GFA WORLD LAUNCHES MOO-VING CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN TO TACKLE POVERTY: A “moo-ving” Christmas campaign aims to lift pandemic-affected families in Asia and Africa out of extreme poverty with gifts of cows, goats, chickens and other farm animals. Texas-based humanitarian agency Gospel for Asia (GFA World) shows how people in America can change the lives of the world’s poorest families this Christmas in its latest special report, A Surprising Antidote to World Poverty: Farm Animals (http://www.gfa.org/press/animals).
In a new report, the global organization cites that an estimated 711 million people worldwide — more than double the entire population of the U.S. — now survive on $1.90 per day or less. That’s an alarming 8.5% increase since the pandemic began.
The organization’s latest special report, A Surprising Antidote to World Poverty: Farm Animals (http://www.gfa.org/press/animals), shows how people in America can change the lives of the world’s poorest families this Christmas — by donating a cow, goat, lamb, pig, or chickens.
Last Christmas, Gospel for Asia (GFA World) World supporters provided income-generating gifts for more than 260,000 needy families. To give a farm animal and other life-changing gifts this Christmas, people can go to GFA World’s online Christmas gift catalog at www.gfa.org/gift.
Extreme poverty, Yohannan said, leads to “unmitigated desperation” — families sifting through stinking garbage piles for scraps of food, children trapped in forced labor, and girls selling their bodies just to survive.
Farm animals provide not only a source of food, but also a reliable income as they reproduce. This, in turn, means families can afford to eat better, buy medicines, and even enroll their children in school.
“The result is that an entire community can be transformed through these simple Christmas gifts that show people the love of God in action,” Yohannan said. “These gifts can spark a permanent change in even the most desperate places on earth.”
About Gospel for Asia – now GFA World
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.
Learn more about how the simple gift of an income-generating animal can be the turning point for an impoverished family—one their family has likely been desiring for generations. Learn more about other solutions to poverty.
Last updated on: December 30, 2021 at 11:00 pm By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan, has been the model for numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, to help the poor and deprived worldwide – Discussing Salestia, a mother who struggled with her family against poverty, the blessing and confidence brought by GFA World Sewing Course and the gift of a sewing machine.
Tailoring classes like this one helped empower Salestia (not pictured) to provide for her family.
A skill cannot be properly utilized if the tools to use it are absent. So why did Salestia continue taking the tailoring course? She didn’t own a sewing machine; she and her husband could not afford one. What was the point of finishing the classes?
A Mother’s Fight for Her Family
Both Salestia and her husband, Shandon, worked as daily laborers in their rural village. Their earnings barely covered their living expenses and their four children’s school fees. On top of financial constraints, Shandon spent a good portion of their money on drinking excessively. Salestia appeared to be the only one who cared for her family’s future—not even Salestia’s close relatives offered any help.
One day, Salestia heard about a course where anyone could learn how to sew and provide for themselves. Organized by Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers, the free course was designed to help impoverished families better their circumstances by offering them teachable skills—like sewing. Salestia resolved to not let her family fall deeper into poverty, so she put her name down for the program.
Salestia joined several others in their shared journey of learning valuable tailoring skills. She absorbed each lesson and followed her teachers’ every action, stitching every thread just as they illustrated. As the months progressed and Salestia approached the course’s end, an anxious thought interrupted her joy of finally having the skills to better provide for her family: She had the knowledge, but she didn’t have a sewing machine.
A Surprise Gift
The funds for a sewing machine had continued to remain out of Salestia’s reach. She didn’t know how she would continue sewing without a machine. Were the classes all for nothing?
To her surprise, the Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers had anticipated this need. Upon her completion of the course, Salestia received her very own sewing machine! The workers made sure Salestia not only had the knowledge, but she also had tools to use that knowledge.
“I learned tailoring for free of cost,” Salestia said. “And now I got a new machine. … Now I have confidence to run my family.”
Because of the workers, Salestia could continue to send her children to school and feed and clothe them. With her new sewing machine, Salestia was fully equipped to earn money for her family.
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia World stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
Last updated on: November 10, 2021 at 6:30 pm By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, which inspired numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to assist the poor and deprived worldwide, issued this 1st part of a Special Report update on the extraordinary pressures and hardships of widows intensified by the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Gospel for Asia (GFA) Sisters of Compassion visit Asian widows regularly to talk, help and provide hope and prayer.While visiting a famished, poor widow living among huts in this slum area in Telangana, Gospel for Asia (GFA) provided a food packet consisting of mixed vegetables, rice and oil to sustain her, and ten others, during the pandemic. She said: “From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for providing these food supplies.”
As I conveyed in a previous Special Report, the plight of widows, whether in affluent or developing nations, can be a desperate struggle. In this update, I share how the coronavirus has compounded their hardships even further.
For women worldwide who have lost husbands during the COVID-19 pandemic, grief and pain are an overwhelming experience. But for many of these women, their sorrow has been multiplied to an unbearable level due to isolation, expulsion from family, loss of property rights, and other extraordinary pressures that are often overlooked.
In America, while pandemic fears started to ease as vaccine distribution ramped up in the spring of 2021, for widows who lost spouses during the past two years, the pain is only beginning. Many young widows forged support bonds through Facebook, Zoom or other electronic means even as lockdowns and social distancing practices prevented them from gathering in person. A recent NBC News investigation discovered the following:
Among the newly grieving spouses is Pamela Addison of Waldwick, New Jersey. She became a widow in April 2020 at age 36 after her husband was exposed to the virus while conducting swallow evaluations on speech pathology patients.
“All my friends had their husbands, they were healthy,” Addison told a reporter from NBC News. “I knew only me. I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, nobody else is going to understand what I’m going through—and that was a whole other part of my grief.”1
The Modern Widows Club provides various services for widows, including one that helps locate support groups in person or online for ongoing empathy. Photo by Modern Widows Club
After receiving inspiration from a sympathy card, Addison launched the Facebook support group Young Widows and Widowers of Covid-19. In its first two months, it surpassed 80 members from the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
Another member, Kristina Scorpo, 33, of Paterson, New Jersey, commented: “We didn’t plan to be widowed at 36 or 33. We didn’t plan to raise our kids without our partners that we saw our lives with and we saw a future with. It was like [people in the group] knew exactly what the other was going to say, because we had been through all the same things, and it’s a really great thing that life brought us together.”2
Some who have lost spouses find common identity in their ethnic background, like those who are part of Black Women Widows Empowered. It was launched by Sabra Robinson of Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2015 after she lost her husband to cancer in 2012. Last year, the more than 700 members included at least 20 who had lost spouses to COVID-19.
“I feel for all these ladies, black or white,” Robinson said. “There’s so many COVID widows now, and they don’t have to be COVID widows.”3
Nepal: Having lost her husband, Esther’s life is difficult, although she’s grateful to still have her land. She sows corn manually by hand to grow a life-sustaining crop for her family during the rainfed conditions from April to August.
Yet there is strength in their affinity, says member Erika Taylor-Ruffin of Apple Valley, California, who credits the group with “saving her life.”
“When you’re an African American widow, it’s like you still have to be strong,” Taylor-Ruffin said. “We can’t show weakness. This group allows us to be vulnerable and to show our pain without being judged. [There] is something about being around women who understand your pain.”4
While the grief and sorrow of COVID-19 widows is profound in developed countries like the United States, in developing countries of the world, the painful losses widows experience are amplified to an entirely different level.
“COVID-19 is a widow-maker,” Karol Boudreaux, chief program officer at the land rights charity Landesa, said in a webinar organized by the Land Portal online platform. “[The virus] exacerbates an already unequal situation for men and women.”
Boudreaux referred to a Tanzanian widow who was unable to stop the illegal sale of her property in another city due to limited land rights and COVID-19 travel restrictions as an example of this inequity.
