World Renew Call to Action on Foreign Aid

Zechariah 7:9-10 says, “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’” These words guide us to show compassion and fairness in all our actions.

At World Renew, we believe in the power of partnership and shared responsibility to address the most pressing global challenges, whether we are working with our local partners, our faithful and generous constituents, or our institutional donors in the United States and Canada. As a faith-based charity committed to ending poverty and violence; improving food security, health, and nutrition; and promoting economic empowerment for the most vulnerable – we recognize the critical role that governments play in these efforts. In the United States, USAID has had a long history of partnering with faith-based organizations like us to address poverty and crisis. World Renew has programmed more than $13 million in U.S. government grants over the past 25 years. These partnerships leverage the unique strengths of faith-based organizations like World Renew, particularly our established trust and relationships within communities, to facilitate collaboration and bring about change.

We have seen firsthand the transformative power of change that occurs when we all work together. World Renew, in partnership with the Anglican Church in Kenya, recently implemented a three-year USAID project (Nov. 2021-Sept. 2024) that helped families increase their crop yields and reduced poverty among 3,000 farmer households (50% women) in Nakuru County. World Renew’s work is an example of how funding faith-based organizations results in wholesale transformative change for families and communities where more than 1,500 mothers were, for the first time, able to access nutritious foods to support them and their children. From these families, the 307 children who were under the age of five received access to a full array of community health services to protect them from nutrition- and health-related diseases. When we work together in this way, we can achieve so much. This is only one small example of the transformative use of the $18 billion given to local and faith-based organizations by USAID in 2024.

We invite churches and individuals to join us in reaffirming their commitment to the call in Zechariah and through Scripture and to work together to show Christ’s compassion in the world. By answering this call in tangible ways, we can make significant strides toward

• ending violence and promoting peace in conflict-affected regions and areas with unstable governance.
• ensuring food security for all, particularly in regions affected by conflict and disaster.
• improving health for mothers and children and supporting families through access to essential health-care services and nutrition.
• promoting economic empowerment by providing financial services, skills training, and advocacy to create economic opportunities and promote self-sufficient households.

As it is written in Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” This call to action is a reminder of our shared responsibility to uphold justice, mercy, and humility in all our endeavors.

Together, with God’s Spirit in us, we can restore hope, reconcile lives, and renew creation.