilting group appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Their native Nicaragua has been in the throes of violence this year and some of you have asked how the farmers of the SOPPEXCCA cooperative are doing. They grow the beans that our partner THRIVE Farmers turns into delicious LWR Farmers Market Coffee and we have worked with them for years, thanks to your generosity.

The unrest began earlier this year when the government proposed reforming the pension system. The plan called for a greater contribution from employees and employers and a reduction in benefits for retirees. Protests ensued and, since April, hundreds of people have been killed and wounded.

The fighting led groups around the country to erect barricades on some roads, limiting transportation.

While our coffee farmer partners in the cooperative in Jinotaga area have not been directly affected by the violence, the blockades and limited transportation has hit them. For farmers like Jose, Gustavo, and Abelino, this means farm hands couldn’t get to the fields. Supplies and food were delayed as well.

But your support is helping. Lutheran World Relief has worked with SOPPEXCCA to allocate some project funds to provide food for 400 families.

LWR’s Nicaragua country director, Nakord Garcia, said those families are continuing to receive food packets.

As the farmers try to resume their normal schedule – right now they are doing land preparation – we ask that you keep buying LWR Farmers Market Coffee and know that your generosity makes our work with our partners possible.

The post How are LWR Farmers Market Coffee farmers doing amid Nicaragua conflict? appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Marciela had no way to support her three children back in Venezuela, so she boarded a bus and made a difficult, five-day bus ride across Colombia and Ecuador to reach Peru, where she hopes she will be able to earn a living and someday reunite her family.

Wilfredo used to make a decent living as a lawyer in Venezuela. Now he scrapes by as a street vendor in Lima, hoping his temporary visa will come soon so he can look for better work.

As hard as their situations are, Marciela and Wilfredo consider themselves the lucky ones.

Thousands of Venezuelans are arriving in Peru every day. Recently 5,000 arrived in one day, eclipsing the country’s single day record by nearly 40 percent. This has left new arrivals in limbo: stuck in long lines, in open-air, plagued by insects, many with children underfoot – and with no clear relief in sight.

Thanks to your support Lutheran World Relief is working in Lima to renovate reception centers, where Venezuelans can find temporary housing, meals and legal counseling about residence, work permits and other regulations. We are also advocating for the rights of the migrants and supporting services for displaced women and children as they integrate within host communities in Peru.

One of the reception centers — formerly a home for nuns — has been vacant eight years. There is no working plumbing; a series of hoses are the only source of water. The walls are crumbling and there is no furniture. Because of your generosity, the building will soon be renovated with capacity to house up to 20 people.

With your help, we are also working with another local partner that is running a busy food kitchen that currently serves about 50 people a day. With your support, we are helping to renovate the kitchen so that it can feed more people.

Carlos Padrinos and Sahimar Sanoja, a couple from Venezuela, manage one of the reception centers. They arrived three months ago after their house was looted and Carlos lost his job, forcing their sons to quit college. At the reception center, they met church leaders who asked them to help manage the operation.

“God sent us here,” Carlos said.

You can help

Please support our response to this crisis with a gift today. Help us scale up our efforts to reach out to Venezuelans who have fled to Peru with hot meals and the critical assistance they need to survive.

Donate today

The post Desperate for survival, thousands flee Venezuela in search of refuge appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Dominica is no stranger to damaging storms. In 2015, Tropical Storm Erika claimed more than 30 lives and caused damages amounting to half of Dominica’s GDP. However, Hurricane Maria inflicted an entirely different level of destruction. Approximately 90 percent of the country’s 26,000 houses were moderately damaged or worse, and nearly a quarter were destroyed. It wiped out agriculture and tourism, the cornerstones of the economy. With support from the humanitarian community and neighboring Caribbean nations, Dominica is slowly starting recover, but there is still a long road ahead.

