Your impact in 2020: Responding in times of crisis

“For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’”

— Deuteronomy 15:11 (ESV)

Thank you for helping the poor and the needy during the many crises of 2020.

When the coronavirus pandemic took away jobs from already struggling families, you helped deliver food and hygiene kits. When hurricane after hurricane battered places like Central America, you helped ship emergency aid. And the list goes on …

Here’s a look at how you helped rescue people with your generosity last year:

Hurricane relief

Back in November, Hurricanes Eta and Iota tore through Central America not even two weeks apart. Families living in the coastal village of Laguna Kukalaya, Nicaragua, barely had a chance to catch their breath before the second storm swept through.

Thankfully, your support helped rush critical supplies to these people as soon as possible!

Our partners steered their boats for 11 hours, but they finally reached the muddy shores at midnight. As soon as the people of Laguna Kukalaya saw the glowing flashlights and heard the boats dock, they ran from their shelters and greeted our partners with so much gratitude!

You made sure these disaster victims had plenty of lifesaving essentials like bread, meat, clean water, hygiene kits, solar-powered lights, and more.

“We served more than 600 people with food, water, and clothes,” our partner said.

And that was just one weekend. Throughout 2020, the World Help family helped ship lifesaving aid to 493,091 people in 13 countries around the world! And you helped provide more than 6.5 million meals!

Even from thousands of miles away, you made an incredible impact.

Coronavirus relief

Your gifts also made a difference here at home. When the coronavirus first shut down New York City, many homeless people had nowhere to go. Shelters were packed, making them easy targets for the virus. Plus, places like libraries and restaurants where the homeless usually went to rest were all closed.

But your generosity helped give them the relief they needed. You provided hygiene kits full of soap, shampoo, hand sanitizer, and other essentials to help people living on the streets stay clean and prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

You also gave frontline medical workers their own personal toiletry bags and hygiene kits. Many of them worked around the clock and never went home to their families. Instead, they stayed overnight and used hospital showers.

In total, over 20,000 people in the United States received coronavirus relief. And that’s on top of the more than 100,000 people in 22 other countries that you helped during the pandemic!

Thank you for making sure out-of-work families had food to eat. Thank you for making sure children and the elderly had face masks and hygiene kits. And thank you for continuing to meet some of the most urgent needs around the world during the midst of this unprecedented crisis.

2020 has certainly been a year like no other … but you accepted the challenge and dived right in to help men, women, and children in need. From helping send emergency aid to disaster victims to helping provide beds and other medical equipment for overwhelmed hospitals in developing countries, your gifts were a lifeline for thousands of people.

Just like the verse in Deuteronomy says, you opened your hand “to the needy and to the poor.” You became the hands and feet of Jesus.