Gospel for Asia: Solving the World Water Crisis for Good: Lasting Solutions Can Defeat an Age-old Problem | Part #1

February 2, 2023 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World), founded by KP Yohannan issued the first part of a Special Report update authored by Palmer Holt of InChrist Communications on solving the world water crisis, including major initiatives to defeat the age-old problem.

For millions of people around the world, finding clean water is a daily struggle. Like all of us, they need water to drink, to wash in and to grow their crops. When they can’t find it, terrible things happen: Farmers lose their livelihoods; people suffer the slow, insidious effects of chronic dehydration; entire families contract dysentery or arsenic poisoning; and too often, people die.

The issue is really twofold: 1) In many places, there simply isn’t enough water available; and 2) Often, the water that people do have is contaminated. Remedies exist for both problems, ranging from complex and costly to astonishingly simple. But sadly, most of the people who desperately need these solutions don’t have access to them—yet.

In my previous special report for Gospel for Asia (GFA) entitled “Dying of Thirst: The Global Water Crisis,” I unpacked the global quest for access to safe, clean water. This article highlights three major initiatives that are addressing the world water crisis and one practical way you can personally get involved.

Woman carrying water — Globally, women and girls spend 200 million hours a day collecting water. This would be the equivalent to building 28 Empire State Buildings every single day!

Wells Find Water Where There Is None

Roughly 40 percent of the world’s land mass is arid or semi-arid, receiving little rainfall. About 2 billion people live in these dry areas, 90 percent of them in developing countries where water infrastructure is limited or nonexistent. Yet they all need water to survive. How do they find it?

Drilling a Jesus Well — This drilling rig is used to create a Jesus Well. Machines like this one will drill bore wells more than 600 feet deep, allowing up to 300 families a day to draw good, clean water even in the driest seasons.

For many of them, each day begins with a trek to the nearest waterhole, which may be miles away. Life becomes a dreary quest for survival as they spend precious hours seeking the day’s supply of water. That leaves little time or energy for more productive activities. It’s no surprise that so many remain mired in abject poverty.

Yet, even in these dry areas, there is often water underground. Government agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have devoted vast resources to installing wells for needy populations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These efforts, though earnest and well-motivated, often fail in the long term for a number of reasons.

• In arid regions, there may be ample water during the rainy season, but then the water table recedes during the dry months. Wells are often too shallow to reach this deeper water, so they become inactive.

The solution: drill deeper.

This is the strategy now being employed by city authorities in urban areas like Bangalore, India, where an exploding population has strained water resources to the limit. The older wells in the city were typically 300 feet deep. Now, newer wells reach depths of up to 1,500 feet to tap the hidden reserves. And for the time being, they’re meeting the city’s burgeoning needs.

This approach is also being used effectively by private relief agencies, such as Gospel for Asia (GFA World). Through Jesus Wells installed by its field partners, Gospel for Asia (GFA) has helped bring year-round water to many villages in South Asia, each well serving an average of 300 people. By drilling wells more than 600 feet down, villagers can access the deep water that was unreachable before. And Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Jesus Wells are built to last up to two decades.

In one Asian village, 15 families were relying on water from a polluted pond, convinced that a well would be impossible in their rocky hillside terrain. But through the intervention of a local Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported pastor, workers drilled through the solid rock and found water. Most importantly, the workers didn’t stop there. They kept drilling to reach the deeper parts of the water table. That well now provides consistent water for the villagers even through the dry seasons.

• Another common problem has to do with well maintenance. Many well-intentioned organizations come into undeveloped areas and spend their time and money installing wells. But then they leave. The villagers often don’t know how to maintain the wells, so these valuable resources become useless. As a result, in Africa alone, an estimated 50,000 such projects now lie abandoned.

The remedy is to bring local people into the projects from the start

so they feel an ownership stake, and then show them how to maintain the wells for the long term. In an effort to provide lasting solutions, Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported field partners use local workers who use locally produced components to install the wells, and then they help train the villagers themselves to maintain the wells. As a result, those wells have stood the test of time. Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers recently revisited one of their earliest well installations and were pleasantly surprised to find it still operational—20 years later. Because of that well, life in the village has changed dramatically.

As Saamel, one of the villagers, observes, “Now people don’t have to go to distant places to fetch water.”

Furthermore, the impact of a clean water well on Arnab and his family in Asia can be watched online.

We also have a growing list of Clean Water FAQs that address various clean water concerns around the globe.

Of course, that well has needed periodic maintenance during its 20 years of service. And when it did, the local villagers stepped up.

Saamel notes, “Whenever this Jesus Well breaks down or needs some maintenance or repair, people in this village contribute money and they actually get it fixed.” As a result, “There has been no time that this Jesus Well is not in use … people been using it ever since that was installed.”

That marks a stark contrast to other wells in the area that provided foul-tasting water and eventually broke down. Now, Saamel observes, people from three nearby villages come to use the Jesus Well for its clean, reliable water.

“The water is very good and tasty and safe to drink,” he says. “So people don’t have to go to other water source, and they used this water for drinking and domestic chores, for giving to the cattle or whatever need they have, cleaning and washing; they used this water almost for everything. So, this well has been great help and great use for the entire villagers.”

As this story makes clear, encouraging people to invest in their own infrastructure is one key to making these lifesaving improvements sustainable.

Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report on Solving the World Water Crisis … For Good: Lasting Solutions Can Defeat an Age-old Problem: Part 2

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

Read another Special Report from Gospel for Asia on Dying of Thirst: The Global Water Crisis.

Read the Global Clean Water Crisis Report: Finding Solutions to Humanity’s Need for Pure, Safe Water.

Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.

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Gospel for Asia Calls for ‘Lasting Solutions’ in Report on World Water Crisis

December 1, 2020 By GFA Staff Writer

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WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan, which inspired numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada – Two billion people worldwide struggle to find water every day, says ‘sobering’ GFA report in wake of World Water Day. A sobering report released by Gospel for Asia (GFA) reveals that two billion people globally are struggling to find enough water to survive.Approximately 40 percent of the world’s land surface is desert or semi-arid, placing about two billion people — one in every four people on the planet — in peril, says the report titled Solving the World Water Crisis for Good: Lasting Solutions Can Defeat an Age-Old Problem.

“In many places, there simply isn’t enough water, and the water that people do have is contaminated,” said Gospel for Asia (GFA) founder Dr. K.P. Yohannan, whose Texas-based mission has served the extreme poor in Asia for more than 40 years.

Millions of people rely on dirty ponds for drinking and washing, but the water often contains dangerous toxins or pathogens, says the report.

“People have to choose between drinking tainted water and going thirsty — it’s sobering,” Yohannan said.

Drinking contaminated water can lead to deadly waterborne diseases such as typhoid, hepatitis A, and diarrhea. Globally, diarrhea kills almost 2,200 children every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

“Despite the often devastating consequences, millions of people start each day with a long trek on foot to the nearest waterhole, possibly miles away,” Yohannan said. “Life for them becomes a dreary quest for survival.”

Going Deep, Finding Lasting Solutions to World Water Crisis

Gospel for Asia (GFA) teams have led the way in drilling deep wells — up to 1,500 feet in depth — to tap plentiful underground reserves and bring reliable, clean water to thousands of villages across Asia where families used to drink from filthy ponds.

These deep wells — known as Jesus Wells — supply year-round clean water to villages prone to drought and water shortages, with each well serving an average of 300 people.

Because local people receive training to maintain the wells, the water keeps flowing. One team recently found a Jesus Well still going strong after 20 years — transforming the lives of hundreds of villagers.

Another clean water solution — the portable BioSand filter, costing around $30 — removes most contaminants from dirty water, making it 98 percent pure, the report says.

In the past 12 years, Gospel for Asia (GFA) teams have distributed more than 73,000 of these household filters, changing the lives of impoverished villagers like Nirmala whose family often got sick drinking from a polluted pond.

“We had frequent stomach problems,” she said, describing life before getting a filter in her home. “Headaches, skin problems, pain… it was a very discouraging way to live.”

Even though improvements and advances in water-purification technology have been made, the report says much more needs to be done to solve the world’s water crisis. “The best solutions arise from cooperative efforts that involve (the local people),” it says.

“By God’s grace, Gospel for Asia (GFA) has been part of the solution for many years now,” said Yohannan. “People are experiencing the life of Christ because of the gift of clean water.”

About Gospel for Asia

Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based mission agency, bringing vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia, especially to those who have yet to hear the “good news” of Jesus Christ. 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 4,000 clean water wells drilled, over 11,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 200,000 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.

Source: Christian News Wire

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Gospel for Asia: Multiple Solutions Can Defeat an Ongoing Water Crisis Problem | Part #2

February 9, 2023 By GFA Staff Writer

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WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World), founded by KP Yohannan issued the second part of a Special Report update authored by Palmer Holt of InChrist Communications on solving the world water crisis, lasting solutions and major initiatives to defeat the age-old problem.