“Everything has to go fast”

Shortly after Hurricane Maria hit, Lutheran World Relief connected with Habitat for Humanity International to collaborate on a project that would support that monumental task of rebuilding the island. We quickly found that a shortage of skilled carpenters and construction workers on the island was going to be a major impediment. Our local partner Habitat for Humanity came up with the idea to partner with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to recruit skilled builders from other Caribbean nations such as Trinidad, Guyana and Jamaica to come to Dominica and help train Dominicans on hurricane resilient construction. Since April, about 40 skilled workers from these countries have been working alongside local workers. “Bringing in foreign workers was the only way to accelerate and expand our roof repair program. Everything has to go fast, because the 2018 hurricane season started again in June,” says Jan-Willem Wegdam, team leader for IOM Dominica.

Last week, Lutheran World Relief staff traveled to Dominica to meet with our partners to learn about the recovery process. Nine months after the hurricane struck, scars of the disaster are visible everywhere you look: houses missing roofs, telephone poles slanted at precarious angles, boarded-up windows, piles of rusted household appliances discarded in massive piles at the side of the road. Construction and cleanup efforts continue, supported by government initiatives and humanitarian organizations.

Building back better

We visited construction sites and spoke with IOM workers who have participated in trainings delivered by Habitat for Humanity and supported by LWR. Natasha Daniels, Habitat for Humanity’s Project Coordinator in Dominica, spoke to us about how the project has worked to overcome challenges by establishing partnerships with other humanitarian organizations.

“We realized that most of humanitarian organizations were struggling to find skilled labor in Dominica,” she says. “Habitat for Humanity has a presence in the Caribbean, thus allowing us to easily recruit and deploy experienced builders willing to help, who could lead local teams in roof construction. We call this ‘learning by doing.’”

The project provides opportunities to anyone who is interested in giving back, regardless of barriers like gender or lack of previous experience. We visited a team a team of six workers outside of the town of Marigot, led by Reneeta Seepersad, 33, who was deployed from Trinidad. Her team is composed of two women and three men.

“When I learned about this opportunity, I was so excited about the chance to give back,” she says with a wide smile. “I love carpentry work and my team here is ride or die. We work well together.”

Reneeta is a clear leader who commands her team’s respect. They have a healthy competition going with other crews to see who can complete their roofing targets quicker. Sheri Black, 25, from Dominica, has appreciated the opportunity learn from leaders like Renetta. “In Dominica, woman usually don’t work in construction, so being part of the project is very motivating,” she says.

Love, kindness, trust and faith

On our last day in Dominica, we attended a festival hosted by the Ministry of Youth featuring young artists performing traditional calypso songs. The festival included an art exhibit with pieces inspired by Hurricane Maria. In the middle of the room stood several panels of twisted tin roofing, presumably the remnants of someone’s roof. The panels held hundreds of notes, alongside a sign: “Tell us the impact Maria has on you. Thoughts? Observations?” Scanning the notes, painful experiences jumped off the dented metal. “After Maria, there was a deafening silence while you desperately tried to find out if your 90-year old parents had survived,” says one. “Took my family” appears in several spots.

One particularly jarring quote jumped out at me.

“Hurricane Maria, she taught us the importance of family, friends and community building. By stripping us of our materialistic needs, we were forced to realize that the abstract qualities of love, kindness, trust and faith were all that we could really rely on. Let’s hope we have learned a lesson.”

Beyond the obvious physical impact, natural disasters can be traumatizing events, especially for young people. In Dominica, the wounds are still fresh as the country looks to rebuild. However, if it’s possible to see a silver lining in the wake of such monumental destruction, it’s that Dominica does have a chance to rebuild a stronger and more resilient country and form tight-knit families and communities in the process.

Over the next few months, Lutheran World Relief will continue working with Habitat for Humanity and IOM to contribute to that process of building a stronger and more resilient Dominica while helping people recover from the losses inflicted by Hurricane Maria.

Noah Steinberg-Di Stefano is a program associate for Emergency Operations & Logistics for Lutheran World Relief, based in Baltimore. He is overseeing the responses to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and Dominica.

The post Out of the limelight, tiny Dominica slowly recovers from Hurricane Maria appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Marlene is the director of the Upper Elementary Class Faith Formation class at Morning Star Lutheran Church, in Matthews, North Carolina. About two years ago she started a program of giving each student $10 on her or his birthday. The deal was the money had to go toward helping someone.

