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On a frigid day in January, 2025, World Relief’s Chicago office welcomed a refugee family — Mahasen, a Syrian single mother and her five children, the youngest an 18-months old. Just a few days later, promised government funding for her family and almost 4,000 other newly-arrived refugees in our care was cut. What did this mean? It meant promised funds for essentials like rent, food and household items for the first 90 days of these refugees in the U.S. were no longer available. A critical lifeline for families like Mahasen’s had vanished.
Mahasen isn’t alone — she is one of more than 122 million mothers, fathers, grandparents and children who have had to flee their homes in search of safety.1 Heartbreakingly, at last count, 47 million of these people were children. Infants like Yousif’s baby, whom he and his wife clutched as they fled Afghanistan when the Taliban took over. Children like Lyubov’s, when the family fled their town in Ukraine in search of a safer place within the country. Displacement — and the loss of shelter, stability and security — is the burden they carry.
Conflict in Ukraine. Famine and war in Sudan. Gang violence in Haiti. Earthquakes, drought and flooding. These events are wreaking havoc, forcing families in crisis to make a devastating choice — to stay or flee in hopes of a different future.
At World Relief, we know compassionate people like you feel the weight and urgency of this crisis. When we shared with you the critical funding gap caused by cuts in government funds, in the U.S. and countries reeling from conflict and displacement like Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Haiti, you pressed in, standing in the gap and helping us raise over $5.7 million.
Today, the need is even greater — 90% of USAID foreign assistance grants as well as the U.S. refugee resettlement program have been terminated. This leaves vulnerable people around the world now facing starvation and disease.
Will you join us in this fight to save lives? Today, you can be someone’s answer to prayer — a prayer for food on the table, medical help and more.
People like you see and feel the pain of families that are suffering, and you want to help. You also realize this is beyond what a single person can do. You perceive the need for a God-sized response to a crisis that is beyond our human capacity.
That’s why we’ve created The Path, our faithful community of monthly givers. It’s a community that’s needed now more than ever to help save lives. When you join The Path, together we:
Respond to disasters and crises, providing emergency humanitarian assistance in the form of food, water, shelter, psychosocial support and more.
Strengthen communities at high risk of displacement by working hand-in-hand with local churches to provide programs in savings, agriculture, health and more.
Rebuild by supporting refugee families already in the U.S. to adapt to their new home, rebuild and integrate into their new communities.
Will you step into your calling to walk beside vulnerable women, men and children around the world? Here are four important reasons that monthly giving matters.
Monthly Giving Creates Agility. Because Each Hour Counts.
Monthly partners join World Relief in walking alongside families who are faced with the difficult choice to flee their homes in search of safety. The stable and flexible funding they provide means that, together, we can be efficient, effective and agile in our response when disasters strike.
While the need to invite others into partnership with us will be essential in seasons of crisis, having funds available at a moment’s notice allows us to deploy necessities like food, clean water or medical aid when there’s an emergency, such as a war that causes thousands of families to flee with few or no belongings. Because each hour counts to hungry families, to expectant and nursing mothers, to people who’ve been injured while fleeing, and more — they should not have to wait. Learn about some of the crises to which we’ve responded.
Monthly Giving Provides Stability.
The termination of USAID programs and refugee resettlement highlight the value of sustaining partners in our work who offer stability and support as, together, we boldly engage the world’s greatest crises. The needs don’t reduce. Neither should the funds.
Together with our faithful partners, we are able to continue our work around the globe, whether it be through English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for refugees in the U.S., creating community-based savings in Haiti or equipping adolescent girls with life skills — including personal safety — in Rwanda.
Monthly Giving has Greater Impact Over Time
Monthly giving sustains transformation in the long run. For refugees like Mahasen, the journey to rebuilding their lives and homes, and gaining a sense of belonging to a community, is often long. It requires people like you who are willing to go the distance with them.
As a member of The Path, your ongoing support provides stability for families rebuilding their lives and gives World Relief the flexibility to respond to urgent crises while investing in long-term solutions.
Monthly Giving is a Convenient, Budget-Friendly Way to Give.
Automating your generosity makes it easy to walk alongside families in crisis, giving you peace of mind that you are making a difference and saving lives all year long. It’s also budget-friendly — spreading your support across the year in a way that’s sustainable. Even $10 or $25 a month becomes a lifeline for communities facing poverty, starvation or disasters. By joining The Path with your gifts — big or small —- your consistent support helps bridge the gap between crisis and hope.
Together, we can help restore stability and provide a pathway to flourishing, even in the face of growing crises around the world. Will you join The Path as a monthly partner and bring hope, healing and restoration to those who are hurting?
Reference:
1. Refugee Data Finder. UNHCR.
Shreya Shukla Thornton is the Senior Content Manager at World Relief. With over 13 years of experience in communication, she enjoys forging a connection through storytelling. She holds a master’s degree in English from the University of Calcutta and a master’s in strategic communication from Regent University.