It’s been a decade since the United Nations organized International Widows Day, which is observed annually on June 23. The UN says there are 258 million widows worldwide, with a ratio of nearly 1 in 10 living in extreme poverty.
On last year’s International Widows Day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said when countries build back from COVID-19, they must also work to dismantle laws that discriminate against women. He said the isolation and economic hardships brought on by the pandemic can further compromise widows’ ability to support themselves and their families and cut them off from social connections during their greatest time of grief.
“The death of a partner at any time can leave many women without rights to inheritance of property,” Guterres said. “In times of a pandemic, these losses are often multiplied for widows and accompanied by stigma and discrimination.”5
The UN also says that the actual number of widows is likely to grow much higher and expand further as the coronavirus and its related impact on health continues: “The pandemic has just worsened the situation during the past several months with a devastating human loss, and one that is likely leaving tens of thousands of women newly widowed at just the time they are cut off from their usual socio-economic and family supports.”6
Uttar Pradesh, India: When a husband is lost to COVID-19, for example, the remaining widow will often need to mobilize her remaining family to survive. This family, fortunate to have land, is planting an entire field completely by hand.
Widows Rights Routinely Violated During Pandemic
An article reported from Johannesburg, South Africa, on the same Tanzanian story referenced by Karol Boudreaux—written by Kim Harrisberg for the Thomson Reuters Foundation—said that women often only earn legal or socially recognized rights to land and property through a husband or father. These rights are regularly violated during times of disaster, whether that be a war, the HIV/AIDS crisis or the coronavirus.
She quoted Patricia Chaves, head of the women’s rights charity Espaco Feminista, as saying that in Brazil when a man dies, women are approached at the funeral about selling their land.
Kenya: Because polygamy is practiced widely, when a husband dies from COVID-19, he often leaves behind several wives with multiple children. These vulnerable women are frequently preyed upon. The Widow’s Might program of Kenya Hope supports these women by providing them with food assistance each month, giving them five goats in the first year to start their own self sustaining herd, and by training them with marketable skills, all in God’s love. Photo by Kenya Hope, Widow’s Might Program
Chaves said that poor women have been particularly vulnerable during the pandemic because they are forced to put themselves at risk to feed their families while isolating in poor housing conditions.
In Kenya, there are reports that widows were forced out of their homes by their in-laws during quarantine because they were seen as an extra burden and not really part of the family, said Victoria Stanley, a World Bank land specialist.
“Widows depend on their (deceased) husbands for their property rights. There may be pressure from families to return properties or they may be forced into marriages with other family members. This could be devastating if we aren’t paying attention,” said Stanley, who called for a moratorium on evictions to protect women’s rights during the pandemic.7
Of course, when it comes to suffering, widows have experienced this long before last year’s lockdowns.
Afghanistan: A widow begs for food on a busy road in Kabul; the two loaves of bread she has are the entire dinner for her family of eight. According to Sharia teachings, widows only get an eighth of the inheritance from their spouse’s death if the husband has children (if not, then one quarter). The rest is distributed amongst other family members. Photo by Lacuna Magazine, Widowhood in Afghanistan
One example is in Afghanistan, home to “the hill of widows.” The term refers to women who eke out independence in a society that shuns them and condemns them as immoral. The first residents settled on a stony slope outside Kabul in the 1990s, hoping to escape the stigma attached to women who have lost their spouse.
The war-torn nation was home to approximately 2.5 million widows in 2017. Often uneducated and shuttered away at home, the women have few options when their husband dies. According to a report by a French news agency, “At best, they receive $150 a year from the government if their husband was killed in fighting. They survive by doing household chores, a little sewing, or by sending their children to beg in the bazaar.
“Women are perceived as being owned by their father before becoming their husband’s property. Widows are often rejected as immoral or regarded as burdens: they suffer violence, expulsion, ostracism and sometimes forced remarriage, often with a brother-in-law, as reported by the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in a rare study published in 2014.”8
Nigeria: Deborah’s husband was shot and killed in raids by Muslim extremists. After her husband’s death, her in-laws wanted her to leave her home so they could profit from it. They consistently abused her and pressured her to leave. Soon, she gave in, left her home and rented a house. She was hopeless, alone, and filled with grief. And ready to give up on life, until she received help to survive from an Open Doors trauma center. Photo by Open Doors USA
Similar difficulties face widows in Nigeria. In one state in the geopolitical region of South East Nigeria, legislators enacted laws in 2001 prohibiting widows from being compelled to do such things as shave their heads, be locked in the room with their husband’s corpse, or be compelled to remarry a relative of her late husband’s. Yet nearly two decades later, some of these practices were being kept alive through sociocultural norms, said an early 2020 report by a group of health researchers.
“There are often frictions between cultural practices and state policies/laws, as well as human rights, which obstruct policy implementation,” they wrote. “The lack of resources in low-resource regions adds to the difficulty in enforcing laws and policies, especially in rural areas, giving room for abhorrent cultural practices to thrive. These conditions prolong and intensify the traumatic experiences of widows.”9
If this special report has touched your heart and you would like to do something today about the plight of widows around the world, please share this article with your friends and consider making a generous gift to GFA World to help widows in South Asia and other locations.
GFA World (Gospel for Asia) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan, whose heart to love and help the poor has inspired numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, to serve the deprived and downcast worldwide – Discussing Kassia who grew up illiterate which brought the compounded cost of extreme poverty throughout her adult life, and the GFA World Sisters of Compassion bringing a double blessing through a Literacy Class.
Kassia delights in her growing ability to read and write and is grateful for her renewed health.
Kassia’s mother passed away when she was young, setting off a series of consequences in the young girl’s life. Beyond dealing with the grief of losing her mother, Kassia was forced to give up her education to become “mother” to her younger siblings. She grew up illiterate, and when she married, had children and needed to care for her own family, Kassia worked the only jobs afforded to an illiterate woman: miscellaneous agriculture jobs.
Then, when Kassia was 45 years old, her health began to decline. For six months, she experienced swelling in her body and constantly felt weak and lightheaded. Her condition left her unable to serve her family as she had since she was young.
The family spent time and money seeking advice from a variety of doctors, who eventually diagnosed Kassia with low hemoglobin. Kassia’s family purchased the prescribed treatments in hopes they would restore the ailing woman to health. However, none of the solutions worked as intended, and Kassia continued to suffer.
In her pained state, Kassia’s worries were compounded by her family’s financial woes. She was all too aware the family was spending money they didn’t have in search of a solution to her health condition, and she was unable to add to the family’s income.
Invitation to Learn
It was during this difficult time, as Kassia struggled to complete daily tasks, that she met four GFA Sisters of Compassion. Sister Morela and her companions listened to Kassia’s predicament, and they recognized one need they could surely meet: The Sisters offered literacy classes in the village and invited Kassia to attend.
Kassia was delighted with the prospect of finally learning to read and write. It was a small joy in the middle of a despairing situation. She didn’t know it yet, but it would lead to a blessing she had been looking for.
Unexpected Blessing
In a literary class like this one, Kassia eagerly absorbs each lesson, growing quickly in her ability to read and write.
Not long after Kassia began attending the class, the Sisters invited her to a Sunday worship service. Kassia had noticed that each literacy class opened with prayer and decided to see what occurred during a worship service. Just as in her literacy class, Kassia absorbed the lessons she learned during the service. As she continued to learn about Jesus and His power, she discovered she could put her trust in Him for her physical healing—and she did.
The Lord honored Kassia’s faith and healed her body completely from the weakening effects of low hemoglobin.
The family’s matriarch no longer suffered from the debilitating illness that limited her ability to care for her family. With renewed strength, Kassia joyfully resumed her daily work in taking care of her family.
