Emergency Response and Disaster Relief
World Vision is known internationally as an organization able to meet unexpected and often overwhelming need during a crisis. Domestically, World Vision has been able to use our years of experience and extensive network to respond to crises throughout the U.S., including the Twin Cities.
Disaster Response
World Vision is well known internationally for its expertise in meeting unexpected and often overwhelming need in times of natural and man-made disaster. In 2007 alone, World Vision responded to 85 disasters around the world, assisting an estimated 7 million disaster survivors, refugees, and internally displaced people.
World Vision leverages its international experience to effectively respond to crisis here at home. Our Domestic Disaster Response Program exists to prepare for and respond to disasters within the United States. We do this through planning for disasters, developing emergency networks, training communities for disaster response, soliciting donated essentials for rapid deployment, and supporting our network of churches and strategic partners as they respond to critical needs. We also offer cash grants to meet special needs in the wake of a disaster.
?World Vision has made a tremendous impact on the services we are able to provide to disaster survivors. Their willingness to help and ability to send items on such short notice helps us to make a difference in peoples lives. We are very grateful for all they do.?
Training and Capacity Building
Committed to Community
Robin Stanley dreamed of feeding the physical and spiritual needs of her neighbors in Appalachia. But she wasn’t sure how to turn her dream into reality. World Vision’s training and capacity-building program gave her the practical tools and support to plan, open, and maintain a food pantry that has changed lives throughout her community.
Robin’s dream to serve and care for local families is mirrored by World Vision’s goal of building a better world for children in communities across the globe. In our nearly 60 years of experience, we have established best practices for the contexts in which we work, including communities here in the U.S.
History
World Vision was founded in 1951 by Dr. Robert Pierce, a young pastor and missionary, who had first been sent to China and South Korea in 1947 by the Youth for Christ missionary organization. Pierce remained at the head of World Vision for nearly two decades, but resigned from the organization in 1967. Pierce also founded the evangelical organization Samaritan’s Purse.
World Vision began caring for orphans and other children in need first in South Korea, then expanding throughout Asia and, eventually, in more than 90 countries, embracing larger issues of community development and advocacy for the poor as part of its basic mission to help poor children and their poor families build a sustainable future.