Timeline

• 1996 – Dr. Jo Anne Lyon starts World Hope International (WHI) in the bedroom of a parsonage in Warrenton Missouri with one part-time administrative assistant.

• 1996 – The Philippe Family donated the operational budget for the first year. The first projects were in Haiti – a Computer School and Ice Plant funded by the Brown family and a Nursing School building funded by the Polaski foundation. Schools in Pakistan and the Philippines were also started and funded by churches and individuals.

• 1997 – WHI enters Sierra Leone to provide war and food relief during the country’s brutal civil war. These efforts included the opening of an Amputee Care Center, which provided prosthetic limbs for survivors of land mine accidents.

• 1998 – This year, World Hope built schools for internally displaced peoples (IDPs) in Azerbaijan as well as a computer school and English learning center. Disaster relief was provided in Honduras as well after Hurricane Mitch.

• 2000 – Disaster relief sent to Mozambique to provide assistance to those affected by heavy flooding. Since then, WHI’s presence in Mozambique has expanded to include school construction, agriculture projects for poor farmers, and a strong water and sanitation program.

• 2004 – WHI expands services to Europe, leading education and flood relief initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• 2005 – First borehole well drilled in Mozambique.

• 2005 – WHI’s Assessment Center for Trafficking in Persons opens in Cambodia.

• 2007 – HIV/AIDS work in Zambia and Haiti with funding from the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

• 2009 – First Step Special Economic Zone launches in Sierra Leone under a public private partnership agreement with the Government of Sierra Leone.  First Step Special Economic Zone serves as a manufacturing business incubator for Sierra Leone.

• 2009 – WHI leads major anti-trafficking and educational efforts in Azerbaijan.

• 2010 – WHI provides emergency food, healthcare and assistance to families following the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti. 

• 2010 – Africa Felix Juice opens in Sierra Leone producing the first value-added export from Sierra Leone since the civil war.

• 2012 – Mushroom program kicks off in Cambodia.

• 2013 – WHI provides emergency food relief, educational support and farming assistance to 70 families in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan.

• 2014 – WHI provides emergency response efforts to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

• 2014 – WHI expands services to South America, providing clean water to remote regions of Peru.

• April 2015 – In partnership with the Wesleyan Church, WHI sends a trek team to Nepal with relief supplies to aid in earthquake recovery.

• May 2015 – The Greenhouses Revolutionizing Output (GRO) project is launched in cooperation with Pennsylvania State University’s Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship Program (PSU-HESE).

• June 2015 – WHI’s Trafficking in Persons Center in Cambodia celebrates its 10^th anniversary after being recognized by the U.S. Department of State as a best in-practice for this type of high trauma care.  Trafficking cases in Cambodia dramatically decrease and WHI shifts its focus to gender based violence.

• September 2015 – WHI drills its 1000^th water well in Sierra Leone.

• November 2015 – Sierra Leone is declared Ebola-free thanks to WHI’s support.

• February 2016 – First Step Special Economic Zone opens Coffee and Cocoa Processing Facility in Sierra Leone.

• March 2016 – Haiti and Sierra Leone off-grid energy projects launch.