Dear Supporter,
I am writing to you to introduce myself as the new CEO of World Vision Australia and to thank you for the invaluable support you’ve given our organisation over the years.
Without your help, we would not be able to vaccinate as many children in vulnerable communities. We would not be able to provide them as much clean water, help them get to school in such numbers, prevent so many of them from being married off at tender
ages or equip them to forge their own livelihoods.
I have spent the last 25 years working in some of the world’s toughest and most war-torn hotspots, but my story really began around 35 years ago, while I was serving as an Officer Cadet in the Royal Australian Navy. While there, I one day simply
felt a “calling” and so threw in a life at sea for a life of serving the poor.
It began with helping the homeless and disadvantaged on the streets of Kings Cross, and wound up with leading teams in places such as Afghanistan, Somalia, El Salvador and in refugee camps the world over.
For the past 12 years, I have been the CEO at Alight (formerly the American Refugee Committee based in Minneapolis, Minnesota), which provides health care, clean water, shelter, protection and economic opportunity to more than 2.5 million people in 15
countries each year. Here, I have worked with the Rohingya people in Myanmar, the migrants streaming through Latin America and with families in war-ravaged Syria.
I have felt incredibly privileged to do this work and feel honoured at the prospect of continuing to do so with an organisation as respected as World Vision. Actually, I first came across World Vision almost 40 years ago when, as a 14-year-old, I did
the 40-hour famine in my home town of Tamworth. So, like so many other Aussies, I learned through World Vision to give, and to give freely, not expecting anything in return. And that has been a great gift to me ever since.
I very much look forward to working with you to continue the incredible work of World Vision into the future.
Thank you again for your passion and your commitment to our mission.
Kindest wishes,
Daniel Wordsworth