Group of women drawing water from a Jesus Well — Gospel for Asia’s clean water ministry is delivering pure drinking water to families all across South Asia through Jesus Wells, which are open to anyone in need, regardless of their ethnic or religious backgrounds. In this regard, Jesus Wells typically meet the urgent needs of poor families for clean water, rescuing their families from waterborne diseases, poverty and even death.

Tapping Into the World’s Largest Reservoir

In his poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge describes a crew of thirsty sailors stranded on the ocean. One of them utters these familiar lines:

Water, water everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.

That’s an apt description of our world, in which people are desperate for water even though it covers 71 percent of the earth’s surface. Of course, most of it is in the oceans and not drinkable. Indeed, 97.5 percent of the earth’s water is saltwater. A person who drinks too much of it will die—ironically—of dehydration.

Granot desalination plant: The process works by pushing saltwater into membranes containing microscopic pores. — Granot desalination plant, Israel: Daslination here works by pushing saltwater into membranes containing microscopic pores. Photo by Mekorot Water Company (via IrishTimes.com)

However, visionaries have long hoped that someday we could harness the oceans’ vast water reserves for human use. That dream began to come true in 1881, when the first commercial desalination plant opened on the Mediterranean island of Malta. As methods improved during the 20th century, more plants opened in Europe, the United States and, especially, the Middle East. The desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia, oil-rich but water-poor, now produces more desalinated water than any other country. The nearby United Arab Emirates derives all of its drinking water from desalination. These countries are trading what they have—oil wealth—for what they desperately need—water. But in most of the world, the process has remained too costly to be a viable option.

A dramatic change occurred in 2005 when Israel opened its mega-capacity desalination plant in the coastal city of Ashkelon. This landmark achievement drastically lowered the cost of desalination while providing 13 percent of the country’s consumer water demand. Before, the country’s main sources of fresh water had been the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River that flows from it. But drought and overuse had depleted both resources to dangerously low levels. Israel had a strong motivation to find new, reliable sources of usable water. The Mediterranean Sea on its western border made desalination an obvious alternative.

After the success of the Ashkelon project, Israel launched another plant a few miles up the coast in Hadera in 2009. That was followed by the Sorek plant in 2013, which is currently the world’s largest desalination plant. Israel now uses desalinated water for more than half of its needs. The cost of that water—which had always been the major drawback of desalination—is now even lower. At about $30 per month per household, Israelis pay less for their water than many people in other developed countries.

There are numerous water-thirsty countries in Asia and Africa that border the oceans. They could all greatly benefit from this technology. Because desalination plants are expensive, it will be a challenge for poorer countries to develop them. But Israel has shown that desalination can be a viable, cost-effective solution.

Indeed, 97.5 percent of the earth’s water is saltwater. A person who drinks too much of it will die—ironically—of dehydration.

Another country that has made effective use of desalination is China. With a population of 1.4 billion—the world’s largest—China has enormous water needs. In recent years, millions of its people have clustered in the coastal cities, straining resources to the limit. That led to an intensive push for alternative water sources. China began exploring desalination in the 1950s and now has more than 139 plants.

With the inexorable growth of industry and populations around the world, the demand for water will only increase. And given the limits inherent in other sources, the desalination option will become indispensable. Meanwhile, advances in technology are making it available to more people than ever.

The Ashkelon desalination facility, one of the largest in the world, is one of five plants along the Mediterranean Sea providing Israelis with 65 percent of their drinking water. — The Ashkelon desalination facility along the Mediterranean Sea in Israel, is one of the largest in the world, and is one of five plants providing Israelis with 65 percent of their drinking water.Photo by IDE Technologies Ltd., (via TimesofIstrael.com)

Filters Make Contaminated Water Safe

In much of the world, people rely on surface water for drinking and washing. But that water often contains dangerous toxins or pathogens. In those cases, people face the difficult choice of choosing between drinking tainted water and going thirsty.

One of the most common—and deadly—symptoms of waterborne diseases is diarrhea. It kills millions of people every year, most of them in Africa and South Asia. Children, being especially vulnerable, suffer the worst. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2,195 children die of diarrheal diseases every day. Other waterborne illnesses include polio, tetanus, typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery and hepatitis A.

Woman holding glasses of clean and dirty water. — Waterborne illnesses are prevalent in Asia, but when dirty water is cleaned and purified through BioSand water filters, diseases can be prevented.

The tragedy is that such diseases can be easy to prevent. One study showed that the incidence of diarrhea can be reduced by 40 percent if people simply wash their hands regularly with soap.

Another effective weapon against disease is amazingly simple and affordable: a BioSand water filter, which costs just $30 and is small and portable enough to fit in any home. It removes most of the contaminants in water, making it 98 percent pure. With just one BioSand water filter, an entire family can enjoy clean water for as long as 20 years. Gospel for Asia (GFA) has been partnering to provide BioSand water filters to Asian families since 2008, distributing more than 73,500 so far. And the results have been dramatic.

Nirmala’s story is typical and illustrates the impact these simple devices can make. She lives in a small Asian village where the only water source is a small polluted pond.

“Since we drank from the pond on a daily basis,” Nirmala says, “we were frequently contracting diseases and stomach problems. Our symptoms ranged from headaches to skin problems to internal pain. It was a very painful and discouraging way to live.”

Then, a Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported worker visited Nirmala’s village and told her about the difference a BioSand water filter could make.

“A team soon came and installed a filter in my home,” she says. “My family and I were so happy to receive such an amazing gift.”

Now, health has returned to Nirmala’s family. And an entire village is being transformed.

Women filling up water bottles using BioSand Water Filter — No electricity or batteries are needed for a BioSand water filter like this one. Through natural ways of killing harmful bacteria, these effective filters turn dirty water sources into pure, fresh drinking water. Women like these, and their children and families, who were sick and even dying from waterborne illnesses are now regaining their strength, health and well-being through the clean water they are able to drink from BioSand filters.

A Better Future is Possible

These accounts show what is possible when goodwill and knowledge combine. But they also remind us that the world water crisis is far from being solved.

Woman drawing water into bucket through Jesus Wells — Water from Jesus Wells is so safe and tasty, this girl’s family will safely use it for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing utensils, doing laundry and more.

The United Nations has described concrete objectives for defeating the world’s water problems in its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Among other things, the participating member states committed to “end poverty in all its forms” and “shift the world on to a sustainable and resilient path.” But so far, the world is “off track” in achieving those objectives, according to the UN’s Synthesis Report 2018 on Water and Sanitation. The report states that, to be more effective, efforts must address issues of “weak funding, planning, capacity and governance of water and sanitation services as a top priority.”

But as the villagers depicted in this article demonstrate, the best solutions don’t always come from top-down efforts imposed from outside. Rather, they arise from cooperative efforts that involve local residents in the construction, maintenance and acceptance of their own sustainable solutions. Relief agencies that respect the dignity and freedom of the people they serve offer the best hope for success.

If you’d like to make a personal impact on the world water crisis, consider giving a needy family a simple BioSand water filter. For only $30, Gospel for Asia’s field partners can manufacture and distribute one of these effective filters to a water-compromised family in Asia and provide them with clean, safe water. Other NGOs that are making a difference in regard to the world water crisis include water.org, which makes microloans to families to install clean water solutions in their homes, and Charity: Water, which partners with organizations worldwide to provide safe water solutions to the 10 percent of the world’s population that lacks access to clean water.

Together, we can end the world’s water crisis.

Two men building BioSand Water Filters — Men like these help build BioSand water filters for countless families in Asia. They start by pouring wet cement into these metal molds and go from there. These filters require no electricity to use, yet they make water almost as pure as bottled water!

Learn more about how to provide water solutions like pure, clean water to families and entire villages through Jesus Wells and BioSand Water Filters.

Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report on Solving the World Water Crisis … For Good: Lasting Solutions Can Defeat an Age-old Problem: Part 1

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org. We also have a growing list of Clean Water FAQs that address various clean water concerns around the globe.

Read another Special Report from Gospel for Asia on Dying of Thirst: The Global Water Crisis.

Read the Global Clean Water Crisis Report: Finding Solutions to Humanity’s Need for Pure, Safe Water.

Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.

Notable news about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Water Filter Meets Family’s Needs, Ignites Father’s Faith

June 20, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

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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 how through GFA World gift distribution, a water filter was able to meet a family’s needs and ignite a father’s faith.

Discussing how through GFA World gift distribution, a water filter was able to meet a family's needs and ignite a father's faith. — With a BioSand water filter like this one, Kadience (not pictured) and her family are able to have clean water and experience God’s love for them.

A wave of embarrassment crashed over Kadience as she handed Gospel for Asia (GFA) pastor Laszlo the murky glass of water. Kadience could barely see through it. Shocked by the quality of the water, Pastor Laszlo glanced up at Kadience.

“Is there not a bore well from where you can get good water?” he asked.

Kadience looked at her husband, who reflected her embarrassment.

“We have only one hand pump fixed in a public place, but the water is not clean,” they replied.

