Youth attending the 16th Baptist Youth World Conference in Singapore from July 17-21 will have a number of mission opportunities.
Participants at the conference are being asked to make monetary or in-kind donations toward school kits for refugee children in Thailand. There are an estimated 31,000 school children from Myanmar living in seven refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border.
People living inside the refugee camps are prohibited by the government of Thailand from seeking employment outside the camps and are dependent on donations for their daily necessities. The kits will be used to help meet the educational needs of refugee children, most displaced by wars, conflicts and disasters.
Youth can make a monetary donation of US$10 to purchase a hand woven, environmentally friendly school bag made by women in the refugee camps, plus school materials such as pencils, sharpeners, crayons and rulers; US$15 to purchase one school kit filled with school supplies, US$75 to purchase five school kits, or US$150 for 10 school kits.
Youth groups traveling to Singapore are asked to indicate how many kits each group can contribute. The overall goal is to donate a minimum of 1,000 school kits.
The school kit project is sponsored by Baptist World Aid, the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance® (BWA). Additional information on the school kit project can be obtained by writing to [email protected] .
Youth have other opportunities for mission during the conference. The BWA has partnered with Stop Hunger Now to fill two 20ft containers of pre-packaged meals for distribution in Asia.
Stop Hunger Now is an international hunger relief organization that coordinates the distribution of food and other life-saving aid around the world. Its meal packaging program provides volunteers the opportunity to package dehydrated, high protein, and highly nutritious meals that are used primarily to support development programs and to save lives in developing countries.
It is estimated that in order to fill these containers, the BWA will require 2,000 volunteers during the youth conference, working two shifts of four hours each. If successful, these containers will carry 285,120 meals. The BWA has secured US$45,000 in funding for one container with the hope that additional funds will be forthcoming to fill a second container.
Participants attending the youth conference will have other mission opportunities in Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and other Asian countries leading up to, or following the conference.
For further information on mission opportunities, contact the BWA Youth Department at [email protected].
Registration for the Baptist Youth World Conference and other information is available at www.bwanet.org.