DISASTER RELIEF • SAFE WATER • HUNGER RELIEF • BLESS-A-CHILD • MEDICAL AID • MICROENTERPRISE

ANNUAL REPORT FISCAL YEAR 2015

The mission of Operation Blessing International is to demonstrate God’s love by alleviating human need and suffering in the United States and around the world.

The mission of Operation Blessing International is to demonstrate God’s love by alleviating human need and suffering in the United States and around the world.

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

DDear Friends and Partners,

I am so pleased to present this 2015 annual report. It has been a year filled with noteworthy achievement, one that has enabled Operation Blessing to offer an even greater cornucopia of goods, services and resources to poor people the world over. The Lord has shown us enormous favor in guiding our efforts to provide even greater impact for every dollar that donors entrust to us.

Some of the year’s most significant breakthroughs have been in assisting persecuted Christians, especially those fleeing from the forces of evil in Iraq and Syria; rescuing victims of human trafficking; replication of our Guatemala agriculture program and saving countless lives through the implementation of new ways to turn bad water into safe water. With your help, Operation Blessing was able to impact the lives of almost 10.1 million people in FY 2015.

I am so grateful for the benevolence and sacrifice of every single one of our faithful donors. Please think of OBI as an engine of mercy, and know that your prayers and financial support are the precious fuel that our engine runs on. From the most profound depth of my being — I thank you one and all.

I promise, that with your continued support, the Operation Blessing team will do even more for the poor in coming years.

May God bless you,

Bill Horan, President Operation Blessing International

T

Shelter To Save Lives

G AZA, ISRAEL – When tensions were at their highest in Gaza in the summer of 2014, Israeli children and families near the border knew a devastating attack

could occur at any moment. They had to be ready to find shelter immediately.Operation Blessing provided a portable bomb shelter at a vulnerable area near a

school bus stop, where children often have only 15 seconds to find shelter. We also donated enough shelter supply packs to serve 935 beneficiaries at other shelters.

As one Israeli woman said,“Once I get [my children] into the safe room, I try to relax, pray, sing a soothing song … and I pray that no mother in the world will have to feel her heart stopping in fear for the safety of her children’s lives.”

Thanks to your prayers, donations and volunteerism, Operation Blessing International (OBI) stood ready to respond to disasters and emergencies in the U.S. and around the world. In FY 2015, we deliv-ered food, emergency supplies and assistance for victims of flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes. Aid for other emergencies – like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the humanitarian crisis created by the emergence of ISIS – provided much-needed relief for victims devastated by disease, violence and conflict.

PERSECUTED CHRISTIANSERBIL, IRAQ – Currently in Iraq and neigh-boring countries, one of the most destructive forces is the militant Islamic group ISIS.

In the town of Qaraqos, Iraq, a woman named Miriam had heard the stories of atrocities committed by ISIS against Christians like her. Demands for “taxes.” Forced conversions. Men executed. Women and children raped and forced into slavery. So when she heard that ISIS was approaching, she and her family grabbed a few things and fled for their lives to the Kurdish city of Erbil.

There she joined 120,000 internally displaced persons, many of them Christians who had likewise fled the advance of ISIS, now living in makeshift camps, church halls and abandoned buildings.

Since June 2014, Operation Blessing has been

helping these desperate Christian families in their time of need, providing warm blankets, cooking stoves and mattresses along with essential sta-ples including safe water, vegetables, milk, eggs, rice, oil, beans, tea and sugar. We have organized programs for children living in the tent camps and provided diapers and powdered milk for families with young children.

Working through the local church, Operation Blessing will continue to provide help and relief for over 20,000 displaced Iraqis in 2015, and to assist persecuted Iraqi Christians with extreme medical needs.

“We lost everything,” said Miriam, who is now living with her family in a tent among the displaced throngs. For now, she has put her faith in God and is grateful for the essential supplies and support from groups like Operation Blessing. DISASTER &

EMERGENCY

DISASTER & EMERGENCY

RELIEF

Disaster And Emergency Relief Highlights: • United States – Responded with 1,297 volunteers

and 24,990 pounds of supplies for tornado, flooding, earthquake and storm victims in Mississippi, Virginia, Florida and California

• Honduras Immigrant Crisis – Provided aid in shelters along with skills training for employment or microbusiness start-ups for 12,954 beneficiaries

• Liberia Ebola Outbreak – Produced 440 gallons of liquid chlorine per day for distribution to clinics and communities, helping to end the epidemic

• Hurricane Odile, Mexico – Helped rebuild homes for 21,724 beneficiaries.

SAFEWATER

“The King will reply,‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:40

FFew things impact poverty like access to safe water. The wells and water systems we build in Kenya, Honduras, Liberia, Haiti and else-where instantly and dramatically improve quality of life for thousands. Fighting the spread of disease and waterborne illnesses with chlorine also saves countless lives and misery.