“I am very thankful to the Lord for healing me completely,” Kassia said. “I trust in Him … as the Savior of my life.”
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia World stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
Learn more about the Sisters of Compassion – those who are specially trained woman missionary with a deep burden for showing Christ’s love by physically serving the needy, underprivileged and poor.
Last updated on: December 8, 2022 at 1:42 pm By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by KP Yohannan, issued this Special Report on the horrific realities girls face, child marriage, human trafficking, abuse & exploitation, and the restoration & redemption that God brings to their lives.
A recognition of girls’ inherent value will advance education for girls. Education helps girls learn basic skills like reading and writing, which are necessary to complete everyday tasks and conduct business in society. Education helps girls develop talents and interests. Education helps girls pursue the careers or paths that are right for them instead of being completely dependent on a husband. Ultimately, education helps girls unlock the freedom and knowledge to realize their potential.
“I woke up 10 days later in a hospital in Birmingham, England,” Malala remembers. “The doctors and nurses told me about the attack—and that people around the world were praying for my recovery.”
After her remarkable recovery, Malala became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Now 23, she continues to advocate for girls worldwide: She and her father founded the Malala Fund to advance the mission of 12 years of free, safe, quality education for girls.
“Girls who complete secondary school become healthier, more prosperous adults,” writes the Malala Fund. “Girls who receive a secondary education are more able and likely to contribute fully in their families, communities and societies, as earners, informed mothers, and agents of change.”
As child sponsorship programs remove a financial burden from the family, they make it more likely for parents to keep their other children in school, even if only one child can join the sponsorship program. This changes the situation for families that would be tempted to keep their daughters at home, send them to work as child laborers or marry them off at a young age.
Girls who once would have only looked forward to marrying young or doing menial labor jobs now dream of being teachers, police officers, nurses or engineers. They have a much greater chance of achieving higher education.
Salena, a Bridge of Hope graduate, came from a poor background and watched her two older brothers labor in a hazardous factory. Until Bridge of Hope opened in her community, she didn’t have much to look forward to, as her parents struggled just to put food on the table for their six kids. But Bridge of Hope allowed Salena to excel in and complete her education.
“If I had not joined Bridge of Hope, I would have been looking after cows of a landlord, or I would have gotten married and gone to my in-laws’ home, because my parents had no money to send me to school,” Salena says.
“I clearly remember many nights we went to bed without food. … But then the Bridge of Hope project became … an agent of change and a stream of blessing in my life. Joy and peace came into my life as well as in my home. I was given all my needs from BOH like other children in the [program]. I discovered my hidden talents, abilities and life’s purpose.”
This English medium school in Nepal (left) is meeting a desperate need for education, health, nutrition, moral and spiritual values in the lives of young girls and boys. In Nepal that is a huge advantage resulting in open doors and respectability in the community. Vanshika (right) in Uttar Pradesh knows that she is loved, and she has hope for her future, because this family in the photo chose to sponsor her monthly.
UNICEF estimates that 45 percent of women in South Asia aged 20–24 were married before the age of 18. A fifth were married before the age of 15. Krupa was unknowingly set to be married at 13 but her desperation phone call for help brought a last minute intervention before the marriage ceremony could occur.
At age 13, Krupa, a Bridge of Hope student, came home one afternoon to find a crowd of people at her house. Bewildered, she asked her mother what was happening, but she only told Krupa to follow instructions. As Krupa’s neighbor started telling her to do things, Krupa realized she was being roped into a pre-wedding ceremony. Her parents were marrying her off.
Thankfully, Krupa had learned at Bridge of Hope about the dangers of child marriage, and she had promised herself she would never marry before age 18. She wanted to attend university and become a teacher.
Desperate to stop the impending wedding, Krupa borrowed a cell phone and secretly called Bridge of Hope staff members.
“Within just half an hour, they arrived at our house like angels,” Krupa recalls. “They came directly to me without looking at anyone. All I could say to them was, ‘I am only 13. What would you do if I was your child?’ They needed nothing more to hear and understand the whole situation.”
The Bridge of Hope staff talked to Krupa’s parents and explained the laws against child marriage. Krupa’s father promised not to arrange her marriage before she turned 18.
“I thank the Bridge of Hope staff for saving me from becoming prey to the trap of child marriage,” Krupa says. “My friends and school teachers admire me for my courage, but I am just glad to be an inspiration for many young girls.”
One of the daughters in this family in Maharashtra goes to a local Bridge of Hope center where she receives a daily meal, ongoing education and regular medical care under kind and loving teachers! GFA’s Bridge of Hope serves more than 70,000 at-risk girls and boys all across South Asia.
Bringing Freedom, Justice and Restoration to Victims of Child Labor, Trafficking, Child Marriage
International Justice Mission (IJM) is one of the largest organizations working to free, defend and restore victims of trafficking. IJM and other organizations often work to track brothels where girls under age 18 are being forced to work. They work with law enforcement to remove girls from the brothels, see that perpetrators are appropriately prosecuted and help survivors to receive aftercare.
IJM recently released a report highlighting the nature and scale of online sexual exploitation (OSEC) of children – typically younger Filipina women – in the Philippines. This study was led by IJM, in partnership with the Philippine Government and a variety of governmental stakeholders in the US and abroad. Photo by IJM.org
Earlier this year, IJM worked with police from two states in India to disrupt a cross-country sex trafficking ring. Police in one region noticed girls were being trafficked to a city on the other side of India. IJM supported the police in both states as they located a brothel where many of these girls were being held. Manisha, who had been rescued from the same brothel when she was a minor in 2018, played an instrumental role, sharing information that helped direct police to the brothel. On February 22, the teamwork of IJM, the police and Manisha led to the arrest of four suspected traffickers and the rescue of two girls who had been imprisoned in the brothel.
Rani Hong, the creator of the Freedom Seal initiative, fights against trafficking as someone who has survived it. Rani was trafficked when she was only 7 years old, forced to work 12 hours a day in a brick factory and kept in a cage at night. After she became physically unable to work, she was trafficked in an illegal adoption scheme.
As a survivor of child slavery, Rani Hong knows firsthand the desperation and hopelessness experienced everyday by those who aren’t free. That’s why she dedicated her life to be a voice for the voiceless, to prevent slavery and liberate humanity one child at a time. Photo by Rani Hong, Facebook
Rani ended up in a loving home in the United States, grew up, got married, had children and eventually reconnected with her mother and siblings in India.
But Rani didn’t forget her childhood experience; she began working to prevent other children from facing the same fate. She spoke before the Washington State legislature to pass a law criminalizing human traffickers. She became a UN special adviser on the Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, and she created the Freedom Seal label, mentioned above, to promote businesses free from child labor and trafficking.
Ashmita, the girl forced to work as a domestic servant, also found freedom from child labor. After government authorities learned of her situation, they placed her in a home for girls run by Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers. There, Ashmita received care and encouragement from Sisters of Compassion and other Gospel for Asia (GFA) missionaries. She got to attend school. She played and made friends with the other girls at the home, who became like sisters to her.
“I like this place so much; I like all these didis [older sisters]. They work hard for me and for all of us,” Ashmita shared. “I like this place, and I don’t [want] to leave this place and go to any other place or orphanage because of the love and care that we get here.”
Now, as Ashmita flourishes in a stable home where she is receiving education and care, she can dream about the future.
After the local government learned of Ashmita’s situation, they placed her in a loving home for girls, where she received constant care and encouragement, got to attend school, play and make friends with the other girls at the home, who became like sisters to her.
Writing New Chapters
In Jane Eyre, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables and most other popular coming-of-age stories about girls, the heroine gets a satisfying ending—the ending the characters and the readers both long for. Jane Eyre, Jo March and Anne Shirley find contentment accomplishing their dreams and living in safe homes with the people they love.