This year, one of her fifth graders, 10-year-old Grace Baker, suggested that the group of 10 students pool their money.

With $100 to work with, the young philanthropists decided they wanted to choose an organization or cause that would make the most of their gift. Pastor Naomi Carriker met with the class and gave them some ideas, including Lutheran World Relief’s Gifts catalog, which includes a range of practical and valuable gifts that  improve the lives of people living in poverty around the world.

“There are so many people who don’t have the things they need and they need help,” said Grace. “Me and my class decided to give to Lutheran World Relief, so they could give to the people who don’t have as much as us.”

Then, Grace suggested an idea to further multiply the gift: they asked the entire congregation to join them in giving. The goal was $500.

The class put together a special presentation for the congregation. They laid out what they hoped to accomplish, what some of the gifts were, and how families might use them.

Lilly Grace Treese, 10, said going before the congregation was her favorite part. “Presenting to the congregation and asking for their help. It’s good to help people in other countries,” she said.

When the collection concluded, the students had $1,767 in donations! Combined with their initial $100 from Marlene Perrotta, the class of 10 students now had enough to purchase two cows, a piglet, a hen and chicks, medical supplies, a smokeless cook stove, two fruit tree seedlings, playground toys, an emergency water filter and the shipment of 12 quilts. They even donated the remaining balance – $2.61 – to Lutheran World Relief to be used where needs are greatest.

While the students were proud that they helped other people in need, they also took away other things from working together.

“My favorite part was choosing the piglet,” said Lauren Roberts, 11.

For Victoria Hollingsworth, 10, it was the fun of working together. “We got to know each other better in our class; everyone was motivated; the whole class was involved, and we knew we could be the leaders for the project,” she said. “It was cool that the whole congregation wanted to help us and help others around the world.”

Marlene said her students have talked about the impact of the gifts. “We [talked] a lot about how people would feel when they receive these gifts and how grateful they would be. We tried to put ourselves in their shoes of what their needs were,” she said

The kids of Morning Star are a great example of the amazing things God does through all people — big and small, young and old.

If you’d like to harness the group power of giving in your congregation, consider hosting an LWR Gifts Drive. This downloadable resource makes it easy for your congregation to spread the word, collect gifts, and transform the lives of people in need around the world!

The post How teacher’s one simple gift-giving rule inspired a domino effect of generosity! appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Even though farming is a powerful economic driver, many young people have watched their parents struggle their entire lives. So instead of following in their footsteps, many dream of moving to urban areas. But those dreams are often dashed as the opportunities they thought they’d have fail to materialize.

Right now, your support is reaching thousands of young people in Tanzania — changing the trajectory of their lives and the future of their communities.

College-age students are spending their days learning to prepare land for crops, milk cows and goats, and even produce yogurt and cheese. It’s all part of a project that provides students with first-class vocational training, so they can pursue gainful employment opportunities or run their own businesses.

The project addresses a need and challenge familiar to families and companies in the United States: how to prepare the next generation of youth to fill positions in the agricultural and technical fields.

In partnership with two agriculture technical institutes — the National Sugar Institute and the Katrin Institute — you’re revising and improving the national agriculture technical curriculum to ensure the next generation of agricultural experts are prepared for the future. The new curriculum, which has the full support of the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture, also includes internships with large-scale agribusinesses so that students graduate with quality, relevant work experience.

The students say the work experience, combined with the classroom study, is opening the door to a brighter future for them.

Dina Mwilanga is entering her second year at the National Sugar Institute. She said her internship is exciting because the practical skills complement her classroom studies. When she graduates, she plans to become an extension agent and help other farmers find markets for their crops and get the best production from their land and animals.

Ezekiel Lucas, who is entering his second year at the Katrin Institute, said the internship allows him to experience real-world applications of his academic courses. Ezekiel says work experience is what attracts an employer. “Employment is most important to us,” he says.

From Uganda to El Salvador and Nicaragua to Tanzania, you’re supporting youth to become the next generation of farmers across the developing world by providing opportunities for them to get the skills, tools and opportunities they need for viable careers in agriculture.