As difficult as it may be to imagine yourself in Kadience’s position, her situation is not uncommon. In South Asia, it is estimated that 68 to 84 percent of water sources are contaminated, resulting in more than 134 million people lacking access to clean water.[1] For these individuals and families like Kadience’s, the chance for clean water is life-changing.

A Hardworking Family

Kadience lived with her husband and son in a small village in the hills of South Asia where she grew up following the traditional religion of her culture. But after God miraculously healed her son of pneumonia, Kadience put her trust in Jesus. Since then, Kadience had regularly attended her local church led by Pastor Laszlo, who had prayed diligently for her son’s healing.

Kadience and her husband worked as daily laborers, constructing mud houses. Despite the income they generated from working, the family struggled to access clean water, putting them at high risk for a host of waterborne diseases.

Clean Water at Last

After seeing the family’s dire need for clean water, Pastor Laszlo shared his concerns with church leaders and was able to give Kadience and her family a BioSand water filter. The family was overjoyed to receive the water filter! They immediately began using it and enjoying their clean water with gratitude.

“I am grateful to God, who provided us with a good water filter,” Kadience said. “We do have a small hand pump in our village. We are collecting water from there and putting it into the BioSand water filter. Through this filter, now we are getting clean and pure water.”

After observing his wife’s steadfast faith and the Lord’s provision, Kadience’s husband realized there is a God who provides for all their needs. Through the gift of a water filter, Kadience and her family’s need for clean water was met, and they were reminded of the powerful truth that God loves them and cares about their every need.

Read how clean water helped an entire village experience God’s love.

[1] “Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).” UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/rosa/water-sanitation-and-hygiene-wash. Accessed April 13, 2021.

*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.

Source: Gospel for Asia Field Reports & Updates, Water Filter Meets Family’s Needs, Ignites Father’s Faith

Learn more about how to provide pure, clean water to families and villages through GFA World Jesus Wells and BioSand Water Filters.

Learn more about the GFA World national missionaries who carry a burning desire for people to know the love of God. Through their prayers, dedication and sacrificial love, thousands of men and women have found new life in Christ.

Learn more by reading these Special Reports:

Solving the World Water Crisis for Good — Lasting Solutions Can Defeat an Age-old Problem.
The Global Clean Water Crisis — Finding Solutions to Humanity’s Need for Pure, Safe Water.

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The Scandal of Starvation in a World of Plenty: World Hunger’s Ugly Truths Revealed | Part 3

June 6, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

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WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by KP Yohannan, issued a Special Report on the ugly truths of world hunger: “Scandal of Starvation” — world hunger is a long-term social and global crisis, directly or indirectly causing around 9 million deaths each year – more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.

A student washing her hands outside latrines. — A student washes her hands outside newly built latrines at the primary school in Kuzungula District, Southern Province, Zambia. Inadequate and inequitable access to safe water and sanitation services, coupled with poor hygiene practices, continue to threaten the health and growth of children in African nations like Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and others. © UNICEF/UN0145990/Schermbrucker

Hunger Close to Home

If hunger is obvious across great swaths of Africa and Asia, it is not so evident in other parts of the world. But that does not mean it is not an issue. Hans Konrad Biesalski, a German physician and professor of chemistry and nutrition, has detailed the challenge of “hidden hunger” in a similarly titled book.

Hans Konrad Biesalski — Prof. Dr. Biesalski launched the Hidden Hunger Congress, which draws attention to hidden malnutrition.Photo by University of Hohenheim / Jana Kay

He refers to micronutrient malnutrition, which affects a third of the world’s population. Even if someone’s stomach isn’t entirely empty, it may not be filled with the vitamins and minerals their body needs. Citing a four-fold increase in cases of rickets in England over a 15-year period, he warns that micronutrient inadequacies “are to be found in the developed world as well as in the developing world, and their current European rate of growth in the developed world gives cause for concern.”

According to the U.N., more than 2 billion people, the majority in low- and middle-income countries, do not have access to enough safe and nutritious food. It is not exclusively a problem of poorer nations: One in 12 of the population of North America does not get to eat enough regularly.

Many people go hungry in the United States, though typically more episodically than continually, as in other parts of the world. Just over one in ten American households—almost 40 million people, 11 million of them children—were “food insecure” at some stage during 2018. The good news is that figure is down from the Great Recession rates of a decade ago.

Rates of need varied widely from less than eight percent in New Hampshire to almost 17 percent in New Mexico. Overall, food insecurity was higher in cities than in rural communities, with the suburbs faring best.

From its research, Feeding America finds children in the U.S. more likely to face hunger than the rest of the population, ranging from one in ten in North Dakota to one in four in New Mexico. The organization notes that the health, social, and behavioral problems hungry children are at risk from are exacerbated during school holidays, when feeding programs are suspended.

Gospel for Asia-supported workers feeding children — You can make an impact in the lives of needy kids! One of the greatest feelings in the world is knowing that we as individuals can make a difference in the life of a child who’s food insecure. A healthy, nutritious meal once each day is just one of the many benefits children receive while enrolled in GFA’s Bridge of Hope Program, which supports tens of thousands of kids throughout Asia.

Good News in Word and Deed

While GFA’s field partners join in the awareness-raising focus of World Hunger Day and World Food Day, they are more quietly involved in tackling hunger year-round. Food is an integral part of the 500-plus Bridge of Hope centers run in slums and villages across South Asia. The free education program, which is currently being offered to around 70,000 enrolled children, is a fundamental part of helping improve their futures, and lunch is as important as the lessons.

For students like brother and sister Panav and Kajiri, the nutritious curry and rice they served at Bridge of Hope is an important supplement to the basic food they get at home: bread and milk for breakfast, with fried vegetables, eggs, and chapatis for supper.

Some question faith-based organizations’ involvement in humanitarian efforts like feeding the hungry, despite Jesus’ clear example of caring for the poor in practical ways, because they suspect mixed motives among givers or receivers, or both. They talk of so-called “rice Christians,” who pay lip service to belief for the benefits they get.

For K.P. Yohannan, it’s a false dichotomy. “The huge battles we face against hunger, poverty and suffering in Asia and around the world are in part spiritual, not simply physical or social as secularists would have us believe,” he says. “We cannot separate the visible and the invisible in this battle.”

Sometimes providing food for today is all that can be done, but GFA’s field partners look for ways to provide food for tomorrow and the day after. Their work follows the old adage about giving someone a fish, to feed them once, or teaching them to fish, so they can continue to feed themselves.

GFA’s field partners provide fishing nets and other income-generating supplies such as sewing machines, livestock and rickshaws through Christmas gift distribution programs. Palan stands among thousands of people who have received such gifts. Since Palan had no land of his own to work, his income depended on the fish he could catch, but he had only one poor quality net. The one he received through the Gospel for Asia (GFA) supported gift distribution means he can now meet his needs. In 2018, Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers presented income-generating and life-improving Christmas gifts to almost a quarter of a million people like Palan.

Man casting a fishing net — Since Palan had no land of his own to work, his family depended on the fish he could catch for food and income, but he had only one poor quality net. The new one he received as a gift from Gospel for Asia (GFA) partners means he can now meet his family’s everyday needs for good food and healthy nutrition.

It is easy to get overwhelmed by the scale of a problem, believing that one person’s efforts will not make much of a difference. But Jesus’s example of addressing hunger offers one of the greatest examples of how giving just a little can make a big impact.

After a long day listening to Him teach, the crowd of thousands was hungry. When Jesus told His disciples to feed them, they couldn’t see how. They only had the lunch a small boy offered: five barley loaves and two fish. Yet God multiplied that to meet everyone’s needs.

In the same way, we should not focus on what we think can’t be achieved. We should instead give and do what we can with the faith and expectation that God will take and use it in a way that exceeds what seems possible. What are practical ways to do that?

Be more intentional about reducing the amount of food that gets wasted in your home, to help make a dent in the squandering supply chain.

Support local organizations that redistribute surplus produce to those in need. You don’t even need to leave home to do that: the annual National Association of Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger National Food Drive sees mailmen and -women collecting donations of non-perishable foods on their rounds on the second Saturday in May.

Each time you dine out, buy someone else a meal by donating to Gospel for Asia (GFA) or some other organization feeding the hungry.

These small steps may not seem like much, but they certainly count in God’s sight. When Jesus told His followers they will be rewarded for having fed Him when He was hungry, He said that some would be perplexed.

“Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You?” they will ask. The King will respond, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25: 37, 40).

Give Food, Aid to Victims of Hunger & Starvation

Learn about how to bring practical help in Jesus’ name to the suffering and needy, relieving the burdened, rescuing the endangered and revealing God’s compassion to the people of Asia through Gospel for Asia Compassion Services.

Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report on The Scandal of Starvation in a World of Plenty: World Hunger’s Ugly Truths Revealed — Part 1, Part 2

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

Read another Special Report from Gospel for Asia on Poverty: Public Enemy #1 – Eliminating Extreme Poverty Worldwide is Possible, But Not Inevitable.