Real life doesn’t always bring neat, happy resolution, but it does bring the same element of hope found in those fictional stories—in an even more powerful way. In the true stories of girls such as Ruth, Ridhima and Ashmita, redemption is dawning over years of devastation and pain. As God brings restoration to their lives, they are helping many more girls to overcome the antagonists of abuse, discrimination and exploitation and to embrace their identities as daughters of the King of kings.
Ruth understands the power of this transformation as she continues to help more girls, women and communities by training younger women to minister Christ’s love to people in need.
“Let many sisters come up,” she says, “and then we will make a new history for the world and for Christ.”
Be Part of Writing a New Story
You can help write a new story for girls around the world. There are several ways you can give girls the chance to know their value in God’s eyes and to embrace the future with confidence and strength. Here are just a few:
Sponsor a girl through a child sponsorship program
Many organizations, including GFA’s Bridge of Hope Program, Compassion International and World Vision, are working to provide children with education, nutritious food and opportunities in the name of Christ. By sponsoring a girl, you can help give her education in a nurturing environment, unlocking the door for her to overcome poverty and setbacks. Even if you choose to sponsor a boy, you will still be helping these organizations advance their mission of educating both boys and girls, and you will most likely be giving this boy the opportunity to learn respect for girls and women.
Because of their vulnerable position in society, girls need advocates. They need adults to educate others about the importance of defending a girl’s life, dignity, health and education from many dangers. They need adults to fight for them when they face abuse, trafficking or forced marriage. They need adults to remove corruption from business supply chains and eliminate child labor from the marketplace. To promote awareness, justice and accountability, you can partner with organizations such as International Justice Mission to provide legal help and aftercare to girls who have been subjected to trafficking, sexual abuse or child labor. You can use information from Freedom Seal and other accountability initiatives to ensure that you are only supporting businesses that prevent girls from being exploited in child labor.
Partner with women missionaries
Women missionaries can effectively minister to girls’ and women’s emotional and spiritual needs. By supporting women missionaries like Ruth through prayer and finances, you can share hope with girls who need to know there is a God who loves and values them.
Sometimes the most effective way to help others is to seek God’s mercy and intervention. One individual can’t remove abuse or corruption from social structures, but when one individual joins with other individuals to intercede for girls who are neglected and abused, crying out for God’s justice, the Lord transforms hearts and lives—the first step toward social transformation.
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia, especially to those who have yet to hear about the love of God. In GFA’s latest yearly report, this included more than 70,000 sponsored children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.
Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report: Rewriting the Tragedies of Girlhood — Opening Doors for Girls Deprived of Opportunities —Part 1, Part 2
Learn more by reading these Special Reports from Gospel for Asia:
Last updated on: September 15, 2022 at 5:06 am By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by KP Yohannan, issued this Special Report on the horrific realities girls face, child marriage, human trafficking, abuse & exploitation, and the restoration & redemption that God brings to their lives.
Admira is one of the millions of girls in Mozambique who became victims of child marriage – a reality which often forces girls to drop out of school and begin families long before they are physically or psychologically ready. Nearly 50% of all girls are married before age 18 in Mozambique which ranks it 7th on the list of countries with the highest child marriage victims. Photo and Story by Plan International
In her article for TheNew York Times, Hannah Beech shares the stories of Nyo and Phyu, two teenagers from Myanmar who were trafficked to China at age 16. A neighbor promised to find them waitressing jobs, but after 10 days of traveling, the girls realized that was not their fate. They tried to run away twice, but they were caught and locked in a room.
“The girls were split up, each paired with a supposed husband, although no marriage paperwork was ever filled out, to their knowledge,” writes Beech.
After going home with their new “husbands,” both girls were locked in rooms. Nyo was often beaten and raped by her “husband.” Phyu’s “husband” repeatedly injected drugs into her arm before forcing her to have sex. Eventually, Phyu and Nyo both gained access to the internet. This allowed police to track the girls down, prosecute the traffickers and “husbands,” and send the girls back to Myanmar.
But the traumatic experience left both girls with painful life circumstances.
Nyo ended up giving birth in Myanmar to a daughter by her Chinese “husband.” Phyu suffered physical and psychological damage from the abuse she experienced.
“Before this happened, Phyu was so happy and active,” Phyu’s mother told Beech. “But they gave her something to make her forget and trigger her sexuality. They beat her. She doesn’t know she is ruined.”
Trafficked
Bride and child marriage trafficking makes up only a small percentage of the trafficking of girls, a trade that has grown rapidly in recent decades.
of trafficked girls are used for sexual exploitation.
21%
of trafficked girls are used for forced labor.
7%
are used for other purposes (such as forced child marriage, exploitative begging or coerced criminal activities).
Girls make up a rising percentage of the total detected number of trafficking victims:
10%
of total victims in 2004 are comprised of girls.
23%
of total victims in 2016 are comprised of girls.
After the death of her father, Ashmita was sent to live with a family as a servant, at the age of 10. This life of servitude became a living nightmare for her.
When many think of trafficking, they imagine a woman or teenage girl being forced to work in a brothel. While this does make up a large percentage of cases, the trafficking of girls can take a variety of forms. For some, like Ashmita, it means working as a domestic servant.
After Ashmita’s father died, she and her mother moved into someone’s home to earn a living doing housework. Later, Ashmita’s mother sent her to work in another family’s home. Ashmita, who wasn’t yet 10 years old, was forced to wash dishes and clothes, mop floors and massage the legs of her employer. When Ashmita grew physically tired from the labor the house owners demanded, she was beaten and slapped. One time, the woman of the house put chili powder in Ashmita’s eyes.
For other girls, human trafficking means forced labor in the internet pornography industry, massage parlors that function as fronts for sexual exploitation, or “beggar mafia” networks. Whatever the form of trafficking, it leaves a deep, long-lasting mark on a girl’s psychology.
“Trafficking victims often find it difficult to overcome the traumatic reality of their exploitation and share details with law enforcement authorities that could aid in prosecuting their traffickers,” states the U.S. Department of State.
Traumatized and Exploited: Child Marriage, Human Trafficking
Girls in areas of political instability, conflict or oppression become especially vulnerable to forced child marriage and human trafficking.
“Trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation occurs within all conflict areas considered, including sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, South-East Asia and others,” reports the UN. “In some refugee camps in the Middle East, for example, it has been documented that girls and young women have been ‘married off’ without their consent and subjected to sexual exploitation in neighbouring countries. Abduction of women and girls for sexual slavery has been reported in many conflicts in Central and West Africa, as well as in the conflicts in the Middle East. It has also been reported that women and girls are trafficked for forced [child marriage] in the same areas.”
Reports of such conflict-related trafficking occasionally make international news. The world waited for the return of more than 200 girls kidnapped in 2014 by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria. News outlets recounted how the Islamic State group forced Yazidi and Christian girls into sexual slavery. In some regions, however, political instability has made the trafficking of girls an everyday reality often overlooked by the rest of the world.
Girls in areas of political instability, conflict or oppression become especially vulnerable to forced child marriage and human trafficking.
North Korean girls attempting to flee government oppression may face the greatest risk for exploitation. In China, the only country they can directly cross into, they must try to be invisible. If they are caught, China’s government will send them back to North Korea, where they will likely face prison time for illegally exiting their homeland (which may involve starvation, sexual abuse or physical torture). As a result, North Korean women and girls easily become prey for traffickers.
According to a report from the Korea Future Initiative, the vast majority of North Korean trafficking victims are girls or women aged between 12 and 29, and many became ensnared in sexual slavery less than a year after fleeing North Korea.
Most of these girls and women end up in prostitution in brothels near the China/North Korea border, while others become entrapped in the growing cybersex trade.
