About Us!
In 2003, the University of Alberta World Relief Student Club was formed with the vision to raise awareness regarding emergency situations around the world. As partners with World Relief Canada, we strive to raise funds in order to help victims of poverty, disease, hunger, persecution and the effects of war and disasters.
OUR VISION: Help relieve human suffering, poverty and hunger worldwide in the name of Jesus Christ by promoting awareness to students on campus and by fundraising for the needs of the World Relief Canada projects.
How do we do achieve this as a student group? Through information booths where students can gather information, and in turn use that information to make others aware of the crises and needs around the world. While the warm weather is still here, we set up BBQs to raise money. Also we try to have at least one major fundraising event per semester.
So you may be asking, what makes World Relief Canada different from the many other relief and development organizations?
Unlike many relief and development organizations, WRCanada does not establish itself as an organization within the country they are active in. Instead, they work with and through the local leaders ensuring that the local leaders are the ones meeting the needs of the locals themselves.
WRCanada provides both immediate assistance and long-term impact. Immediate assistance is the intervention during disasters by providing emergency aid, food, water and other basic necessities. The long-term impact is provided by fostering self-help and educational programs to break the cycle of poverty, unemployment and poor health. Also by partnering with the locals, WRCanada develops local leadership and skills so that they may be able to organize and administer programs to change their own lives and community.
There is no middle organization. All the funding for projects goes directly from WRCanada to the church-administered project, as well as to empowering the locals.
The money raised is matched from Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) ranging from a ratio of 3:2 ($3 for every $2 raised) to 4:1 depending on the project. Furthermore, by partnering with Canadian Foodgrains Bank and other projects, we are matched by CFGP.
