Ralph S. Watts, Jr., president

Jacinta is proud of her farm. I can tell as she takes us around and shows us green fields alive with maize, cowpeas, and sorghum. This grandmother and her family farm nearly 10 acres in the Ikutha Division of Kenya. Here in this semiarid to arid area, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is training farmers like Jacinta to grow crops in the parched conditions. ADRA has introduced drought-tolerant crops and is teaching farmers organic farming techniques, better storage methods, and water-harvesting techniques. But Jacinta is more than just a farmer. She has been chosen by her community to be one of ADRA's extension farmers. As an extension farmer Jacinta is teaching other farmers what she has learned from ADRA.

Jacinta is just one of the millions of people whose lives have been touched by ADRA. In 1999 ADRA touched the lives of more than 19 million people around the world. The year was an important milestone for ADRA, for in 1999 ADRA celebrated its fifteenth anniversary as the Adventist Development and Relief Agency.

An Important Anniversary
It was in 1984 that the agency's name was officially changed from the Seventh-day Adventist World Service (SAWS) to the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) to reflect the increasing role of development in the agency's portfolio. Through those 15 years ADRA has continued to grow, building organizational and staff capacity, and establishing collaborative partnerships. The anniversary was an opportunity for us to look back at what ADRA's international network has accomplished.

The year 1987 marked the beginning of ADRA's volunteer program. Since the first volunteer group visited the Philippines in July and August of 1987, more than 210 group projects, involving more than 6,300 volunteers, have been completed. The largest group of volunteers to travel at one time was in 1993, when 102 students visited Tanzania to build a health clinic. Most recently, nearly 100 volunteers returned from Honduras after building homes for survivors of Hurricane Mitch.

In 1988 ADRA became the first agency to work in Khokana, a leper community in Nepal. More than 1,600 people lived in Khokana, separated from society because of their disease. Over the years ADRA has helped build homes for lepers and their families and has taught hygiene and provided basic education for the children. Improved hygiene protects children from contracting the disease, and education prepares them for integration into regular society. As a result of ADRA's efforts, leprosy has been eradicated in upper Khokana.

In October 1992 ADRA attracted more than 24,000 visitors to the La Sierra University campus in southern California for the debut of ADRA's Global Village. Since that beginning the one-of-a-kind traveling exhibit has been shown in Rome, Italy; Utrecht, the Netherlands; Denver, Colorado; Dayton, Ohio; and on the Mall in Washington, D.C. An estimated 160,000 people "journeyed around the world" during the two-week Washington, D.C., exhibit, making it the most visible ADRA Global Village to date.

SATISFACTION: ADRA-trained Jacinta smiles with contentment at the produce of her hands.

In 1994 ADRA was the only humanitarian organization to remain in Rwanda during the genocide and mass exodus of 1.5 million Rwandans into what was then Zaire. ADRA medical staff at Magunga Field Hospital, in a refugee camp with 400,000 people, treated more than 1,000 patients a day. ADRA opened one of the largest field hospitals in the Goma region, providing care for as many as 1,700 patients a day, with an inpatient capacity of 120 beds. In addition, ADRA launched three mobile clinics on roads between Goma and the surrounding refugee camps, distributed drinking water and high-protein biscuits to 400,000 people, and cared for thousands of orphaned children in Magunga and Goma.

In 1996 ADRA established the ADRA Professional Leadership Institute (APLI), working in partnership with Andrews University to provide field-based training and continuing professional education to ADRA staff around the world. More than 1,250 students have participated in APLI, and as of last September more than 92 had taken the final comprehensive exam. More than 192 are expected to complete requirements for the degree program by the end of 2000. The APLI program is being used as a model by the Food Aid Management members as an example of "best practices for local capacity building." The model has been well received by Africare, World Vision, and others.

In May 1997 ADRA continued to forge relationships with international organizations such as the United Nations. Catherine Bertini, executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), visited the ADRA headquarters to sign a "memorandum of understanding" between ADRA and the WFP. The document is designed to serve as a catalyst for the headquarters and field levels of both organizations to initiate formal and regular contacts, exchange information, and collaborate in field operations, as appropriate. In September 1997 ADRA was granted General Consultative Status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Nongovern-mental organizations with general consultative status may send observers to public meetings of ECOSOC and submit items for inclusion on the agenda, and may consult with the U.N.'s Secretariat on matters of mutual concern. Of 1,600 nongovenmental organizations with consultative status, only 110 have general consultative status.

In 1998 ADRA responded to Hurricane Mitch, labeled the most devastating natural disaster in the Western Hemisphere in 200 years. ADRA coordinated the distribution of more than $15 million in food, medicine, clothing, and shelter to hurricane survivors.

Amid the Kosovo Tragedy
In April 1999, as refugees from Kosovo streamed across the border into Albania, ADRA signed an agreement with the WFP to become a lead agency in the distribution of food throughout Albania. ADRA was responsible for the distribution of food for up to 100,000 Kosovar refugees in Albania. Today ADRA is one of the few agencies still working in Albania with a program to feed vulnerable Albanian nationals throughout the year 2000. After food and other aid were depleted, the WFP realized the importance of continuing the aid to Albania and offered ADRA the continued contract. ADRA also purchased sleeping bags, tarpaulins, lanterns, shoes, shovels, and other items, which will be used in the ADRA-related health programs in Albania. ADRA's presence in Albania dates back to 1991 with programs in public health education and the distribution of wheat.

ADRA also assisted returning refugees in Kosovo through several community services projects, valued at more than US$1.3 million. ADRA assisted a total of 7,488 families (47,474 beneficiaries) in three districts during October and November 1999 through arrival centers, referral centers, emergency deliveries, hot line services, and temporary community shelters. ADRA operated four shelter programs, valued at more than US$8.5 million, including an unfinished-housing shelter program, winterizing of family homes, and a roofing shelter project. ADRA rehabilitated more than 80 schools (including refurnishing, reequipping, and sanitation) and participated in mine awareness programs. A total of 1,548 wells have been cleaned/rehabilitated since the project began in July. A total of 20 latrines and septic tanks were constructed/rehabilitated. Other programs in Kosovo included providing primary health care and surgical procedures through mobile clinics. ADRA teams visited 24 schools, vaccinating 752 children. ADRA has programmed more than $20 million in response to the crisis in the Balkans.

ADRA's response to the Kosovo crisis and its continuing programs in the Balkans and around the world are a testimony to ADRA's commitment to help those in need, regardless of age, ethnicity, or political or religious affiliation. As millions struggle with hunger, poverty, illness, and disaster-stricken environments, ADRA works to improve living conditions through simple, innovative, and cost-effective methods, concentrating its efforts in five core areas: food security, economic development, primary health, disaster preparedness and response, and education.

ADRA's mission is driven by more than a desire to do good for purely altruistic reasons. As Seventh-day Adventist Christians we are called by Christ to help the hungry, the stranger, and the naked. We are called to help "the least of these." In ADRA's world there are many who are hungry, and many who have been driven from their homes and homelands who are virtual strangers in a strange land. But in ADRA's world there are also smiling faces and warm, dry, contented families whose lives are better because they are in ADRA's world.