Thank you for helping to ensure young people won’t have to face a life of poverty as they look ahead.

The post Youth Internships rekindle agricultural interest in Tanzania appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Thanks to your generous support, Lutheran World Relief began reaching out quickly after the storm, and with your support we are still there, working closely with our partners to build back better.

Here’s an update on the work you have made possible.

Without power for months, families and communities struggled

In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, many rural areas of Puerto Rico were without power. The lack of electricity limited the function of schools, hospitals, businesses and the provision of basic services, like portable water. Power outages also mean families lack consistent refrigeration for food, forcing them to depend on processed foods from convenience stores as their only source of nourishment. This problem is compounded by the fact that in Adjuntas —one of the poorest regions of Puerto Rico, and where Lutheran World Relief has focused its response — 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

As electricity is restored in urban centers of the island, and not in rural areas, there is a widening gap in recovery. That’s why your gifts are helping families find alternative energy solutions, such as solar panels. Your gifts are also helping families become better prepared for future storms. This will help families meet their most basic needs and, in turn, focus on long-term, sustainable recovery.

Our plan: solar energy panels and disaster preparedness training

Lutheran World Relief is working with local partner, Casa Pueblo, to establish solar hubs that will provide power for families to meet their basic needs while government support is limited. Keeping in mind that hurricane season is upon us, our project also aims to help families prepare for, and limit their risk from, future storms. Casa Pueblo is doing this by disseminating information through their community radio station, ensuring people are aware of the threats during hurricane season and the resources available to them.

Working in Adjuntas, we are focusing these solar energy hubs toward two specific community resources: neighborhood grocery stores and a local, accessible hardware store. Providing power in these locations will help families be able to access food and other essential items, as well as equipment needed to rebuild their communities. In the long run, this work will help the community of Adjuntas be more resilient to future hurricanes.

In addition, we are working together to help families prepare for future disasters through solar workshops and radio programming.

This work would not be possible without your support. Thank you for responding quickly to the needs of the people of Puerto Rico, and for your continuing support as we work toward long-term recovery.

Take a moment to meet a few of the people whose lives were touched by your generosity.

If you’d like to reach out to families around the world coping with war, poverty, and disaster, give a gift to Lutheran World Relief’s World of Good Fund. This fund helps us move quickly in emergency situations, getting life-saving assistance to families who desperately need it.

Give Today

The post Your gifts are still at work in Puerto Rico appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Your generosity means that Williams, a 30-year-old father, can now stay in his home country, is able to feed his family of four and has even started saving money to build a house.

His life was much different just a year ago. Unable to afford to complete a college education, he took a job as a farm laborer. Working from sunup until sundown, the 30-year-old father earned $6 a day. He farmed his own small plot of land as much as he could.

With no other opportunities for work near his home outside San Miguel — El Salvador’s second largest city after San Salvador — Williams says his only option was to migrate to the United States.

The entire trajectory of his life changed when he enrolled in a diploma program designed to prepare young farmers to be the next generation of entrepreneurs in El Salvador’s burgeoning cocoa industry. The program integrates training in cocoa cultivation, business management and life skills, like decision making, problem solving and critical thinking.

Williams’ tuition was covered entirely by the generosity of people like you. Today, Williams is running a successful small business making and selling tablets for hot chocolate. He buys fermented cocoa beans, toasts them, grinds them and mixes them with sugar and spices to make a delicious product. His wife, Margarita, and children, 11-year-old Williams and 6-year-old Merci, help to package the chocolate tablets. The tablets have been so popular that Williams produces a fresh batch almost daily to meet demand.

“This has gotten this migrating idea out of my head since I know there’s opportunity here in the country,” he says.

Some of Williams’ classmates have also been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. Cesar Gaitan, 27 and single, was supporting himself by selling vegetables door to door on his motorcycle. Feeling that his life was at a standstill, he too was considering a trip north.

Today, after completing the diploma program, he’s building a new customer base for an organic fertilizer concocted from a formula he learned as part of the curriculum. The program opened another door for him: he just started studying on scholarship at UNIVO to become an agronomist, a degree that will take him five years to complete.

