World Neighbors
Encyclopedia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. They support the transformation of communities by helping people address hunger
Hunger
Hunger is the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who frequently experience the physical sensation of desiring food.-Malnutrition, famine, starvation:...
, poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
and other challenges that undermine their livelihoods, and by inspiring lasting leadership and collective action for change. The organization is not affiliated with any church or denomination
Religious denomination
A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity.The term describes various Christian denominations...
.
World Neighbors was founded by Dr. John L. Peters in 1951, who died in 1992 after being the organization's executive director until 1977 and receiving two nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. Peters launched the first World Neighbors programs in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and the organization has now worked with more than 25 million people in 45 nations during its history. Currently, WN has programs in 16 countries located in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia.
Programs
World Neighbors works with partner organizations in approximately 64 programs in 16 countries: HaitiHaiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
, Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, The Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, and Timor Leste.
World Neighbors works with rural communities in remote areas, often with minority or lower-caste people who are excluded from the mainstream of economic development and decision making. Often in such areas the land and forests are degraded, there are few roads, little or no access to clean water or electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
and limited services, such as health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
and schools. Infant and maternal death rates in some program areas are among the highest in the world.
The people in the area define their most urgent priorities and set their own agenda. Planning methods are used to ensure that all concerned groups in a community have a voice. World Neighbors program leaders help communities recognize the root causes of their problems and develop appropriate plans of action. The task of World Neighbors, as stated on its website, is "to encourage and empower people to succeed by acting together to solve their problems."
World Neighbors stays in a program area until communities and local organizations become strong enough to maintain their self-help activities. The average time is about eight to 10 years, though it varies greatly from country to country. For instance, World Neighbors had programs in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
from 1972–1974, while it has had programs in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and The Philippines from 1952 to the present.
How It Works
World Neighbors works to help people develop, manage and sustain their own programs. Most programs begin using locally available resources and simple, low-cost technologies. As people gain skills and confidence, local leaders and organizations emerge to carry on the work, multiply results and participate in coalitions advocating for wider change. The role of World Neighbors is to strengthen these basic human and organizational resources for long-term development.In contrast to development organizations such as Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a global aid agency engaged in transitional environments that have experienced some sort of shock: natural disaster, economic collapse, or conflict. People working for it move as quickly as possible from bringing in food and supplies to enabling people to rebuild their economy with...
or Feed the Children
Feed The Children
Feed The Children founded in 1979 is an international, non-profit relief organization guided by Christian values, whose stated mission is "providing hope and resources for those without life's essentials". In FY 2010, Feed The Children distributed more than 133 million pounds of food and other...
, World Neighbors does not give away food or material aid. Instead, it provides training so that people gain the skills and leadership to work together for change. The result is self-reliance, rather than dependence on external aid. World Neighbors does not determine the focus of the program, but asks people to set their own agenda. Programs include: food security
Food security
Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. According to the World Resources Institute, global per capita food production has been increasing substantially for the past...
, farming, literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
, health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
, family planning
Family planning
Family planning is the planning of when to have children, and the use of birth control and other techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include sexuality education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-conception counseling and...
, water and sanitation
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
, environmental conservation, savings and credit, non-formal education and income generation activities.
The Process
A seven step process for the World Neighbors programs, according to its website:1. Select the areas where we work on the basis of need and opportunity.
2. Listen to what they have to say and what limits their success and establish a relationship of trust.
3. Help strengthen their capacity to identify, analyze and solve their own problems using locally available resources and the simplest tools to do the job.
4. Try new ideas on a small scale. Stay practical to generate early enthusiasm and success.
5. Help document the results and apply lessons learned to improve programs.
6. Reinforce their capacity to maintain and multiply results and ongoing problem-solving processes by forming new partnerships and by coordinating with additional villages and local organizations.
7. Widen program impact by documenting and sharing the results and processes with larger-scale organizations, villages, networks, coalitions and governments to influence policies and actions.
Costs
World Neighbors annual budget is $7.5 million. Annually, more than 76 cents of every dollar spent is in support of World Neighbors overseas programs and its U.S. public educationPublic education
State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...
initiatives, according to wn.org. Less than 24 cents per dollar is used for fundraising
Fundraising
Fundraising or fund raising is the process of soliciting and gathering voluntary contributions as money or other resources, by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies...
or administrative costs. CharityNavigator.org listed similar figures, estimating that 75 percent of the company's expenses are used toward its programs, while 13 percent goes toward administrative expenses and 12 percent toward fundraising expenses.
Since 1951, World Neighbors has been supported primarily through private donations. Gifts from individuals and charitable foundations represent the largest sources of income. The remainder is provided by income from endowments
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
, donations from churches and civic organizations and grants from development assistance organizations.
Administration and Staff
A team of 41 staff members based in the United States provides support to 140 field staff members, more than 50 local partner organizations and hundreds of rural community-level volunteers throughout AsiaAsia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. Most members of World Neighbors international program staff are citizens of the countries in which they work, and they work directly with rural people living in the most remote, ecologically fragile areas of our program areas. World Neighbors partners with existing local organizations already working in the area and supports their promoters to train community-level volunteers and leaders.
A volunteer board of trustees, whose members come from throughout the United States, governs World Neighbors. Melanie Macdonald, president
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
and Chief Executive Officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
, leads the organization's operations, and is assisted by a coordinating team composed of senior staff members.
2004 Restructure
In 2004, World Neighbors was facing a shrinking revenue base, inadequate internal communications and an outmoded infrastructure. That year MacDonald was appointed president and CEO of the company and a three-year plan was formed to make changes to the organization's human resourcesHuman resources
Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...
, financial reporting, resource development, marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
, governance and technology systems. World Neighbors has been working since April 2005 with TCC Group to raise the organization's profile, broaden its financial base, reformat accounting and reporting systems, and affirm the international scope of the vice president of HR. In the first year of the plan's implementation, World Neighbors volunteers increased from 100 to 600.
Charity information
World Neighbors is approved by the IRS as a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization and is registered in all states that require charity registration. In addition, World Neighbors meets the standards of all significant charity watchdog agencies.Contact Information
t: 800.242.6387p: 405.752.9700
f: 405.752.9393
address: 4127 NW 122nd Street | Oklahoma City, OK | 73120 USA |