ADRA International

Published September 24, 2026 When a disaster makes the news, most of us feel something immediate. The pull to do something, to help in some way, is real and instinctive. And then, just as quickly, the questions set in. Will my donation actually reach the people I saw on the screen? How does aid get there so fast? What happens to those families six months from now, when the coverage has moved on? These are good questions. They deserve real answers.

Published September 17, 2026 A war breaks out three thousand miles from home. Six months later, a mother in southern Madagascar can’t afford maize. That’s not a coincidence. It’s how the global food system works. Modern food production is an interconnected network, not a set of separate local markets. Fertilizer feeds the crop, fuel ships it, a port loads it, a currency prices it at the other end.

Published September 17, 2026 Naila Marbal still can’t go into the bathroom alone. Two months after the ground split open beneath La Guaira, she says the fear hasn’t caught up with the calendar yet. “When I’m in the bathroom, I feel like it’s moving,” she told our team. “And it’s horrible.” She asks her mother to come with her every time. That’s what Venezuela earthquake recovery looks like up close. It’s slower than the headlines suggest, and for families like Naila’s, it’s far from finished.

There is a word we use often in our work at ADRA: hope. We talk about bringing hope to communities, restoring hope after disaster and helping people imagine a better future. But over the years, I have learned something important: Hope is not only something we talk about. Hope is something we do. A nourishing meal can be hope. A lively classroom can be hope. A neighbor showing up for another neighbor can be hope. Hope becomes visible when compassion becomes practical.

By By Paulo Lopes, President, ADRA International “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” — Joshua 1:9 (NIV) Some of the most important work in the world never gets photographed. It doesn’t rush into a burning building or hold a line under fire. It moves slower than that, in rooms most of us will never enter, and it takes more to sustain than it does to begin.

World Day Against Trafficking in Persons Every child deserves the freedom to grow up safe, learn without fear, and dream about the future. Yet millions of children around the world remain vulnerable to exploitation because of poverty, inequality, violence, displacement, and a lack of opportunity. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, children account for 38% of all detected trafficking victims worldwide, with girls disproportionately affected.

There’s a reason people give to charity, and it’s rarely complicated when you get down to it. You see something—a family who lost everything in a flood, children without enough food, a community trying to rebuild after a crisis—and something in you responds. You want to help. You want your resources to reach someone who actually needs them, to bring some measure of hope into a situation that feels hopeless from the outside. That desire is real and it’s good.

By ADRA Venezuela with ADRA International On June 24, 2026, twin earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude struck central Venezuela just 39 seconds apart, becoming the strongest earthquake to hit the country in more than a century. The shallow quakes caused widespread destruction, damaging more than 850 buildings, including nearly 190 collapses, and forcing thousands of families from their homes.

By Paulo Lopes, President of ADRA International Around the world, headlines tend to follow a familiar pattern, focusing on conflict, crisis, and the occasional act of heroism that breaks through the noise. But I have spent much of my life in the spaces that headlines rarely reach. What I have found there is a different kind of story.

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is on the ground in Venezuela assessing humanitarian needs after a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the country on June 24 at 6:05 p.m. local time. The earthquake, centered near Morón in Carabobo state, affected some of the country’s most populated areas, including Carabobo and Yaracuy, with millions of people experiencing strong to severe shaking.