“The cocoa diploma changed my life. Even the way I think,” Cesar says. “Before, I didn’t have goals. But now I know what I want.”

Beatriz Villatoro, 28, attended a vocational college with the goal of working in the hospitality industry, either as a tour guide or at a hotel. But the tourist industry in San Miguel isn’t booming, and hotels are as scarce as her opportunities. For nine years, Beatriz searched for fulltime employment, all the while wondering if her prospects would be better in the U.S.

The cocoa diploma program offered her another route. Being a city girl, she didn’t focus on growing cocoa. In the weeks before Christmas, while shopping for presents, she got an idea: she’d fashion chocolate bon bons that people could give as gifts. An instructor at the diploma program saw her enthusiasm and lent her some molds.

Soon, she was running her own business, Le Chocolat. “I was a little hesitant at first because I didn’t know how good of a business it would be,” she says. “But everyone was telling me how delicious they were and kept buying more and more.”

Beatriz is putting her profits back into the business, buying more materials and molds she will use to create custom chocolate for special events, like birthdays or baby showers. She dreams of one day owning her own shop. She’s already toying with a slogan: El sabor hecho arte, the taste made art.

“I can say the diploma has been a great help for the youth. This has opened up a lot of possibilities for us young people,” she says. “This diploma changed my life.”

The post Meet the next generation of cocoa producers — and entrepreneurs — in El Salvador appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Amid the quickly-constructed mud hut-style houses assembled on 30 by 30 meter plots, there is an unexpected and extraordinary scene at the Palabek refugee settlement in northern Uganda: thriving household gardens. And, now, a street market.

More than 2.5 million people from South Sudan have fled from their homes in search of safe haven from war, violence and widespread food shortages. And nearly half have found refuge in neighboring Uganda. The Palabek settlement opened in December 2017 and is now home to more than 37,000 refugees.

Funded entirely by your generosity, families in Palabek started planting gardens earlier this year. You provided seeds, tools and the training to cultivate the dry land.

The harvests have been abundant. Refugee farmers are growing enough to both feed their families and to sell for income.

The vibrant market is a sign of the program’s success. Laid out on blankets in neat rows are all sorts of vegetables: beans, cow peas, orange sweet potatoes and okra.

And the project potential is growing unexpectedly. With high demand for okra both nationally and internationally, farmer groups are forming among the refugees and local farmers to focus on okra production. The local government has asked Lutheran World Relief to further support farmers to produce the vegetable and a Turkish company has already expressed interest in buying up to 500 metric tons of okra.

Give refugees a new start

This work is made possible by your gifts. Give today to reach out to even more vulnerable families around the world.

Donate today

Go deeper

Our staff recently visited Palabek and created a beautiful, visual story to take you deeper into this work you make possible. Be sure to check it out!

Go to visual story

The post In Uganda, an unexpected scene at a South Sudanese refugee settlement appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

But did you know that through your support of Lutheran World Relief you have, in fact, been helping Syrian refugees since 2011?

It’s true. Here’s how.

A humanitarian crisis

As conflict rages on, there are more than six million people displaced within Syria, and five million Syrians are refugees, with many living in parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and North Africa.  [source]

Like most displaced populations, these millions of people lack power, water and basic supplies, like hygiene materials. Their living environment — for both now and the future — is not secure.

Lutheran World Relief has been working with partners to reach out to families with Quilts and Kits. Since October 2011, you’ve helped send almost $7.5 million  worth of Quilts and Kits to Armenia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Serbia, to be distributed to Syrian refugees and locally affected communities.

These distributions were made possible by the generosity of men, women, and children across the U.S. who spend countless hours collecting, assembling, packing and shipping LWR Quilts and Kits — and the people who support Lutheran World Relief through monetary gifts that help those gifts of love get into the hands of people who need them.

Your help does a world of good

With your help, we continue to monitor the situation of Syrian refugees, and it is with your continued support that we can keep responding quickly and efficiently to emerging needs.