Learn more by reading this special report from Gospel for Asia: Solutions to Poverty-Line Problems of the Poor & Impoverished — Education’s Impact on Extreme Poverty Eradication.

Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.

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The Scandal of Starvation in a World of Plenty: World Hunger’s Ugly Truths Revealed | Part 2

June 3, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

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Food loss / waste infographic — Hunger remains one of the most urgent and challenging problems of our globe, yet the world is producing more than enough food. Recovering just half of what is lost or wasted could feed the world alone. The FAO-led Save Food initiative is working to reduce food loss and waste in both the developing and the industrialized world. Photo by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

The War on Waste

Thankfully, efforts are being made to cut the terrible waste. The World Union of Wholesale Markets, a nonprofit group representing more than 150 wholesale markets around the world, has committed to new collaboration with the U.N.-FAO to improve distribution. Only a fraction of the food business world may be involved in the initiative, but it’s a start.

Korger woman employee attending produce section — Will Kroger’s latest announcement regarding its Pickuliar Picks brand spur more retailers to step up and make an effort to minimize food waste? Photo by Kroger

Meanwhile, big businesses are recognizing the need to be better stewards. At a special gathering on reducing loss hosted by the International Food Policy Institute, Kroger executive Denise Osterhues spoke of her company’s steps in that area. The senior director for corporate affairs told how Kroger had begun marking down red-bagged produce when it neared expiration date, introduced a “Pickuliar Picks” line of imperfect produce, and developed clearer date labeling to help consumers make the most of their food purchases.

Like a growing number of other food retailers and servers, Kroger also donates surplus and past-date supplies to charitable organizations for redistribution. It gave away 90 million pounds of produce in 2018.

“It is a cruel, unjust and paradoxical reality that, today, there is food for everyone, and yet not everyone has access to it, and that in some areas of the world food is wasted, discarded and consumed in excess …”
^{Pope Francis, World Food Day 2019}

Many different charitable organizations are eager to make use of produce that doesn’t get sold for one reason or another. In 2018, the 800 members of the Global FoodBanking Network alone distributed around half a million tons of food and grocery products.

At a plant in Sultana, in the heart of California’s breadbasket San Joaquin Valley, Gleanings for the Hungry recycles bruised and misshapen fruits and vegetables from growers in the area for shipping around the world. This ministry of Youth With a Mission (YWAM) takes its name from the directive in Leviticus 19 that the Israelites should not reap to the edges of their field, but leave the “gleanings” for the poor to gather up. For the last 40 years, Gleanings for the Hungry has processed and distributed millions of pounds of produce through partner organizations.

UglyFood co-founders divert fresh produce waste away from incineration plants and landfills by transforming it instead into healthy and delectable food products. Photo by UglyFood

In Singapore, Pei Shan co-founded Ugly Food to make use of the produce that shoppers ignore because it doesn’t look nice enough. Her company turns the rejected items into healthy juices, ice cream bars, and fruit teas.

“Ultimately, we want our business to create a conversation about ‘cosmetic filtering’ and to help others rethink what they consider as waste,” she says.

Feeding India’s Magic Wheels program is a fleet of trucks that collects unused food from canteens, wedding receptions, and other events for redistribution. The vehicles are equipped with temperature-controlled insulated boxes to keep the food fresh, and donors are given a liability release form to protect them. Feeding India has also set up Happy Fridges in residential and public spaces in 25 cities. The refrigerators are stocked free by donors, and available for anyone to come and take what they want, free of charge.

Launched in Delhi in 2014, the Robin Hood Army, a zero-funds organization that relies on volunteers to collect and distribute leftover food from restaurants and other businesses, has since served more than 26.5 million meals in more than 150 cities across a dozen countries.

Undernourishment and chronic hunger worldwide — Undernourishment and chronic hunger represent the inability of persons to consume enough food sufficient to meet dietary energy requirements. Photo by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

How Hunger Harms the Human Body

Nutrition is about more than just having enough to eat, though. It’s having the right things to eat. Sometimes a body may be seemingly well-fed, but actually starving of the nutrients it really needs.

That is why, though it seems almost contradictory, there has been an alarming rise in obesity, including in low-income countries in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South and East Asia. A U.N. study in Latin America and the Caribbean found that the percentage of people there with obesity had tripled since 1975, while hunger increased 11 percent in the last four years.

As a complex machine, the human body needs high-grade fuel to run well. Without it, systems start to break down. In parts of the world where food is scarce or of poor quality, the lack of vital vitamins and minerals has a serious impact.

Insufficient iron, a condition often made worse by malaria and other infectious diseases, makes pregnancy more risky and impairs physical and cognitive development. Lack of vitamin A can lower a person’s resistance to disease, impair growth in children and cause blindness. Lack of iodine is one of the major causes of reduced cognitive development in children.

All this lack of proper nutrition poses an especially severe threat to pregnant women and newborn babies: One in seven of 2015’s live deliveries—more than 20 million babies—had a problematically low birthweight.

As with all big social issues, hunger issues are complex.
Hunger is inextricably linked to poverty, which in turn can’t be separated from war, political unrest,
and prejudice. Millions starve because of others’
actions and inactions, without even taking
into account natural disasters.

A good diet is especially crucial in the first three years, when young brains and bodies are developing. Ironically, malnutrition is linked to a higher risk of being overweight and chronic diseases like diabetes in later life.

An article by Lauren Weber graphically illustrated the importance of a good diet’s importance. A photograph featured in the article showed a dramatic difference between two five-year-olds born on the same day in Madagascar: Miranto, a good student, stood more than a head taller than Sitraka, who was unable to attend school because he hadn’t yet learned to speak properly and had trouble being still for any length of time. The difference? Their diet.

Miranto and Sitraka standing beside each other, holding hands. — Miranto and Sitraka were born on the same day in the same village in Madagascar, but Sitraka is chronically malnourished which in turn has stunted his growth and hampered his ability to communicate, sit, or stand for any length of time. © UNICEF/UN025900/MICHEL

Sitraka was a victim of “stunting,” low height for age because of chronic nutrient deficiency. Like him, “most chronically malnourished children are shorter than their healthier peers,” she states.

In 2017, the UN found almost 151 million children under age 5 were too short for their age due to malnutrition. Africa and Asia accounted for 39 percent and 55 percent of all stunted children, respectively. Nearly 38 percent of children under 5 in India were found to be stunted in 2018, accounting for a third of the world’s total. The countries with the next-highest numbers were Nigeria and Pakistan.

Such children’s immune systems are weaker, “leaving them more susceptible to repeated infections. And their brains do not develop fully, leading to lower IQs and a decrease in lifetime productivity” said Weber.

“Wasting,” meanwhile, is evidenced by low body weight for age, with the associated reduced muscle mass leaving children at greater risk of death from what might otherwise be minor infections. In 2017, one in ten children in Asia was underweight for their age, compared to just one in 100 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Children eating food — A healthy, nutritious meal once each day is just one of the many benefits children receive while enrolled in GFA’s Bridge of Hope Program, which supports tens of thousands of kids throughout Asia.

Hunger’s Hidden Costs

The high cost of hunger might be seen better by evaluating its absence.

“In adulthood, per capita income of individuals who were not stunted at two years is higher compared to individuals who were stunted at two years,” said the U.N. “This increase comes about through the impact of improved nutrition on income through higher schooling and better cognitive skills. In fact, a reduction in global levels of stunting by 20 percent would represent a rise in income of 11 percent.”

Mother with children inside house — Being a widow in South Asia is not easy—in order to provide for their children, many widows are forced to beg on the streets or turn to prostitution.

Hunger doesn’t just endanger people’s physical and intellectual development. It can damage their souls as well as their organs.

After visiting Zimbabwe, a country ravaged by drought and a sluggish economy, Hilal Elver, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, noted some other effects of food scarcity.

“The most vulnerable segments of society, including the elderly, children and women, are forced to rely upon coping mechanisms such as, school dropout, early marriage, and sex trade to obtain food, behavioral patterns that often are accompanied by domestic violence,” she said. “This kind of struggle for subsistence affects their physical well-being and self-respect. It creates behavior and conditions that violate their most fundamental human rights.”

In common with other big social issues, it’s women and children who are often worst affected by hunger. Young women need iron-rich food to replenish what’s lost during menstruation, or they will face anemia, which can lead to heightened incidence of maternal deaths and stillbirths. A World Food Programme (WFP) study found 15- to 19-year-old girls in one part of Uganda had anemia rates two to three times higher than the national average.

Malnutrition statistics of children worldwide — Photo by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

The WFP report urged making greater efforts to keep adolescent girls in school and provide them with nutritious diets. A separate study by the organization found multiple benefits from school feeding programs in Indonesia. Enrollment, attendance, and understanding went up, while drop-out rates fell. The benefits went beyond the individual students and their futures, however.