“Girls aged as young as 9 are forced to perform graphic sex acts and are sexually assaulted in front of webcams which are live-streamed to a paying global audience,” explains the Korea Future Initiative.
Many advocates for the girl child were themselves once girls whose stories were defined by tragedy and abuse. Yet these women have risen above those obstacles, and are helping girls and women from across the world find similar freedom, like these from Rajasthan, China, West Bengal, North Korea, and Manipur. 4th Photo by Atlas of Beauty
Confronting Conflict
In every story, there is conflict that disrupts the protagonist’s life. And in the stories of many girls’ lives, antagonists like exploitation, abuse trafficking, forced child marriage or discrimination have brought so much conflict and destruction they have nearly destroyed hope. Without intervention, many girls will never have the chance for an education or a career. They may suffer from lasting health problems due to teenage pregnancy, forced prostitution, rape or physical abuse. They may live the rest of their lives believing they shouldn’t expect anything better.
There is, however, a God who created each girl and each woman. He hears the cry of the powerless and the needy and comes to their aid, and He gives them strength to overcome trauma and oppression. There are also many people working to combat trafficking, promote education and teach the value of girls. Many of these advocates were themselves once girls whose stories were defined by tragedy and abuse. Yet these women have risen above those obstacles, and they are helping other girls and women find similar freedom.
Changing Attitudes
These women’s missionaries with Gospel for Asia (GFA World) are going from house to house to share a piece of literature, an encouraging word, a smile, or pray with someone who is willing to listen—these are small things that can really impact a woman in Asia and lift up her spirits.
Ruth’s story shifted from tragedy to hope after she met some Christian women serving in her community. They befriended the teenager, encouraged her and invited her to church. There, Ruth heard a Gospel for Asia (GFA) pastor share about the love of Christ—a love that was overwhelming to a girl whose own parents didn’t value her. Ruth decided to follow this God who actually loved her.
Later she moved to another city to receive training from the church about how to help other hurting people just like herself. Before she left, she went to seek her father’s blessing, which in her culture is requested by bending down and touching an elder’s feet. Instead of blessing her, her father kicked her in the face.
During her time in Bible college, Ruth grew closer to Christ. Around the time she graduated, her pastor from her village told her she needed to come back home. Ruth’s father had changed, he said.
When Ruth got off the bus in her village, her father was waiting for her, and something happened that had never occurred before: He hugged her.
What had caused such a dramatic change in his attitude?
He had become a follower of Jesus, like his daughter. After God transformed his life, Ruth’s father began to value and support Ruth, knowing she was a gift from the Lord and not a burden.
Lasting global change in the treatment of girls starts when people recognize the value of each girl as a human being created by God. Those who recognize this will protect girls’ lives and challenge attitudes demeaning girls as less valuable than boys.
Lasting global change in the treatment of girls starts when people recognize the value of each girl as a human being created by God. Those who recognize this will protect girls’ lives and challenge attitudes demeaning girls.
In South Asia, where rates of gender-biased abortion are still high—despite it being illegal—Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers have the opportunity to show through their example and counsel that girls have dignity and value as image-bearers of God. These men and women are able to bring change not only to girls’ lives but also to entire families and communities. As the mindsets of parents and community members change, girls live in a safer, more supportive environment.
One day, GFA pastor Kanish heard some concerning news from Rajika, a woman who attended his church along with her four daughters. Rajika’s husband, Sushil, had already been addicted to drugs. Then, after Rajika gave birth to their fourth daughter, neighbors began to mock Sushil for having no sons and only daughters. The disappointment and humiliation pushed Sushil further into a pit of depression and substance abuse. He began abusing his wife and children.
As Gospel for Asia (GFA) missionaries throughout South Asia, like Pastor Kanish, encourage parents to treasure their daughters, they help fathers like Sushil to reject negative views of their daughters and count them as blessings instead.
Thankfully, Pastor Kanish was equipped to talk to Sushil: The pastor himself had three daughters and no sons. Unlike Sushil, Pastor Kanish cherished his daughters. When he visited Rajika and Sushil’s home, he challenged Sushil’s attitude toward his daughters. He explained to Sushil that his daughters were blessings from God, not burdens.
Through the pastor’s encouragement, Sushil decided to depend on Jesus instead of alcohol and drugs. He began to pray regularly, and he welcomed others to his home for prayer meetings. As Sushil’s mindset and lifestyle were transformed, he overcame his addictions and started loving his wife and children instead of abusing them. He thanked God for restoring his life.
As God transforms the attitudes of people like Ruth’s father and Sushil, a broad impact sweeps through entire families and communities. When just one person chooses to value and support his or her daughter, this changes not only her life but also the lives she will impact one day. Moreover, this support shows others an example of a healthy family dynamic.
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia, especially to those who have yet to hear about the love of God. In GFA’s latest yearly report, this included more than 70,000 sponsored children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.
Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report: Rewriting the Tragedies of Girlhood — Opening Doors for Girls Deprived of Opportunities —Part 1, Part 3
Learn more by reading these Special Reports from Gospel for Asia:
Last updated on: December 8, 2022 at 2:30 pm By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by KP Yohannan, issued this Special Report on the horrific realities girls face, child marriage, human trafficking, abuse & exploitation, and the restoration & redemption that God brings to their lives.
Nearly 173 years ago, on October 16, 1847, a book authored by “Currer Bell” rolled off the presses and quickly provoked a combination of praise, revulsion and gossip.
“It is a very remarkable book,” wrote a reviewer named Elizabeth Rigby. “We have no other remembrance of one combining such genuine power with such horrid taste.”
Many literary critics today still consider Bell’s novel, Jane Eyre, remarkable, but perhaps not for the same reasons Rigby did. For one thing, Jane Eyre opens with a girl at the center of its action. And this girl is a dynamic and well-rounded protagonist with a depth, voice and independent spirit that were groundbreaking for the time.
As grown-up Jane narrates her story, readers journey with young Jane through girlhood. They feel what she feels as she experiences the sting of abuse, the devastation of loss, the joy of friendship and the empowerment of education. They watch how these experiences shape Jane into a young woman who faces messy adult situations with resolve and integrity.
Jane Eyre stands as one of the earliest and most prominent examples of a coming-of-age story with a female protagonist, and it is still considered by some to be one of the greatest novels ever written. Much of the strength of this story derives from the strength of its female title character, a character created by an author who had experienced girlhood herself. (“Currer Bell” was in fact a woman named Charlotte Brontё.) This novel preceded countless other popular woman-authored novels and series describing a girl’s journey to womanhood: Little Women; Anne of Green Gables; Little House on the Prairie; To Kill a Mockingbird and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, to name a few. These stories have captivated audiences spanning generations and nationalities.
In many developing parts of the world, girls struggle to survive. They face abuse, neglect, discrimination, trafficking and child marriage, even in the most economically stable and educated nations.
Perhaps these stories still speak to audiences today in part because they remind readers of what it means to be a girl. A girl can be imaginative and creative. A girl can overcome loss, abuse, neglect or public humiliation. A girl can learn to forgive. A girl can develop skills and abilities. A girl can think and analyze. A girl has the potential to grow into a strong woman.
A girl is a human being created in the image of God, and He is writing a nonfiction story in each girl’s life. Too often, however, girls’ dignity is robbed by other humans who do not recognize their value as human beings and God’s image-bearers. Too often, girls are treated as burdens, as sexual objects or as machines purposed solely for physical labor and child-bearing. Yet as girls learn of their value in the eyes of their Creator—and as they gain access to education, justice and financial stability—they are once again able to live as the protagonists in their own stories.
In developed areas, most girls enjoy relative stability. They go to school, eat nutritious food, enjoy hobbies, play sports and hang out with friends. But in many developing parts of the world, girls struggle to survive. Though girls in different regions may face different challenges, girls throughout the world face abuse, neglect, discrimination, trafficking and child marriage, even in the most economically stable and educated nations.