If you’d like to help, here are four things you can do:

1. Continue to pray for the people of Syria,the governments of the nations of the world, and for the humanitarian organizations and workers reaching out to those affected.
2. Make LWR Quilts and Kits. If your congregation would like to start an LWR Quilt & Kit Ministry, here’s a great place to start.
3. Give to the LWR Quilt & Kit Shipping Fund. These gifts are crucial to getting these items into the hands of people who need them around the world.
4. Give to our World of Good global emergencies fund that allows us to quickly respond to emerging situations around the world.

As we continue to pray together for peace and resolution in Syria, thank you for your support of Lutheran World Relief. Your generosity and compassion transforms lives.

The post Did you know you’ve been helping Syrian refugees since 2011? appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Freewheels is one example of how Bill and his wife, Kathy Collins, have dedicated significant time, effort and resources to being good neighbors — in their own back yard and around the world.

An Unmet Need

Bill started Freewheels in 2015. A friend asked if he’d donate a bicycle to be given away at a World Refugee Day event in the community. The winner was an excited 12-year-old refugee girl.

Afterwards, the same friend told Bill how important bikes were to the resettled community. The U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program requires refugees to find work almost immediately. Most arrive having spent years in camps and with few or no resources.

“Their choices when they find work or need to go to English language classes…are to walk or take a bus or convince a friend to give them a ride. If they have a bicycle, that makes life a lot easier,” Bill explains.

In 2015, the U.S. admitted nearly 70,000 refugees, according to the Refugee Processing Center. At the time, Houston was a top resettlement spot. It was clear to Bill that there was a great need for donated bicycles.

He spoke to his church, Christ the King Lutheran, and asked if anyone would be willing to donate bikes. Since then, Freewheels has given away about 350 bikes. When Bill and Kathy launched Freewheels in their garage, students from the student-run bike repair shop at Rice University helped with repairs. The operation quickly outgrew Bill and Kathy’s garage and is now housed in a 2,300-square-foot warehouse. More than 160 volunteers from across the community — including middle and high school students — have helped to keep the shop running.

And in June 2018, Bill enlisted the help of teens attending the ELCA Youth Gathering to help train middle school-age refugees on bike safety and operation.

Boundless rewards

If the success of Freewheels taught Bill anything, it’s that Houstonians have a desire and willingness to help their neighbors in need, and that refugees have much in common with their new neighbors.

“[All people] want to be able to do right by their families, and that’s true [no matter where you were born],” he says.

For Bill, that is the link between his and Kathy’s support of Freewheels and their support of Lutheran World Relief. Both efforts count on people who want to help others create better lives for their families.

“To me, it’s part of the same thing. It’s helping people and turning other people on to how rewarding it is,” he says. “We want Lutheran World Relief to be really successful and we want to help spread the word about it.”

Bill’s support of Lutheran World Relief began in 2013 – two years before he founded Freewheels — when Bill traveled to Tanzania, where he met farmers learning how to grow more rice and earn more money to feed and support their families.

Bill remembers how Lutheran World Relief helped the community rebuild their irrigation system and helped farmers get better seeds and fertilizer. Lutheran World Relief also supported a local farmers’ cooperative in constructing a warehouse where farmers could store their rice, so they could sell in off season when demand — and prices — were higher.

It was a success. The majority of farmers saw their crop production increase from 14 to 22 bags of rice per acre. Sixty percent of families were eating three meals a day at project’s end, a marked improvement from pre-project days.

“I met a woman there who was the head of the household, and she was building a new house. We were in this house, and she was very proud of it,” Bill says. “She looked up at the roof and said, ‘This is the roof that Lutheran World Relief built.’ Lutheran World Relief didn’t actually build the roof, but the point was clear.”

In Lutheran World Relief, Bill and Kathy see an organization that partners with families on solutions that will help them improve their lives for the long term.

“Everything has another life,” he says of the bikes as he speaks to a group of Freewheels volunteers. “You gave people a way to expand their lives.”

The post For Houston couple, bicycles are a ministry of welcome for refugees appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

This week, LWR and our local partner distributed food and supplies to families affected by the floods, including rice, flour, cooking oil, water treatment detergent, mosquito nets and sanitary kits. LWR-Kenya staff reported, “This is the first time the households received food rations to last them a month. it was a happy moment for them.”