Free school meals made limited household money available for other needs, which reduced the pressure on keeping kids away from school to help around the home or earn income. The study concluded that for every dollar invested in the feeding program there would be a five-fold return to the economy over the lifetime of each beneficiary.

As with all big social issues, hunger issues are complex. Hunger is inextricably linked to poverty, which in turn can’t be separated from war, political unrest, and prejudice. Millions starve because of others’ actions and inactions, without even taking into account natural disasters.

Free meals given out to children at the GFA Bridge of Hope center — Free school meals at Bridge of Hope make limited household money available for other needs, which reduces the pressure on keeping kids away from school to help around the home or earn income.

Malnutrition isn’t just a result of not having enough to eat, or even not having enough of the right things to eat. World Hunger notes that in many parts of Asia, “poor and insufficient sanitation and hygiene practices can increase the spread of disease and infection.” Two central sanitation issues contribute to up to half the cases of child malnourishment: the lack of access to clean water, and the presence of open defecation, which is still a problem in many parts of India. The elimination of the practice has been sought through a large-scale push of education and construction of community toilets undertaken by India’s government and non-profit groups such as Gospel for Asia (GFA).

In Ethiopia, a focus on ending open defecation helped to drastically improve nutrition levels and cut child stunting almost in half between 2000 and 2014, though the reduced 40 percent level remains “unacceptably high.”

The downward spiral of inadequate diet and poor sanitation and hygiene has been spotlighted in a United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund report: “Diarrhea or infectious disease can cause loss of micronutrients or inhibit consumption of sufficient nutritional foods, weakening an individual to become more susceptible to severe illness, and thus exacerbating the micronutrient deficiency.”

Give Food, Aid to Victims of Hunger & Starvation

Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report on The Scandal of Starvation in a World of Plenty: World Hunger’s Ugly Truths Revealed — Part 1, Part 3

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

Read another Special Report from Gospel for Asia on Poverty: Public Enemy #1 – Eliminating Extreme Poverty Worldwide is Possible, But Not Inevitable.

Learn more by reading this special report from Gospel for Asia: Solutions to Poverty-Line Problems of the Poor & Impoverished — Education’s Impact on Extreme Poverty Eradication.

Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

The Scandal of Starvation in a World of Plenty: World Hunger’s Ugly Truths Revealed | Part 1

June 1, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

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There are many things wrong with our broken world, from prejudice and violence to modern-day slavery. The United Nations has identified 16 top enemies of humankind, with ambitious aims to tame if not defeat them by 2030. But have you ever paused to wonder what subjects top Jesus’s list of great ills?

4 month old malnourished baby — In March 2016, 4 month-old Farhan Abbas was accompanied by his grandmother to SC Children’s Hospital in Punjab, Pakistan, where he was diagnosed with severe wasting and provided immediate nourishment. © UNICEF/UN0281410/Pirozzi

Hunger is one of them. Shortly before His betrayal, Jesus spoke to His disciples about the coming judgment, when everyone will appear before Him. He told of those who will inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, and why.

“For I was hungry and you gave Me food,” he began (Matthew 25:35). He went on to name the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned. Meeting their needs was also a reflection of God’s kingdom, He said. But He recognized empty bellies first.

Perhaps that is because it is hard to hear anything else above the rumble of an empty stomach. Words of hope for a better tomorrow—whether practical advice or spiritual encouragement—tend to fall on deaf ears when someone has eaten little or nothing for too long.

Gospel for Asia (GFA) founder K.P. Yohannan said, “If you see a dying man begging on the street, how can you share the Good News with him and not give him something to eat?”

When hunger muffles your hearing, it’s not because of frustration but physiology. When you are hungry, your body starts to do what it can to conserve energy. Like a computer, it shuts down peripheral programs. In the short term, hunger makes it harder for you to concentrate. Over time, it makes it harder for you to understand. You go from not having the desire to learn to not having the ability.

Children standing in line — Every day, many children around the world, don’t get enough nutritious food to eat. But kids enrolled at Bridge of Hope Centers throughout Asia receive a healthy, balanced meal every day, along with a daily education, school supplies, and regular medical checkups.

Consider the student faintings last year that became common at the Augusto D’Aubeterre Lyceum school in Boca de Uchire, Venezuela, in the wake of the country’s severe economic crisis. They occurred because so many students went to class without eating breakfast, or dinner the night before, reported The New York Times. At other schools, children wanted to know if there would be any food before they decided whether to go at all. “You can’t educate skeletal and hungry people,” one teacher said. Hence hunger is not just a desperate and immediate personal issue. It is also a long-term social and global crisis, directly or indirectly causing around 9 million deaths each year—more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. One report has estimated the annual impact on the global economy of malnutrition through lost potential and production to be as much as $3.5 trillion, or $500 for every single person in the world.

That is the financial impact of what Roger Thurow, a Senior Fellow on Global Food and Agriculture at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, has called malnutrition a “life sentence of underachievement and underperformance.” If you ask why some countries remain poor or why development aid isn’t as effective as possible and doesn’t have the impact many think it should, he said, “it’s because so many kids are getting off to a horrible start in life.”

COVID-19 Accelerates Starvation in Asia

Food distribution at Punjab, India — 600 migrant laborers in Punjab jobless due to COVID-19, get food from Bishop Martin Mor Aprem who tries social distancing. “We know the risks. But this is the only food they will get in 2-3 days.”

The global COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated hunger fears. Lockdowns and stay-at-home orders brought national economies to a grinding halt overnight, sending unemployment soaring, and instantly plunging hundreds of millions of families into survival mode.

At the grassroots level, millions of furloughed day laborers and agricultural workers—the backbone of the workforce in many developing nations—faced the grim threat of watching their families starve. “These nations are in the hands of God right now,” said Yohannan. “There is a real danger that millions could starve to death.”

In southeast Asia, hundreds of millions of children were immediately at risk, as the lockdown paralyzed entire nations. Huge numbers of street children—estimated at 70,000+ in some cities in Asia alone—had no one to beg from and no one to turn to.

“When a crisis hits, the children are always hit the hardest,” Yohannan said. For more details on this story, go here.

Food Insecurity, World Hunger Are Increasing

5-year-old Meena, standing in a sewer — A haunting photo of little Meena in Bombay, India, standing in a sewer, a silent victim of poverty.

In the measured words of officials and academics, those who don’t have enough to eat are victims of “food insecurity,” not knowing if and when they will eat next or whether it will be enough. The impact of hunger is seen in what they call “wasting” and “stunting,” which describe the different ways lack of food keeps someone from developing physically as they should.

In the everyday world, hunger is 5-year-old Meena, who was reduced to begging for scraps from strangers and eating sewage-soaked dirt off the streets of Mumbai, India. Not long after her haunted image was photographed, she went into a coma and died.

It is not only an issue in parts of the world where lack is as clearly obvious, however. People also suffer from hunger in places like Liverpool, England, where one young boy chewed wallpaper at night, not wanting to tell his mother how hungry he was because he knew that she didn’t have any money for supper.

Concerted attempts to eradicate hunger are not new. Though he rallied the collective effort to put a man on the moon in the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy was less successful in achieving another ambitious goal he voiced.

“We have the ability, as members of the human race, we have the means, we have the capacity to eliminate hunger from the face of the earth in our lifetime,” he said. “We need only the will.”

Despite best efforts, from governments to the grassroots, it is not a problem that is going away. Worldwide, hunger increased in 2018 for the third successive year. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 820 million people did not get enough to eat that year.

The largest concentration of undernourished people is in Asia, especially South Asia, with the region accounting for two-thirds of all the malnourished children in the world. In India, nearly 200 million people are undernourished. The country was ranked 103rd of 119 in the 2018 Global Hunger Index.

According to the UN report, however, Africa “has the highest rates of hunger in the world and [these] are continuing to slowly but steadily rise in almost all subregions.” Indeed, more than a quarter of Africa’s population was classified as food-insecure in 2016, more than four times the rate of any other region. The Global Hunger Index includes six African nations among the ten hungriest worldwide: the Central African Republic, Chad, Madagascar, Zambia, Liberia and Zimbabwe.

“We have the ability, as members of the human race, we have the means, we have the capacity to eliminate hunger from the face of the earth in our lifetime, we need only the will.”
President John F. Kennedy
World Food Congress, June 4, 1963

One small indicator of the seriousness of hunger is that it gets not one but two annual days of international attention. This year’s World Hunger Day (May 28) will focus on “sustainability.” Organized by The Hunger Project, it will emphasize how long-term solutions must address issues interwoven with hunger, such as political instability, the environment and gender inequality. The U.N.’s World Food Day is to be observed October 16, marking the founding of the body’s food and agriculture organization.

Feeding leprosy patients — Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers provide a free meal to those in a leper colony on January 1st, 2018 in Uttar Pradesh, India.

World Hunger’s Ugly Truths Revealed

Each year, Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers recognize the U.N. event with a host of special feeding programs. They take food packages to local communities in need—including homeless people who beg by railway and bus stations—and prepare meals for the residents of leprosy colonies who are ostracized and unable to find work.