Society’s abasement of girls yields tragic consequences. For Ruth, it led to a entire childhood marked by abuse just because she was born female. For thousands of other girls, it robs them of experiencing any life at all.
The story of Ruth, a Gospel for Asia (GFA) missionary, illustrates the first and biggest threat to girls’ lives. Throughout her childhood, Ruth was treated cruelly by her parents. They made her work long hours in their fields, they didn’t feed her enough and they rarely provided her with new clothes. One day Ruth finally got the courage to ask her parents why they mistreated her.
“You should have been a boy!” shouted her father.
Ruth had three older sisters, and her parents desperately wanted a son. They even sold a field to give an offering to a priest of their traditional religion so he would intercede for them to have a son. When Ruth, a fourth girl, was born instead, her father was furious—and he unleashed that resentment on Ruth throughout her growing-up years.
Society’s abasement of girls yields tragic consequences. For Ruth, it led to a childhood marked by abuse. For thousands of other girls, it robs them of experiencing life at all: Girls face their first threat in the womb.
Some societies view girls as a liability and a financial burden, so many families decide they don’t want a daughter. This has made sex-selective abortion a devastating problem around the world.
In India, an effort to prevent sex-selective abortions has led to a ban on using ultrasound to learn a baby’s gender, but some people find illegal ways to get an ultrasound: The number of sex-selective abortions in India appeared to be growing around the start of the 21st century. There may be numerous reasons why parents illegally abort their daughters, especially because many of the abortions happened among educated families. Perhaps some people still fear having too many girls because they expect daughters will earn less for the family and will require a dowry payment upon marriage. Perhaps others simply value boys more.
Girls face their first threat in the womb.
Since some societies view girls as a liability and a financial burden, many families decide they don’t want a daughter. This has made sex-selective abortion a devastating problem around the world.
China, the largest nation on earth in terms of population, is still recovering from decades of its “one-child policy.” High abortion rates of girls caused a skewed sex ratio, leaving too many men and too few women.
“Over 30 years, China was robbed of millions of girls as families used gender-based abortions and other methods to ensure their only child was a boy,” explains Hannah Beech in an article for The New York Times. “These boys are now men, called bare branches because a shortage of wives could mean death to their family trees. At the height of the gender imbalance in 2004, 121 boys were born in China for every 100 girls, according to Chinese population figures.”
Not only has this skewed sex ratio robbed millions of girls of life itself, but it has also threatened the girls who aren’t aborted in the womb, putting them at grave risk for abuse such as forced marriage and human trafficking.
After giving birth to two baby girls, Sukhwinder’s in-laws pressured her constantly to abort her third child, fearing it would be yet another daughter. It was only when she met a Gospel for Asia (GFA) woman missionary that she discovered the value of her life—and her daughters’ lives, in the eyes of God, and chose to preserve her pregnancy rather than end it.
Robbing girls of education has contributed to another global problem for girls: child marriage. In 2018, UNICEF reported there were 650 million child brides worldwide, including girls under age 18 who were already married and adult women who married in childhood.
Child marriage subjects girls to undue physical and mental stress. It gravely endangers their health, as it often pushes girls to bear children while in their teenage years. Many child brides already suffer from malnourishment, and the added strain of childbirth threatens their lives—and the lives of the babies they bear. Malnourished or unhealthy mothers often rear malnourished or unhealthy babies. Even worse, their babies may not even survive to term.
Ridhima was married off at the age of 12 and became pregnant only a few months later.
Ridhima was married off at the age of 12 and became pregnant only a few months later. Ridhima’s in-laws told her a pregnant lady should work to be healthy and forced her to perform difficult chores around the house, including heavy lifting. Whenever Ridhima rested because she didn’t feel well, they accused her of being dramatic to get out of work.
On top of the verbal abuse from her mother-in-law, Ridhima faced physical abuse from her alcoholic husband.
During Ridhima’s seventh month of pregnancy, her doctor said she needed to rest because of a complication. But Ridhima’s mother-in-law dismissed the doctor’s advice, and the continued strain on Ridhima’s health had tragic consequences: When the birth approached, the doctor had to perform a C-section to deliver the baby, but tragically, the child was dead.
Instead of comforting her, Ridhima’s in-laws blamed the young teenager for the baby’s death.
Child marriage not only robs girls of their childhood and endangers their health but also potentially limits and destabilizes their future. These girls typically don’t get to finish their education, so they lose opportunities to contribute to society and educate their own children. Then, if their husbands mistreat them, abandon them or pass away, these women may have very few ways to provide for themselves and their children, which may leave them susceptible to exploitation.
Photo of a 2019 “child marriage” in Iran that was posted on social media. The 11 year-old girl was married to her 22 year-old cousin. According to official stats, in 5.5% of Iranian marriages, the brides are under the age of 15. Photo by France24, The Observers
Corinne Redfern, a writer for TheTelegraph, describes a disturbing trend in Bangladesh.
Redfern interviewed several teenaged girls who had been forced into marriage when they were as young as 11 or 12. When these girls tried to escape physical and sexual abuse, they were deceived and sold to brothels. These teenagers now face more sexual and physical abuse, and see no alternative life for themselves.
“One time, when I was new, the police came by and asked me how old I was—they said they’d had a report that I was too young to be working, and that they could help me leave,” a 14-year-old girl told Redfern. “But I don’t have anywhere to go. So I said I was 18. Now when times are bad, I think to myself, ‘This is all your own fault.’”
The demand for child brides increases where gender-biased abortion leaves communities with a low ratio of men to women. Girls become a commodity to be secured. This problem is most severe in China, where bride trafficking has ensnared women and teenage girls from neighboring countries, such as Pakistan, Myanmar and North Korea. Traffickers lure women and girls with the promise of jobs, but victims find themselves forced to cohabit with Chinese men who don’t speak their language. Often these girls and women are kept locked in rooms and raped, as their new husband and his family expect them to bear children.
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia, especially to those who have yet to hear about the love of God. In GFA’s latest yearly report, this included more than 70,000 sponsored children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.
Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report: Rewriting the Tragedies of Girlhood — Opening Doors for Girls Deprived of Opportunities —Part 2, Part 3
Learn more by reading these Special Reports from Gospel for Asia:
Last updated on: December 4, 2021 at 6:34 am By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, whose heart to love and help the poor has inspired numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to serve the deprived and downcast worldwide, issued this second part of a Special Report update on Taking the Toilet Challenge, where resolving Open Defecation continues to confound the world.
In West Bengal, a local Gospel for Asia (GFA World) pastor who identified needs of people in his community, including this woman and her child, was able to facilitate the construction of low-cost outdoor toilet to provide a safe, sanitary facility for her family. Gospel for Asia (GFA World) has helped to construct over 32,000 toilets to date in remote, impoverished communities throughout South Asia.
Open Defecation Still Persists Worldwide, Even in America
While places like South Asia, Nigeria and Indonesia are noted for problems with open defecation, this poor health habit exists worldwide. In late 2019, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said 15.5 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean are forced to practice open defecation. Calling it an “unhealthy practice,” PAHO official Marco Espinal said, “Improving access to water and sanitation through multisectoral policies and actions is critical to prevent disease and save lives.”8
After attending the toilet expo in China, NPR reporter Katrina Yu noted that toilet innovations may be a hard sell in other countries.