EBOLA EPIDEMICLIBERIA – The unprecedented Ebola outbreak that racked Liberia devastated the families of people like 15-year-old Ernest. He and his sister suddenly became orphans after losing their father to the disease one day, and their mother the next.

As the world looked on in horror, Operation Blessing didn’t hesitate to act. In May 2014, we responded with crucial medical supplies. In August 2014, Operation Blessing leadership met with the Liberian Minister of the Interior, who said they desperately needed a disinfectant to protect medical personnel and caregivers. We immediately air-shipped four chlorine- manufacturing units to Monrovia. By October, we had five units in place and became the sole mass producer of chlorine in Liberia, manufac-turing 440 gallons of liquid chlorine per day – enough, when mixed with water, for 4,400 gallons of hand-washing solution.

In addition, Operation Blessing recognized the need for community-level awareness and prevention. Working with local church vol-

unteers, we trained and equipped teams that returned to their own communities with three primary goals:1. Awareness: Shared information on how to prevent Ebola, how to recognize the symptoms, and what protocols to follow. Misinformation and “conspiracy theories” were also addressed.2. Prevention: Delivered hand-washing buck-ets and liquid chlorine to every household and business.3. Identification: Looked for Ebola cases and for opportunities to help families affected by Ebola.

“When this happened, people ran away from us in the neighborhood,” Ernest’s grandfather said. “Thank God that you are here. It was truly by the fine inspiration of the Almighty God that you came to our rescue.”

These efforts throughout the outbreak helped save lives from the epidemic that killed over 4,800 people in Liberia alone. Operation Blessing continues to produce several hundred gallons of chlorine daily for surface and hand disinfection at hospitals and schools in Liberia.

WATER387,657

TotalBeneficiaries

Safe Water Highlights

1,160 Wells built

19Countries

with on-going water programs

W

International Hunger Relief Highlights: • In Lesotho, Africa, through a partnership with Faith Foundation, 350 hungry

orphans and vulnerable children in impoverished villages received desperately needed food and supplies.

• In a Kenyan refugee camp, 80,000 pounds of maize fed nearly 4,000 families who had fled from war-torn South Sudan.

• In Rwanda, an agriculture training program was provided in partnership with Gardens for Health International to teach 120 families how to grow their own food, benefiting over 480 people.

• In the highlands of Puno, Peru, 19,351 pounds of fortified rice were given to 38 schools, benefitting 1,890 children during months of freezing temperatures, in order to improve nutrition.

With your help, Operation Blessing was able to help feed millions of hungry people around the world. In true “loaves and fishes” style, we were able to deliver $100 worth of donated goods and relief supplies for every $10 raised to feed the poor.

HUNGER STRIKE FORCEUNITED STATES – In FY 2015, Operation Blessing’s Hunger Strike Force helped more than 2.6 million people facing hunger in the U.S. The team secured and distributed over 54 million pounds of food, which provided more than 45 million meals* to individuals and families in need.

For people like Chris and Dottie, the thought of not having enough food to feed their four kids had never occurred to them until a shortage of work and ongoing medical bills had them down to their last $6. That’s when a friend told them about an Operation Blessing-

supported food pantry, where they received fresh produce, juice and other staples to help them make it through that difficult time.

OBI distributes food and relief directly to 92 ministry partners across the country, which then deliver these resources to 6,165 local churches, soup kitchens, food pantries and homeless shelters.

In addition, through a partnership with the Washington Redskins, 87,000 pounds of food and supplies were pro-vided to an estimated 3,000 families in need through the annual Harvest Feast food distribution.

*Based on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines, a meal is equal to 1.2 pounds of food and grocery product.

HUNGER

HUNGERRELIEF

“The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.” Proverbs 22:9

BLESS-A-CHILD

TThrough feeding programs, educational assistance, life skills training, medical care and more, Operation Blessing has helped vulnerable children around the world to have hope for a better future. Through your support, our programs were able to improve and even save the lives of orphans, street kids, child trafficking victims and children battling poverty and malnutrition.

EDUCATION THAT OPENS DOORSHAITI – In the impoverished town of Medan Belize, Haiti, Operation Blessing is working to improve education for young children.

Formal education rates in Haiti are among the lowest in the western hemisphere. Many children are malnourished, which impedes their ability to learn, grow and thrive. Providing education, food, health services and jobs to communities like this are critical to empowering rural Haitians to break the cycle of poverty.

In January 2015, a new kindergarten was built next to the main primary

school, which now serves over 180 children. These were the first schools established in this community. Over 60% of the children in this village are now enrolled in school, and that number continues to grow. New teachers and teacher assistants were hired for all the kinder-garten classes.

We offer an in-school feeding program that provides breakfast and lunch for all students. For

the 26 students that have been identified with serious malnu-trition and delayed growth, our Commu-nity Health Workers provide nutritional and vitamin supplements.