Sisters of Compassion comforts a sad mother whose son is sick. — Sisters of Compassion seen here are comforting a sad mother whose son is sick. After praying for them both, they will provide food or supplies to meet their specific needs. Through their loving kindness, lives are being given physical and spiritual nourishment in God’s name.

As Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers provide simple, nutritious food—such as bread, eggs, and bananas, pulse curry and vegetables—they extend a lifeline to people like Lalita. At 32 she had been living by the footpath near a railway station when some of Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Sisters of Compassion arrived with food.

“I lost my husband six years ago, after which my family abandoned me, as I am blind,” she told the visitors. “Now, I cannot do any work. Today I am happy that I received this food packet.”

Hunger is ugly on many levels, not least because many of its root causes are human action and inaction—wars, corruption, and environmental mismanagement. Three additional realities make it even more difficult to swallow:

There is enough food in the world to go around.
A lot of good food just gets thrown away, some merely because it doesn’t look picture-perfect.
While millions go hungry because they can’t afford to eat, others spend large amounts of money following fad diets.

Pope Francis called out some of these wrongs in a 2019 World Food Day message: “It is a cruel, unjust and paradoxical reality that, today, there is food for everyone, and yet not everyone has access to it, and that in some areas of the world food is wasted, discarded and consumed in excess, or destined for other purposes than nutrition.”

Improvements in global food production mean that the world produces a harvest big enough to feed everyone on the planet one-and-a-half times over. Yet fully a third of all the food that is produced goes to waste—discarded in production, lost somewhere along the farm-to-table route, or thrown away by end-consumers: restaurants, institutions like hospitals, and families. It has been reckoned that, globally, around $1 trillion worth of food is lost or wasted each year.

Losses before food gets to the consumer are highest in Central and South Asia, reflecting the bigger challenges in the supply chain there. However, North America is high in the overall waste league—some 133 billion pounds each year.

And that’s just considering the immediate value of the food. The wider cost is “a major squandering of resources, including water, land, energy, labor and capital.”

Give Food, Aid to Victims of Hunger & Starvation

Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report on The Scandal of Starvation in a World of Plenty: World Hunger’s Ugly Truths Revealed — Part 2, Part 3

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

Read another Special Report from Gospel for Asia on Poverty: Public Enemy #1 – Eliminating Extreme Poverty Worldwide is Possible, But Not Inevitable.

Learn more by reading this special report from Gospel for Asia: Solutions to Poverty-Line Problems of the Poor & Impoverished — Education’s Impact on Extreme Poverty Eradication.

Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Fresh Water: An Increasingly Scarce Resource More Vital than Oil or Gold | Part #2

May 27, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

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WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, has been the model for numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to help the poor and deprived worldwide, issued this second part of a special report on fresh water: an increasingly scarce resource more vital than oil or gold.

Women drawing water from a dirty and dried up river — These women in Assam have to visit the river several times daily to fetch water that is dirty, muddy and becoming increasingly scarce.

New Technologies Promise Relief

Despite an often bleak scenario, there are optimistic signs that technology can help address shortages. A recent story discussed how Watergen, an Israeli-based company uses air-to-water technology to deliver drinking water to remote areas. Its machines filter water vapor out of the air, the largest of which can provide 6,000 liters a day and has been used at hospitals in the Gaza Strip and rural villages in central Africa.^[21]

Watergen’s president, Michael Mirilashvili, told the BBC that its system alleviates the need to build water transportation systems, dispelling worries about heavy metals in pipes, cleaning contaminated groundwater, or polluting the planet with plastic bottles.^[22]

“A study conducted by scientists from Israel’s Tel Aviv University found that even in urban areas … it is possible to extract drinking water to a standard set by the World Health Organization,” wrote business reporter Natalie Lisbona. “In other words, clean water can be converted from air that is dirty or polluted.”^[23]

Despite its increasing scarcity, there are optimistic signs that technology of various kinds can help address fresh water shortages around the globe.

Watergen’s isn’t the only such technology being developed. A story by science journalist Duane Chavez outlined two others.

The first is a system proposed by engineers from the State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Wisconsin. It uses carbon paper evaporators and condensers that emit more energy than they absorb, reducing the temperature below the dew point to achieve vapor condensation.

The other is a passive system developed by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley. It extracts water from dry air by consuming solar energy, based on a new type of porous material called Metal-Organic Frameworks.^[24]

Other methods to address freshwater scarcity include the following:

Scientists from the UK’s University of Manchester are working on a desalination alternative—a graphite oxide sieve that retains salt and only allows water to pass through. In 2019, the university’s National Graphene Institute began collaborating with a portable water filtration company to develop new water purification devices based on this technology.^[25]

LifeStraw is a plastic tube nearly nine inches long and about an inch wide that has a filtration system to remove protozoa, bacteria and other harmful materials from water. One unit can provide personal water filtration for up to three years. The technology is marketed in bottle format as well as in larger systems and has been used in places like Haiti, Rwanda and Pakistan.^[26]

A “Safe Water Book” developed by a chemist and her husband contains tear-out pages that are water filters and can provide germ-free water for four years. Their company, Folia Water, has tested the product in Africa, Asia and Latin America and begun distribution in Bangladesh. A similar product, “The Drinkable Book,” has been developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.^[27]

Associate Professor Haolan Xu leads a team of researchers at the University of South Australia who have developed a device to help with water purification. Photo by University of South Australia

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of South Australia have refined a technique to derive fresh water from sea water, brackish water or contaminated water through solar evaporation. The device includes a photothermal structure that sits on the surface of a water source and converts sunlight to heat, rapidly evaporating the uppermost portion of the liquid.^[28]

“We have developed a technique that not only prevents any loss of solar energy, but actually draws additional energy from the bulk water and surrounding environment,” said Haolan Xu, the associate professor who leads the team. “[That means] the system operates at 100 percent efficiency for the solar input and draws up to another 170 percent energy from the water and environment.”^[29]

Bucket full of contaminated water — Assam: The only water available in this rural village has a very bad odor and taste. If stored in a container, the color of the water changes and a layer of chemicals can be seen. The water has all been contaminated by arsenic, but is being ingested by the entire community.

Conservation Efforts are Helping

Cape Town, South Africa — Cape Town, Africa: After a alarming water shortage in 2018, conservation efforts have brought stability to Cape Town’s ongoing water supply.

Sometimes the solutions aren’t as dazzling but still matter, as demonstrated in San Antonio. The southern Texas city found itself in a legal battle 31 years ago over arguments it pumped too much water from the Edwards Aquifer, a major groundwater source. The Sierra Club’s victory in the case forced San Antonio to limit withdrawals.^[30]

Conservation efforts that followed included better irrigation and landscaping, installation of water flow sensors, and rebates to residents who install pool filters or convert grass into patios. Despite 80% growth in their population since 1991, San Antonio has decreased per-person water use by 20%.^[31]

Cape Town, South Africa, also had to reduce water consumption after nearly running dry in 2018. Three years later, “I definitely think that there has been a permanent behavior shift,” said Limberg, a local appointed official and a mayoral committee member for waste and water in Cape Town . “There’s definitely been a greater awareness to conserve water, and of how incredibly finite this resource is, and how vulnerable we are if we face a shortage of water.”^[32]

Enhanced water meters also help. WaterOn, a device produced by India-based Smarter Homes, is a metering and leakage prevention system. In 2019 it saved 40,000 apartment households an average of 35 percent of their water consumption. In one region it saves millions of gallons of water each month.^[33]

Low-tech Tools Can Also Be Economical Solutions

Then there are more basic solutions that help numerous people, like drilling wells in areas that lack access to fresh water. This video below shares the story of one village in Nepal that benefitted from this approach provided by their local church.

Nepal: Getting fresh water was a constant time-consuming challenge for this entire village until the local church installed a Jesus Well which resolved the water shortage and benefitted their entire community.

People in this village enjoy clean drinking water through this GFA World Jesus Well — This Jesus Well in Assam has become very useful to the villagers who did not have clean drinking water, especially during rainy season. They now use the water for drinking, cooking, washing clothes, bathing, and even water their cattle with it.

For just over two decades, Gospel for Asia (GFA World) has helped drill Jesus Wells in Asia. These wells provide clean water at a cost of less than five dollars per person.^[34] GFA also distributes BioSand water filters, devices that use concrete, different types of sand and gravel to remove impurities, providing water for drinking and cooking that is 98 percent pure.^[35]

Clean water solutions from GFA World - Jesus Wells and BioSand Water Filters

The value such low-tech solutions provide is evident in the numbers: it costs about $1,400 to drill a Jesus Well, which may provide clean water for up to 300 people per day for 10 to 20 years. While a BioSand water filter only supplies water to one family at a cost of $30 per unit, it offers a readily available clean drinking source for a similar five-dollar figure.

GFA World medical camp

Over the years, more than 38 million people in Asia have received safe drinking water through GFA World’s clean water initiatives. In addition to providing water wells and filters, Gospel for Asia (GFA World) conducts free medical camps that offer treatment for such water-linked ailments as diarrhea—the most serious illness children face worldwide.