Katrina Yu, NPR reporter Photo by Katrina Yu, Facebook
“Sanitation just isn’t sexy,” Yu wrote. “In fact, it stinks. According to the World Health Organization, governments, including many of those in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, often neglect to consider safe sanitation when drawing up budgets and policies. ‘To have any hope of solving sanitation problems,’ said [Jim Yong] Kim of the World Bank, ‘we have to break taboos and get over our discomfort in talking about poop.’”9
The public declarations against open defecation stretch back for two decades. The Singapore-based World Toilet Association established its special day in 2001, with the United Nations General Assembly officially declaring November 19 as World Toilet Day in 2013. The observance aims to inform, engage and inspire people to achieve the goal of ensuring the availability of clean water and sanitation for all by 2030.
Yet as the UN and numerous governments, non-profits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) work to eliminate the problem, it even exists on the streets of prosperous America. An October 2019 report by Environmental Justice said without sanitation when and where it is needed, the human right to sanitation for the homeless population has not been realized, leaving valid concerns about the risks of infectious disease transmission.
“The experience of Street Medicine physicians has yielded significant insight into how and why people experiencing homelessness resort to open defecation: the lack of public resources, perceptions about public toilets and the feelings of being unwelcome at them, concerns about safety, and physical and mental illness—including addiction—are all factors that contribute to OD,” the report said.10
A family in Maharashtra received this low-cost outdoor toilet as recipients of GFA World’s Christmas Catalog campaign to supply safe, private sanitation facilities to impoverished communities through South Asia.
The concerns raised by lack of access to sustainable sanitation and proper handwashing facilities have taken on new importance during the COVID-19 outbreak that engulfed the world in 2020. A report late last year from the World Bank placed the global costs of inadequate sanitation at an estimated $260 billion.
“Even before the COVID outbreak, our research conducted in 18 countries around the world showed that it’s poor children who suffer the most from inadequate sanitation,” said a summary issued on last November’s World Toilet Day. “Intestinal diseases related to poor sanitation, along with malnutrition and infections, contribute to stunting—one of the most serious and irreversible developmental problems facing children and impacting their future livelihoods as productive adults. In many countries, poor sanitation catalyzes a vicious cycle of poverty.”11
Children in India supported by Gospel for Asia (GFA World) sponsors also participated in India’s five-year-long Swachh Barat Abhiyan (“Clean India”) campaign by drawing images like these to emphasize the basic message.
Long-term Progress is Producing Slow but Steady Results
In addition to 128 comfort stations, Seattle Public Utilities has deployed 14 toilets and handwashing stations around Seattle to help the most vulnerable in their community stay healthy through these shelter and hygiene centers. Photo by SEA Mayor’s Office, Twitter
Yet, in spite of such gloomy realities, there has been long-term progress in the battle. Between 2000 and 2017, the number of people practicing OD was reduced from 1.3 billion to around 670 million, or 9 percent of the world’s population.12 The UNICEF South Asia Progress Report for 2018–2021 said the proportion of people practicing OD fell from 65 percent to 34 percent in the region as a whole, with India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan all achieving more than 30 percent reductions since 1990.13 There is a financial advantage to toilet installation: the World Health Organization estimates a return of $5.50 for every dollar spent on sanitation.14
Improvements have been steadily moving in the right direction, says one report: “The global population using safely managed sanitation services increased from 28 percent in 2000 to 45 percent in 2017, with the greatest increases occurring in Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and East and South-East Asia. In the period from 2000-2017, 2.1 billion people across the globe gained access to at least basic services and the population lacking basic services decreased from 2.7 billion to 2 billion.”15
More Direct Aid Needed to Sustain Progress
Ms Hing, 31, and her 4-year-old daughter, Than, stand outside their new latrine installed by UNICEF and partners in Namdeau village, Bolikhamxay province, Laos, where 38 percent of households have no sanitation facilities at all. Photo by UNICEF USA, Saving Lives, One Toilet at a Time
Amid these encouraging developments, though, a reality remains: As of 2020 only one in five countries with greater than 1 percent OD reported being on track to achieve near elimination of it among the poorest fifth of rural populations by 2030.16 That and the still-high numbers of OD mean direct aid is still vital in many regions of the world.
Last year, UNICEF helped nearly 19 million people gain access to safe drinking water and 10.8 million with basic sanitation. Among them were residents of Cote d’Ivoire on the western coast of Africa, where less than 10 percent of people living in rural areas have access to clean, functional toilets. One woman who—along with her neighbors—used to defecate outdoors said that it was not only dangerous but not hygienic. While sharing her toilet with those nearby, she adds, “When they’re done, they have to clean it. I want to keep my toilet nice and clean.”17
Another woman in a village in Laos – Ms Hing – said, “I have a new toilet, and I don’t need to go to the bush anymore.”18
GFA World is another NGO working to eliminate open defecation. In 2019, GFA installed more than 5,200 toilets in needy communities. That boosted its cumulative total to more than 32,000 toilets installed, built in some of the world’s most underdeveloped areas.
While going to the bathroom is a privilege those in affluent societies often take for granted, for those living in out-of-the-way places, a toilet is one of the best gifts they can receive.
One example is a man named Laal and his wife, who live with four of their five children and their daughter-in-law. They are one of only three families still living in their village; many have moved away because of isolation and the lack of basic facilities, including a sanitary outhouse. The construction of a sanitation facility, facilitated by two Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers from a nearby community, literally changed their lives. Not only did they benefit from the health advantages of their new toilet, but they also established a new circle of friendships in the neighboring community.19
The installation of an outdoor sanitation facility, like this toilet from GFA World, proved to be, in numerous ways, a life-changing blessing for Laal’s family in South Asia.
In another, more densely, populated area with 1,600 families spread over eight villages, the majority of families still live in poverty. With most of their money going for survival, it leaves little for anything else, including hygiene or basic sanitation facilities. Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers came to their aid, collecting supplies and manpower needed to install facilities. More than 250 of the families received not only a toilet but instruction in their proper use and cleaning to keep people safe from disease.
“All the beneficiaries were ecstatic at the gift,” reported a Gospel for Asia (GFA) worker. “The women were especially happy; they no longer needed to put themselves in danger every time they needed to use the toilet. They finally had a safe place to privately relieve themselves. No more would they need to venture out into the fields to do so.”20
Hopefully, many more such reports will surface in the months and years to come.
If you’d like to assist in providing outdoor toilets for underserved communities around the world, connect with GFA World to make a donation. Your contribution can be a life-changing one for many families that live in a community without proper sanitation, by providing them with safety from disease and dignity through privacy. And you will feel good to have made a contribution that helps families in developing nations without access to things we can take for granted.
Safe, sanitary outdoor toilets typically cost around $540, to build in Asia, and benefit multiple families in remote, impoverished communities. You can help provide one for a needy village, by donating a portion of the construction costs through GFA World.
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World expects to launch programs in numerous African nations, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.
Last updated on: September 11, 2021 at 4:30 am By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, whose heart to love and help the poor has inspired numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to serve the deprived and downcast worldwide, issued this first part of a Special Report update on Taking the Toilet Challenge, where resolving Open Defecation continues to confound the world.
In a previous special report entitled “Fight Against Open Defecation Continues,” we discussed the need for a caring response from the world to the problem of open defecation (OD) —a worldwide health crisis. In this report, I highlight ongoing long-term progress, while also contrasting the continuing challenges this issue presents to much of the developing world.
Why are Bill and Melinda Gates Spending $200 Million on Toilets?
Prof. Ravi V. Bellamkonda, “Advancing technologies for public health…” Photo by Duke University, Pratt School of Engineering
In regard to government funding and foundation grants, the $4.5 million awarded to Duke University last November represented a modest sum. Still, the stipend for Duke’s Center for Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Infectious Disease (WaSH-AID) represented another small step in reducing open defecation by furthering testing of “reinvented toilets” and other hygienic technologies in the world’s neediest areas.