Lutheran World Relief is responding to the immediate needs of families now living in temporary camps in Tana River County, which currently hosts about 3,000 families. In collaboration with the Pastoralist Girls’ Initiative (PGI), a local non-governmental organization, Lutheran World Relief is providing food and emergency supplies, including water purification tablets and material to construct temporary shelter.

Your support does a world of good!

Your gifts to Lutheran World Relief allow us to respond emerging needs around the world. With your help, we’ve been working in Kenya since the 1980s, working to improve food security, livelihoods of communities, climate change adaptation and to respond to emergencies.

Consider giving a gift to our World of Good fund to continue responding to global emergencies as they arise.

The post Photo Friday: Distributing food and supplies to Kenya flood victims appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Rose is a farmer who depends on her land for survival. Deo is a young entrepreneur who runs a farm supply store in Rose’s village.

Three years ago, Rose’s life looked very different than it does today. Her grandchildren were usually out of school because there was no money to pay their school fees and the family usually ate one meal a day, consisting of only porridge and beans. That is, until she and Deo struck up a partnership.

Deo is one of 40 young farmers who received small business management training so they could run agriculture supply shops. They also received specialized instruction in coffee cultivation from a professional agronomist so they could provide technical guidance to help farmers improve crop production. Deo works with 300 farmers to help them improve their crops — including Rose.

And what they’ve been able to accomplish — and the improvements in Rose’s quality of life — have been nothing short of inspiring.

Take a moment to meet Rose and Deo. Check out this visual story we put together and see Rose’s farm, Deo’s store, and learn how your support made their mutual success story possible.

Learn more

The post In Uganda, empowering young entrepreneurs to support local farmers is a win-win appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Santosh’s home was one of the half million destroyed by the massive earthquake that shook Nepal that day, killing nearly 9,000 people and injuring nearly 22,000. Uninjured, he was desperate for news from his family. With the phone network down, it took more than nine hours for him to learn that his wife and son were also safe.

Thanks to your swift response to provide immediate aid and the promise of true recovery, Lutheran World Relief was soon in this remote rural community.

Two years later, meet the people and see the progress of the people whose lives were transformed by generosity by checking out our visual story on Exposure.

Read more

The post Three years after Nepal earthquake, families recover, rebuild appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

The region is already struggling under the weight of decades of fighting. Now a suspected chemical attack in the suburb of Douma has international tensions heightened even more.

Lutheran World Relief is working with partners on the ground to mount a response in Eastern Ghouta — a region largely cut off from humanitarian aid — to provide essential supplies to families, most of whom have little else to survive.

Our partners on the ground are currently assessing the situation, but we need to be ready to move quickly. Will you support this work with an emergency gift today?

DONATE NOW

We look forward to adding more details to this post as we know more about the situation unfolding, and the details of our response.

Thank you for reaching out to people in need around the world with Lutheran World Relief.

The post LWR responding to humanitarian crisis in Eastern Ghouta, Syria appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.

Today, Lutheran World Relief and its supporters throughout the United States are rejuvenating lives in the city once known as Nineveh – the one Jonah was sent to save almost three thousand years ago – one traumatized child and one surviving adult at a time.Days after Mosul’s liberation from the Islamic State group (IS) in July 2017, Lutheran World Relief began serving thousands of people scarred, scared and longing for lives free of risk and repression.

With the support of our donors, we are carrying out the city’s only psychosocial counseling and recovery support. We are one of only a few international NGOs working in an area where as many as 4,000 civilians perished, 900,000 fled, 30,000 IS militants were killed and more than 90 percent of houses and buildings are dust and debris. Our work has reached individuals, children and families. We’re helping people build hope, and helping people heal.

And it is all because of your generous support.

As thanks, we’ve put together a visual story that takes you to the frontline of this work. See the places where your gifts are making a difference — and the lives being transformed as a result.

Read the full story

The post Restoring hope in Mosul, Iraq appeared first on Lutheran World Relief.