Despite complexities resulting from pandemic restrictions, the faith-based organization continues to meet a desperate need, with founder K.P. Yohannan noting that in the next 20 years, global water demand is expected to surge more than 50%.

“This desperate situation is especially acute in Asia, where millions of families get their drinking water from the only source available to them—often a dirty river or stagnant pond, which are breeding grounds for parasites and deadly bacteria,” Yohannan said. “It’s a problem we as a ministry have been actively helping to combat for years.”

Make a donation to provide clean, fresh drinking water »

If this special report has touched your heart and you would like to help give clean water to a needy village in Asia, then make a generous one time or monthly gift toward Jesus Wells and Water Filters.

About 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 a typical year, this includes 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 to provide hope and encouragement 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 the Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.

Read the rest of this GFA World Special Report: Fresh Water: An Increasingly Scarce Resource More Vital than Oil or Gold — Part 1

Learn more about how to provide pure, clean water to families and villages through GFA World Jesus Wells and BioSand Water Filters.

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Read what 25 Christian Leaders are affirming about Gospel for Asia.

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

Fresh Water: An Increasingly Scarce Resource More Vital than Oil or Gold | Part #1

May 25, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

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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 first part of a special report on fresh water: an increasingly scarce resource more vital than oil or gold.

Increasing demand on rivers, lakes and streams, compounded by changing weather patterns, population growth and economic development, is leaving us in a world where many people are struggling to find enough fresh water to survive. (I’ll develop this topic below, to add to our previous essays on water stress globally, solutions to the world water crisis, and those that are dying of thirst.)

Boy from Nepal collects dirty water from a puddle for drinking — Nepal: As the water levels underground started shrinking, people in this remote Nepali village had to resort to collecting water from small puddles in the forest for drinking. This boy was asked by his parents, who were working in the field, to fetch water from one of these puddles, but the water from these open areas is often full of germs and bacteria as animals also use them.

Water is a resource that is becoming more precious than gold, according to various headlines from around the world.^[1][2] One news story included a somber prediction by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that future climate instability will create serious water shortages.^[3]

In the IPCC August 2020 report, the Geneva-based organization forecast that rising temperatures over the next two decades will spark changes in the world’s water cycle, with wet areas becoming wetter and arid lands prone to greater drought.^[4]

“There is already strong evidence that we are seeing such changes,” said Professor Mike Meredith, a lead author for IPCC and scientist at the British Antarctic Survey. “In some dry regions, droughts will become worse and long lasting. Such risks are compounded by knock-on consequences, such as greater risk of wildfires, [which] we are already seeing.”^[5]

Just after the report’s release, the Cable News Network (CNN) reported that Middle Eastern countries like Iran, Iraq and Jordan are pumping vast amounts of water from the ground for irrigation to improve food self-sufficiency. Charles Iceland, global director of water at the World Resources Institute, told the network that while this can compensate for a decrease in rainfall, it also results in falling groundwater levels.^[6]

The four-person CNN team report noted areas around the globe where that’s happening, like in Iran, where a vast network of dams sustains an agricultural sector that drinks up about 90% of the water the country uses. “Both declining rainfall and increasing demand in these countries are causing many rivers, lakes, and wetlands to dry up,” Iceland told CNN. “The consequences of water becoming scarcer are dire: Areas could become uninhabitable; tensions over how to share and manage water resources like rivers and lakes could worsen; more political violence could erupt.”^[7]

Lake Mead and Hoover Dam - Year comparison 1983 and 2021 — Western US: In the 1980s the waters of Lake Mead flowed rapidly over the Hoover Dam spillway, but after many years of drought along the Colorado River, the water level has dropped dramatically. Photo by LasVegasNevada.gov

The situation threatens wealthier countries, too. The New York Times reported larger future cuts in water consumption are likely for 40 million people in the West who rely on rivers. For the first time ever, last August, the U.S. federal government declared a water shortage at Nevada’s Lake Mead, a main reservoir for the Colorado River. Initially, that will mostly affect farmers in Arizona. In addition to seven U.S. states, two in Mexico draw water from the Colorado. Besides providing drinking water, it irrigates desert crops and generates hydroelectric power. Scientists say the only way to alleviate the problem is to reduce demand.^[8]

“As this inexorable-seeming decline in the supply continues, the shortages that we’re beginning to see implemented are only going to increase,” said Jennifer Pitt, who directs the Colorado River program at the National Audubon Society. “Once we’re on that train, it’s not clear where it stops.”^[9]

Water is a resource that is becoming more precious than gold, oil or gas, according to various headlines from around the world. But the consequences of water becoming scarcer are dire — as areas become uninhabitable, tensions worsen and violence could erupt.

Weeks before this news, analysts at the London-based financial giant Barclays issued a research note that identified water scarcity as the most important environmental concern for global consumer staples, affecting everything from food and beverages to agriculture and tobacco.^[10] Circle of Blue reported that major companies are increasingly concerned about water’s availability, with the average price between 2010 and 2019 increasing by 60 percent in the 30 largest U.S. cities.^[11]

Beth Burks, director of sustainable finance at S&P Global Ratings, told CNBC, “Water scarcity is really important because when it runs out you have really serious problems.”^[12]

Dried up river around the area of Mharashtra in the month of April and May — India: During the months of April and May this area in Maharashtra and the villages around it face drought and a severe shortage of fresh water. The rivers, canals, and wells completely dry up, causing great difficulties for people and their animals.

Fresh Water Scarcity – the “Invisible” Hand Behind Many Global Crises

Water problems especially affect the 1.1 billion people who lack access to a basic drinking source.

Then there are millions more who devote many waking hours to obtaining it. According to the non-governmental organization H2O for Life, women and children in many communities spend up to 60% of each day collecting water.

A 2021 report for the Council on Foreign Relations identified the Middle East and North Africa as the worst for physical water stress. In addition to receiving less rainfall, the countries’ fast-growing, densely-populated urban centers require more water. It’s estimated that 70% of the world’s fresh water is used for agriculture, with another 19% going to industrial use and 11% for domestic, including drinking.^[16]

A mother and her child walk long distances to acquire water that is often times unclean and contaminated — Assam: Before a Jesus Well was installed in her village, this 30 year old mother of four had to make the fifteen minute walk from her home to the closest water source. She would fetch water four-five times in a day, carrying the heavy load on her head. This water was contaminated though, and the family would suffer from skin diseases and other health issues like diarrhea, typhoid, stomach problems, etc.

Water problems directly affect 1.1 billion people who lack access to a basic drinking source. Then there are millions more who have to spend up to 60% of each day collecting water.

The report for the CFR said water scarcity is usually divided into two categories: 1) Physical scarcity related to ecological conditions and 2) Economic scarcity because of inadequate infrastructure.^[17]

“The two frequently come together to cause water stress,” wrote Claire Felter and Kali Robinson in their report entitled: “Water Stress: A Global Problem That’s Getting Worse.” “For instance, a stressed area can have both a shortage of rainfall as well as a lack of adequate water and sanitation facilities. Experts say that when there are significant natural causes for a region’s water stress, human factors are often central to the problem.”^[18]

Shaz Memon (centre), founder of Wells on Wheels. Photo by Wells on Wheels

Water scarcity is the “invisible” hand behind many humanitarian crises, said Shaz Memon, a British entrepreneur and founder of the charity Wells on Wheels. In a recent commentary, he named Yemen as one of the world’s most water-scarce countries, a condition leading to social and political upheaval. For example, he notes that in Nigeria the Boko Haram insurgency in 2010 arose because of a demand for clean drinking water. Drought and water scarcity was also a pivotal factor behind Syria’s civil war as well, according to Memon.

“Water is a precious, life-giving commodity; it becomes more scarce because it isn’t treated as such,” Memon wrote. “Unlike gold, oil or gas, it is not priced in relation to its global scarcity. … However, there are some who understand water’s status as a valuable commodity. Goldman Sachs has said water could be the ‘petroleum of the 21st century.’”^[19]

Such observations underscore the significance of the United Nations’ World Water Day, set for March 22 with the theme ‟Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible.” The UN calls groundwater a vital resource that provides almost half of all drinking water worldwide, sustains ecosystems, maintains the baseflow of rivers, and prevents land subsidence and seawater intrusion.^[20]

Make a donation to provide clean, fresh drinking water »

About GFA World

GFA World (www.gfa.org) 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 a typical year, this includes 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 to provide hope and encouragement 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 the Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.

Read the rest of this GFA World Special Report: Fresh Water: An Increasingly Scarce Resource More Vital than Oil or Gold — Part 2

Learn more about how to provide pure, clean water to families and villages through GFA World Jesus Wells and BioSand Water Filters.

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Read what 25 Christian Leaders are affirming about Gospel for Asia.

