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Just back from a five-day trip to North Korea, members of a World Vision delegation offer grim first-hand reports evidencing the fact that 23 million people, including 2.6 million children, grow closer to starvation every day. The looming famine was nowhere more visible than at children's centers and orphanages in and around the capital city, Pyongyang. "Pain and hunger were evident in the eyes of the children, as were skin diseases and other nutrition-related ailments," said Watt Santatiwat, World Vision International's vice president for Asia.
Government food warehouses are now empty. An estimated 1.3 million metric tons of food are needed before year-end. In an interview with The New York Times, World Vision Relief and Development Vice President Andrew Natsios reported on the stark evidence he witnessed, including the noticeable absence of anyone over age 60 on the streets. He was told that the elderly are sacrificing their rations to keep their grandchildren alive.
North Korean officials have granted World Vision permission to:
Send a team of World Vision health experts in mid-July to assess needs and train staff to treat malnutrition
Begin work in 12 children's centers (home to more than 2,400 children under the age of five, many of them orphans)
"Let us go in through this small opening of opportunity and serve the children," said Mr. Santatiwat, "then I believe God will open a bigger window of opportunity. Let the Holy Spirit guide us during this critical time as we deal with a complex situation."
Please join us in prayer for open doors so that aid can be provided before starvation claims more lives.
 
Call 1-888-511-6593 to help the children of North Korea.
Aid Continues Despite Upheaval in Sierra Leone
Thirty-one World Vision expatriate staff were evacuated following a violent military coup on May 25 that deposed civilian president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. "No one thought the situation could deteriorate so rapidly," said Program Officer Rob Jenkins, who was among a group of foreigners originally intending to remain in the capital city of Freetown following the coup.
One June 12, World Vision International President Dean Hirsch declared Sierra Leone a Category III emergency, the organization's highest level of priority for humanitarian response.
Expatriate staff have set up bases in nearby Conakry, Guinea and Monrovia, Liberia. From these bases they continue with:
Emergency response activities
Exploring possibilities for future cross-border distribution
Meanwhile, national staff who remain in-country continue to distribute food, seeds, and tools.
"The national staff are doing an amazing job," said Mr. Jenkins. "In Bo, more than 90 percent of the staff reported for a recent meeting to discuss a distribution plan for remaining food stocks; and the staff in Freetown are coming to work every day, attending meetings and helping the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) distribute food."
Please pray for our staff's safety, and for lasting peace to come to Sierra Leone.
Rebuilding Homes and Lives in Bosnia
Since the signing of the Bosnian peace accord in December 1995, some 2 million refugees have returned to their hometowns. The wartime shelling has made this a horrifying homecoming:
60 percent of the homes and apartments are damaged or destroyed
50 percent of the educational infrastructure is likewise ruined
Repairing the damaged buildings, especially the homes, apartments, and schools, has proven to be a crucial step in World Vision's efforts to provide stability for the war-shattered lives of individuals and families.
In 1996, World Vision rebuilt 1,200 apartments, 339 houses, 46 schools and four health clinics. This year, 2,300 apartments need to be repaired and weatherized by August 11. To date, we have raised only enough funds to repair 248 apartments.
Our Bosnia Reconstruction Program is just one of many sustainable, life-giving projects that still need funding this year. As a valued partner in the ministry of World Vision, we ask for your prayers and support during this critical period.
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