“We are grateful for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s investment in our (center) to lead collaboration with experts at Duke, across the industry and around the world to address this critical societal challenge,” said Ravi V. Bellamkonda, dean of the university’s school of engineering. “Advancing technologies for public health is particularly germane to control the spread of preventable diseases, and in this case also a fundamental human right—dignity.”1
Symbolically, the award came on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the foundation’s “Reinvent the Toilet” challenge, which asked researchers to devise toilets that can sanitize human waste with no water, electricity, sewer or septic system. The waste treatment goals include cleaning the waste and reclaiming water to safe drinking standards and harvesting nutrients for other uses. That can be a game-changer for those living without sanitation.
Duke’s WaSH-AID team focuses on the development of onsite waste treatment solutions to meet the needs of resource-constrained environments in many disadvantaged communities around the world, but also in parts of the United States, including North Carolina. Photo by Duke University, Center for WaSH-AID
About halfway into this initiative, one inventor produced a system called the Omni Processor. Although technically not a toilet, the Omni is an off-the-grid fecal sludge treatment plant that outputs purified water and may one day also produce electricity. A working prototype has been operating in Dakar, Senegal, in Africa, for a few years, with the latest version licensed to companies in countries including the U.S. and China.2 Project director Brian Arbogast believes the technology will eventually influence sanitation in the developed world, such as green buildings, septic systems and off-the-grid cabins.
After spending a day at the foundation’s office in early 2019, a Business Insider reporter waxed enthusiastically about the toilet technology and other initiatives addressing such problems as extreme poverty, child mortality and malaria: “Hearing about their work was inspiring and gave me hope for the future …” wrote Julie Bort. “And the reason is simple. These people are taking on some of the world’s hairiest, most complex and seemingly intractable problems. And they are winning.”3
Some of the best solutions for communities in need of low-cost sanitation are just simple outdoor toilets like these built by Gospel for Asia (GFA World) to serve this entire snake charmer village in Uttar Pradesh.
A Formidable Problem: High-Tech or Low-Tech Solutions?
Not everyone is as impressed with the foundation’s efforts. Two years after the initiative’s unveiling, an environmental engineer whose business focuses on developing low-cost toilets said communities that desperately need sanitation will be unable to afford the advanced technology promoted by the initiatives.
We “should be investing more in low-tech rather than high-tech toilets,” said Jason Kass, founder of Toilets for People. “But high-tech solutions and research projects are sexier and more eye-catching, so they are more interesting for universities.”4
The fact that in its first seven years the Gates Foundation invested $200 million in the toilet challenge demonstrates the formidable nature of ending open defecation. Yet it is a battle that must be waged.
Open defecation(OD)
is a disease-producing practice that contaminates drinking water and spreads diseases such as cholera, dysentery and diarrhea, which is particularly fatal among children. The incidence of such disease can disrupt young people’s education. In addition, females who engage in open defecation are more vulnerable to sexual violence.
The problem has generated widespread responses, such as India’s five-year-long Swachh Barat Abhiyan (“Clean India”) campaign that installed 110 million latrines by October 2019, with accompanying claims of success by Prime Minister Narenda Modi.
One of the NGOs helping PM Modi in this campaign is GFA World, which has worked tirelessly to help install over 32,000 toilets to date in some of the most remote and difficult-to-reach locations across South Asia..
In 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared a “Toilet Revolution,” calling on local governments to improve sanitation in hopes of attracting more tourism since a bad “toilet landscape” had harmed the Asian giant’s image.5
Open defecation is still a problem in Nigeria where over 46 million people defecate in the open and over 120 million people do not have a decent toilet. Photo by WaterAid Nigeria, Twitter
Not coincidentally, in November 2018 the city of Beijing played host to the “Reinvented Toilet Expo,” which Gates projects could create a $6billion-a-year market by 2030. Kinya Seto, the president of Japanese exhibitor LIXIL, said innovative companies have a golden opportunity to do well by doing good: “We can help jump-start a new era of sanitation for the 21st century by developing solutions that can leapfrog today’s existing infrastructure, functioning anywhere and everywhere.”6
The latest nation to attack open defecation is Nigeria, where fewer than half the households have their own toilet. In 2016, the government launched an action plan aiming to end the practice by 2025 by providing equitable access to water, sanitation and hygiene services, and strengthening community approaches. However, three years later the government had failed to release funding for the initiative. In November 2018, with parts of the country facing high levels of water-borne diseases, President Muhammadu Buhari declared a state of emergency.7
In Dimbroko, Cote d’Ivoire, Habitat for Humanity implemented a community-led pilot project to end open defecation. Habitat successfully worked with the government, private sector and community representatives to create sanitation facilities and promote proper hygiene practices. Photo by Habitat for Humanity, Ending Open Defecation in Cote d’Ivoire
Safe, sanitary outdoor toilets typically cost around $540, to build in Asia, and benefit multiple families in remote, impoverished communities. You can help provide one for a needy village, by donating a portion of the construction costs through Gospel for Asia (GFA World).
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World expects to launch programs in numerous African nations, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.
Last updated on: September 6, 2021 at 6:18 pm By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX — One of the world’s largest mission organizations is calling on Christians around the world not to carry on “like normal” while people in Afghanistan face terror, rape, and execution. “I pray that no church in the world worships and prays like it’s just another normal day over the coming weeks while the innocent in Afghanistan await the Taliban’s knock on their door,” said K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan), founder of GFA World, a Christian organization that helps millions of vulnerable people globally.
PRAY FOR AFGHANISTAN ‘THEATER OF FEAR:’Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is calling on Christians in the West not to carry on “like normal” while people in Afghanistan face terror, rape, and execution. “We need to be on our knees in prayer now,” says K.P. Yohannan, the mission organization’s founder. Join GFA World’s prayer effort for Afghanistan: http://www.gfa.org/press/PrayNow
As U.S. and allied troops complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan, Yohannan pleaded with people to “pray and fast” for the desperate situation.
“I can tell you now that many innocent people, including Christians, are likely going to die very soon in Afghanistan — and in other countries — at the hands of emboldened terrorists,” he said.
“These precious men, women and children need our prayers more than ever before.”
‘Theater of Fear’
“All the Afghan people — not only Christians — are living in a theater of fear,” Yohannan said. “I just heard first-hand reports that many people — and entire families — have been wandering in the desert wilderness for over a week, desperate to escape the country.”
According to reports, the Taliban are going door-to-door, hunting for Christians as well as Afghans who’ve assisted the United States. Males face execution on the spot, while women are raped and girls taken and forced into sexual slavery.
“Many in Afghanistan genuinely fear they will not see tomorrow,” Yohannan said. “The knock on their door could be the last they hear.”
“None of us should be acting like life is ‘normal’ while our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan wait in dread for the Taliban to come to their door. God moves when we choose to enter into the suffering of others. We need to be on our knees in prayer now.”
For information about GFA World’s prayer effort for the suffering people of Afghanistan, please visit this website: http://www.gfa.org/press/PrayNow
About Gospel for Asia – now GFA World
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. Gospel for Asia has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news/.
Join the GFA World Prayer Team as we lift up in prayer the people of Asia and their needs. Receive prayer requests for Asia with a special focus each month. You can have a part in ministering to those in need—through our most powerful tool: prayer.
On last year’s International Widows Day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said when countries build back from COVID-19, they must also work to dismantle laws that discriminate against women. He said the isolation and economic hardships brought on by the pandemic can further compromise widows’ ability to support themselves and their families and cut them off from social connections during their greatest time of grief.
Pray
Robbing girls of education has contributed to another global problem for girls: child marriage. In 2018, 
Yet as the UN and numerous governments, non-profits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) work to eliminate the problem, it even exists on the streets of prosperous America. An October 2019 report by Environmental Justice said without sanitation when and where it is needed, the human right to sanitation for the homeless population has not been realized, leaving valid concerns about the risks of infectious disease transmission.
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