Outbound is a program of LLYC created for older youth campers and designed to reach destinations, cultures, and experiences beyond Texas’ Frio Canyon, the LLYC home base. This summer, 24 high school campers and 13 staff will extend themselves as servant leaders to a remote village of children and teenagers in a beautiful mountain region of northern Haiti.

Ironically, this trip to Haiti has been in the developmental stages for two years, but January’s earthquake only served to hasten LLYC’s desire to minister to this country. For the past 10 years, LLYC has hosted a steady stream of Haitian campers on the H.E. Butt Foundation camp property near Leakey, Texas. Over those years, the organization developed strong relationships with families from Port-au-Prince. Two years ago, Gersan Valcin, a Port-au-Prince pastor, shared his vision for the development of the camp named Jacob’s Well with Kevin Mayne, LLYC Executive Director.

“The LLYC mission in Haiti this summer is grand and adventurous and includes facilitating a four-day camp complete with activities, arts and crafts, worship, food, and a presentation of several powerful stories from the Gospels,” explains Mayne. “Four hundred children are expected to descend on the lush, tropical 40 acres of Jacob’s Well eager to play, make new friends, and escape the routine. Our hope is that they will be fed in multiple ways, both physically and spiritually, and that they may walk away from camp renewed, just like the campers back home in the Frio Canyon.”

While on site in Haiti, the LLYC team also will participate in a variety of work projects such as the completion of a kitchen facility, the planting of mango trees for future harvesting, and the building of a camp entrance that would identify it as a sacred place. In April, Mayne and Angela Aadahl, LLYC Associate Director, visited Jacob’s Well and in their words, “were filled with awe at what God is already doing there among the people in the local village.” Mayne went on to say that Jacob’s Well has the potential to be a place like Laity Lodge Youth Camp where lives are changed, people are renewed, and families are strengthened, and to contribute to the country’s restoration from poverty and devastation. “As we toured the country, we realized truly that Jacob’s Well was the greatest source of hope for a country that now has over a million orphaned children,” he concluded. (View a video of their trip at www.llyc.org/year-round-event.)

Mayne hopes this mission is the first of many at Jacob’s Well for LLYC. It is the only place of its kind in Haiti. Individuals interested in learning more or financially supporting this dynamic Outbound Haiti project may contact Kevin Mayne at 830-792-1226 or Perri Rosheger at 830-792-1204 or visit the website www.LLYC.org.

“Disasters are becoming increasingly costly in terms of lives and destruction,” said  Melisa Bodenhamer, World Vision’s expert in DRR. “There must be a paradigm shift in  the way that organizations think about development work, but the goal is to be systematic about building up the resiliency of communities before a disaster hits.  DRR activities can help reduce the toll on human lives and government budgets. In fact, research has shown that every $1 spent on disaster risk reduction activities saves nearly $7 in emergency response funds.”

For DRR to have a significant impact on lives and livelihoods, action needs to be taken at a number of levels. Ongoing success in DRR will involve a mix of structural elements, including more and better designed infrastructure and housing, and non-structural elements such as education and early warning systems.

World Vision advocates for a minimum of 10 percent of development funding to be set aside for risk reduction activities. Natural disasters have always occurred, and the poor suffer most from them. But DRR activities can — and do — help communities identify and reduce the vulnerabilities families faced by natural disasters. The risk of disaster impact can be reduced by helping communities develop early warning systems, establish risk mapping techniques and hold trainings to teach communities how to reduce their vulnerabilities and protect themselves in the event of a disaster.

As a second massive storm bears down on the Philippines, a proposed national law on DRR in the Philippines is stalled at the committee level at the Lower House. The DRR Bill would put a priority on disaster risk reduction and management, and it also seeks to institutionalize the disaster risk reduction plans in the federal budget.

“We have been pushing for the passage of this bill for over a decade now,” said Minnie Portales, World Vision’s advocacy and communications director in the Philippines. “We cannot afford to have another Typhoon Ketsana destroy our property or cause so much suffering to our children and families.”

World Vision is the lead agency of the Disaster Risk Reduction Network (DRRNet) in the Philippines. DRRNet is a network of disaster risk reduction advocates and practitioners throughout the country. According to DRRNet, the Philippines’ vulnerability to disasters has increased immensely throughout the years, resulting in the loss of lives, livelihood, and property.

This call to action comes as a second massive storm bears down on the island nation. Ensuring sustained political commitment to DRR is critical, not only to reduce losses in a more disaster prone world, but also to prevent natural disasters unwinding progress already made in reducing poverty and suffering.

World Vision has been working with the world’s poorest people for nearly 60 years to ease the impact of disasters when they occur and implement strategies to reduce the effect of future disaster events. World Vision uses its past experience to help the most vulnerable, particularly children, recover from natural disasters and increase their resilience to future climate induced setbacks.  The agency works in 100 countries, and it currently has DRR programs in Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, among other nations.

World Vision will release a full report on its DRR call-to-action for the global community in Bangkok on 6 October 2009 at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference.

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.