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

Young Victims Remain Hidden in Pandemic’s Shadow | GFA World Special Report #3

May 20, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

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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 third part of a Special Report update on girls facing decreased opportunity and increased violence, the young victims who remain hidden in the shadow of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Mother with her son and daughter in front of an outdoor toilet gifted through GFA World donors — This mother no longer needs to worry about her young daughter as her family now has safety and dignity through the generous Christmas gift of a toilet provided through a Gospel for Asia (GFA) donor.

Fostering Safety and Education

While meeting the basic needs of girls, non-profits and communities and families must also work to value and protect girls and their education. Malala Fund is partnering with organizations and governments in several developing nations to promote digital learning, secure education funding for girls and ensure girls’ mental and physical well-being during school closures.^[33]

Malala Yousafzai, Malala Fund Co-Founder Photo by Dr. Flavia Bustreo, Instagram

“Our goal should not be a return to the way things were but instead a renewed commitment to the way the world should be, a place where every girl can learn and lead.”^[34]

Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers have encouraged communities to promote girls’ education, even during the pandemic. Last October, Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers in one community held a small International Day of the Girl celebration at the local church, where regional pastors and a Women’s Fellowship leader shared about the importance of valuing girls.

“Children are a gift from God; they are His reward,” explained the Women’s Fellowship leader, referencing Psalm 127.

International Day Of The Girl Child observed in GFA World church — To mark the International Day of the Girl Child, Gospel for Asia (GFA World) held an event at a local church during the COVID-19 pandemic in October 2020, to promote the importance of girls’ education, and highlight ways to value daughters, and to distribute pens and chocolate bars to those in attendance, and pray for each girl present.

One of the pastors then prayed for each girl present while the other attendees lifted their hands toward the girls in a sign of agreement with his prayer of blessing. At the end of the program, the girls each received a pen and a chocolate bar.

These may seem like small gifts, but even small ways of showing respect for girls can impact a community.

“I acknowledged the fact that a girl child is a great blessing for the family, church and in our society, who must not be considered as a burden, rather an instrument for source of blessings,” said one woman present.

“A girl child must not be shown any partiality from her parents nor put down without knowing her potential. … She must be educated well and needs to be motivated,” shared a 15-year-old girl who attended.

As churches, non-profits and governments work together to help girls reach their potential, girls will most likely have safer communities. Parents who value their daughters will probably spend more time with them, engage them in conversation more often, and help them to develop healthy relationships. In countries where technology is available, this means parents will safeguard their daughters’ online experience.

As families and communities choose to embrace and educate their daughters, girls will face a lower risk of trafficking, violence and abuse.

Group of young women / girls — Over the next three years, Malala Fund is addressing the immediate and long-term implications of the pandemic on girls’ education in five ways: 1. Keep girls learning through school closures; 2. Re-enroll girls to catch up on missed lessons; 3. Support teachers with resources and training needed to deliver a quality education; 4. Strengthen education systems against future crises; 5. Ensure girls’ physical and psychological well-being in the classrooms. Photo by Dr. Flavia Bustreo, Instagram

Fighting Injustice

A mother, daughter and child in Ethiopia, where child marriages are common. — Ethiopia – east of Addis Ababa: The Hunger Project is actively working with Her Choice to end child marriages by setting up Girls Clubs and making sanitary pads available. In this way teenage girls can attend school as much as possible. Alemtsheya was able to ask the Girls Club for help when her parents wanted to marry her at the age of 15. “My step-mother suddenly found me a man who wanted to marry me and he had a good income. My parents liked that. But I didn’t like that at all! I wanted to stay in school and learn a profession. But my parents didn’t want to listen to me.” Photo by Her Choice

While creating safe environments for girls is key, organizations and governments must also work together to end child marriage and trafficking and provide justice and care to girls who have already been victimized.

In 134 countries, child marriage (marriage where at least one partner is under age 18) can happen if a parent, judge or authority consents.^[35] In the United States, several states allow for child marriage if a parent consents. North Carolina and Alaska allow a girl to be married at 14 if she is pregnant.^[36] In 2002, North Carolina received a marriage application from a 57-year-old wanting to marry a 17-year-old.^[37] Because of exceptions in the law, a teenage girl may be pressured or even forced into marriage by her parents or others, so advocates suggest that governments should keep the marriage age at 18—with no exceptions.^[38]

Calling on governments to remove exceptions to the legal marriage age can protect girls from experiencing statutory rape and/or being forced to marry someone who may have abused them. It can help these girls grow up with a better chance of finishing school and choosing a partner when they are old enough to know what is right for them.

As churches, non-profits and governments work together to help girls reach their fullest potential, girls will most likely have safer communities. And as families within communities choose to embrace and educate their daughters, girls will face a lower risk of trafficking, violence and abuse.

The Dominican Republic reached a milestone this year in the fight against child marriage: On January 6, the nation’s president approved a bill removing any grounds for child marriage.^[39] Now that marriage is prohibited for anyone under age 18 in the Dominican Republic, girls there will be less vulnerable to human trafficking and abuse.

Portrait of a girl — It is estimated that nearly 30 MILLION people are being trafficked worldwide. The average lifespan of a trafficking victim is 7-10 years, and the average age of sex trafficking victims is 13 years old. Girls are at a higher risk.

Meanwhile, despite the pandemic, organizations such as International Justice Mission, Freedom Firm and Exodus Cry have continued their work to rescue girls (and other victims) from trafficking, bring justice to traffickers and provide care to survivors.

One victory in the fight against trafficking occurred in the success of the Traffickinghub campaign, which has been shining a light on the prevalence of the abuse of women and children found on the website Pornhub.^[40] The Traffickinghub campaign, along with a New York Times editorial by Nicholas Kristof, drew attention to this and eventually encouraged government leaders and businesses to investigate allegations that Pornhub was profiting from child pornography and rape.^[41] Eventually, Visa, Mastercard and Discover refused to process transactions on the site, and Pornhub had to remove nearly 80 percent of its videos. Meanwhile, senators have introduced two bills in Congress to help protect women and girls from pornography being posted online without their consent; one bill makes it easy for victims to sue platforms like Pornhub, and another requires such platforms to provide proof of age and consent for the individuals appearing in videos.^[42]

A New Beginning

Portrait of a girl in darkness — COVID-19 has been making the lives of girls more difficult and dangerous. Months of poverty, neglect and violence have the potential to derail girls’ futures. For girls, a single mistake—or a single experience of abuse—can yield years of pain or injustice.

Serena, one of the women interviewed by Kristof, was 14 when a classmate asked her to send him a naked video of herself. She did, and he posted it on Pornhub without her consent. As classmates mocked her for it, she fell down a spiral of shame, suicide attempts and drug addiction.^[43]

“A whole life can be changed because of one little mistake,” she told Kristof.^[44]

Making mistakes is a normal part of a child’s development. But for girls, the cost of a “mistake” is often too high. Trusting someone who turns out to be untrustworthy or failing to stay safe online could entrap a girl in years of abuse and exploitation. For some girls, lacking a strong family or support system simply endangers them, apart from any decisions they have made. Girls’ risks are increasing, whether they are making “mistakes” or not.

For Alexis Martin, one mistake was trusting a man who ended up trafficking her.^[45] Now, although life on parole has its hardships, she is free from trafficking and free from prison. She has been living with a mentor and working to save money, buy a car and attend college. She now goes by Kee, a shortened version of her middle name, to remind herself that she is a new person.^[46]

Young girl holding a chalkboard with Education written on it — “If girls learn one thing from my life so far, I hope it’s that speaking out about the issues they care about can make a difference, no matter their age.” — Malala

For girls, a single mistake—or a single experience of abuse—can yield years of pain or injustice. COVID-19 has been making their lives more difficult and more dangerous. Months of poverty, neglect and violence have the potential to derail girls’ futures. Like Alexis, girls who have endured trauma can gain a fresh start, but they will need support, advocacy and help to break the grip of destructive forces on their lives. That’s why it’s more vital than ever to provide girls with safe, nurturing environments and to bring justice and aid to those who’ve been abused.

There is much work to be done, but organizations, communities and governments can work together to equip girls with education; protect them from trafficking, child marriage and violence; and help girls who have been exploited find restoration. The COVID-19 pandemic will have years of consequences, but with God’s help, we can prevent it from destroying girls’ lives. We can witness a new beginning.

Give to Help Girls at Risk »

If you want to support girls in South Asia and Africa, consider a one-time donation to help young victims who have been delivered from desperate situations in their lives, but are still struggling everyday. Your gift will provide for their pressing needs, while we locate permanent sponsors to cover their monthly needs to remain in school.

Read the rest of this Gospel for Asia – Transforming Communities (GFA World) Special Report: Young Victims Remain Hidden in Pandemic’s Shadow — Part 1, Part 2

About 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/.

GFA’s Statement About Coronavirus

Learn more by reading this Special Report from Gospel for Asia on the Lord’s work in 2020 through GFA and the partnerships worldwide while following Him in His work in 16 nations, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Read what 25 Christian Leaders are affirming about GFA World.

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.