Lutheran World Relief

Lutheran World Relief and our Corus International family of organizations is committed to addressing crises through a gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) lens, engaging women as change agents and investing in their leadership before, during and after disasters. To elevate women’s voices and leadership in disaster risk reduction (DRR) programming, Lutheran World Relief developed the IDEAL approach: intersectionality, delivery, equity, access and leadership. More information.

The Starbucks Foundation and Lutheran World Relief are building on the success of Kopi Nande project which reached over 26,000 individuals (15,000 women) in five communities across Karo Regency to promote health and hygiene using LWR’s Learning for Gender Integration methodology with the new MECIHO project just launched in the same region. MECIHO will continue to use women-led approaches to improve health, hygiene and living conditions in Karo Regency, reaching 25,000 people across an additional six rural coffee-growing communities. This project is part of The Starbucks Foundation’s new goal to positively impact 1 million women and girls in coffee-, tea-, and cocoa-growing communities by 2030. More information.

Lutheran World Relief implements the USAID-funded Women’s Global Development Prosperity: Expanding Women’s Labor Force in Lebanon (W-GDP: EWLFL) Project. One of the pioneering women taking part in the project is Nancy Ghannam, a Lebanese entrepreneur and activist who is breaking gender barriers and creating jobs for other women in her community. More information.

Amid one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time, Lutheran World Relief staff and partners conducted an urgent distribution of cash assistance for internally displaced people (IDP) taking refuge at Al-Khora camp in the Ash-Shamayatayn District of the Taiz Governorate. The besieged capital has faced some of the most intense violence more recently, and blockades have resulted in critical shortages of food, water, cooking gas and medicine. More information.

Rick Peyser, Lutheran World Relief’s Senior Director, Private Sector Partnerships, shares about how migration is connected to the impacts of climate change on coffee farmers. More information.

Climate change and food insecurity are severely impacting rural livelihoods in Honduras and increasing rates of migration out of the country. With more than 28% of youth not in education, employment or training, too many Honduran young women and men face dismal economic prospects. Lutheran World Relief is committed to building the next generation’s hope for a stable and prosperous life within Honduras. More information.

Climate change is a clear and present danger to coffee farmers in Central America. Lutheran World Relief (LWR) is working with farm families and cooperatives in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, helping them cope. Rick Peyser, LWR senior relationship manager for coffee and cocoa, says that the effects of higher temperatures are already being felt and will accelerate in the future. Some farmers are transitioning to cacao plants, which better tolerate tropical climates. LWR is helping coffee farmers by focusing on resilience at the household level and employing Climate Smart Agriculture practices that use less water and reduce erosion. Farmers are making use of the organic waste that's left from the coffee harvest by composting for fertilizer and installing biodigesters, which capture the methane gas from organic waste and provide a fuel source for home cooking. More Information

In Burkina Faso, Lutheran World Relief is strengthening the sesame value chain and with it the lives of thousands of smallholder farmers, who are now producers of export-quality sesame. Yields are up because farmers have access to high-quality seeds that have a shorter growing cycle, making them less susceptible to the long dry spells that have become routine in the Sahel. And cooperatives are processing the sesame to meet the high purity levels required by international markets. More Information

Lutheran World Relief is working with local organizations in Peru to provide crucial services to Venezuelan refugees who have sought refuge and are living in the country during the COVID-19 surge. Throughout the pandemic, Lutheran World Relief has been sending public health messages and other essential information to Venezuelan refugees through the VenInformado digital platform, accessible through Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The project will expand the VenInformado platform to provide virtual resources for guidance on income-generating activities through links to online resources, including job referral services and vocational training tutorials. A group of up to 205 refugees who are most at risk will be enrolled in an online course on entrepreneurship and vocational training, which will include seed money and mentoring to help Venezuelans learn new skills and start small businesses that will generate sustainable incomes. More Information

NASA Harvest, an initiative commissioned by NASA and led by the University of Maryland’s Geographical Sciences Department, is working to enhance the use of satellite data in fighting global hunger by improving agriculture and boosting food security. Lutheran World Relief is currently working with NASA Harvest in Mali as part of the Relief to Resilience project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to gather valuable on-the-ground information about crop conditions—allowing relevant government agencies to interpret satellite imagery better and advise farmers about potential challenges. Lutheran World Relief’s network of community agricultural extension agents supported data collection and ground-truthing of satellite earth-observation data to inform government ministries on food security policy. More Information