CHILD Vulnerable Children And Orphan Care Highlights: • More than 41,520 children in more than 23 countries benefited from our Bless-A-Child

programs around the world.

• Anti-trafficking programs were administered in 10 countries – including extensive programs and outreach in Brazil to combat the surge in child sex trafficking during the World Cup.

• 4,678 children in 13 countries were provided with educational opportunities through building or renovation of schools, school scholarships, or vocation training.

TThis year, with your financial support, Operation Blessing provided free medical care such as general medical, optical, dental and surgical services to families without regular access to such services. We also dis-pensed medicine in countries like El Salvador, the Philippines, Peru, India, Nigeria and Haiti and provided life-changing surgeries such as cleft lip and palate, cataract and more to those in need.

COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERSIn FY 2015, Operation Blessing expanded its

community health worker program, now serving five countries. Community Health Workers have been internationally recognized as one of the most effective ways to decrease disease and death in rural communities, especially among women, children and newborns. Due to the difficulty and expense of staffing health care facilities in rural areas, Community Health Workers provide an affordable solution for round-the-clock coverage in the most remote of places. The primary cost is in the training and supplies needed to provide basic health care to the people.

Community Health Workers are selected out of a community and thoroughly trained in the areas of health, hygiene and pharmaceuticals. After successfully going through the training, the individuals “grad-uate” as Community

Health Workers and begin working among the villagers. Primary services include hygiene edu-cation, water disinfection, disease identification and treatment, basic first aid, maternal and child health monitoring and insecticide-treated bed net distributions. Community Health Workers are trained to identify more severe cases, and will refer and accompany individuals to clinics for more advanced treatment, including candidates for life-changing surgeries.

In Kenya, where waterborne illness threatens the lives of children, Operation Blessing equipped Community Health Workers with H2gO Handheld Chlorine Generators that can treat an average of 4,340 liters of water for up to 474 members of their Maasai community per week. In Honduras, Community Health Workers weekly

monitor the growth of children under age five, to assure they grow up healthy and strong.

Medical Care Highlights:

3,848 Life-changing

Surgeries

1,150 Medical Clinics;

351,099 Total Beneficiaries

4,786,323 Anti-parasite Pills given to children

$ 158,883,050 Gift-In-Kind Medicines &

Supplies Distributed

4 million tablets of

Paracetamol Distributed to Fight Haiti Chikungunya

Virus Outbreak; 125,000 Individuals

Treated

MEDICALAID

MICROENTERPRISE

“Be generous, and you will be prosperous. Help others, and you will be helped.” Proverbs 11:25

MICROENTERPRISE

GARDENS FOR GROWTHPANIMACHE, GUATEMALA – When Volcán de Fuego erupted in Guatemala in 2012, nearby towns, including Panimache, were covered in three feet of ash which killed the crops and steril-ized the soil.

In order to mitigate the potentially disas-trous affects in this already food-insecure region, Operation Blessing brought in a team that included an agronomist. Locals were trained in new techniques that use raised beds, locally attainable materials, a biological organic fertilizer and small amounts of water controlled by drip irrigation.

These innovative methods produced great results – increased crop production (by nearly 700 percent for most vegetables), improved diet, and enough to not only feed the families

themselves but also generate a livelihood selling to other communities.

Local grower Esvin is a living example of how this program is changing lives. Esvin lost both of his legs to polio, and he thought his productive life was over. He and his wife did everything they could to provide for their family. But after the volcano erupted, they were unable to work their land. Now, thanks to Operation Blessing’s garden project, Esvin is able to provide food for his family by using growing tables to cultivate their crops.

After the program’s initial success, we created a large training facility in the town of Antigua in 2014. Farmers come from across Guatemala to learn these techniques, and Operation Blessing provides materials and supplies to get them started.

Microenterprise Highlights:• Haiti Aquaculture – Operation Blessing developed and cultivated fish farming and fish

ranching programs to provide nutritious food, education and jobs for the population of Haiti.

• Kenya Community Farm – Women harvested vegetables to feed their families, supply a school nutrition program and sell for income. They also received goats that provided milk and meat that they could breed and sell.

• Philippines Bangka Boats – In partnership with Pinoy Relief, Operation Blessing provided new boats, fishing nets, spear guns and motors so that fishermen devastated by Typhoon Haiyan could provide for their families.

WWith your investment in us, Operation Blessing helped people not just survive but thrive through job skills training and small business opportunities – from community vegetable gardens to sewing businesses. We’ve made lasting inroads against poverty by helping those in need provide for their families and develop stronger communities.

OOperation Blessing works hard to leverage the generosity of businesses, industry and corporate communities by securing gift-in-kind donations and developing innovative partner-ships that can change lives.GIFT-IN-KIND DONATIONSDonations don’t always take the form of cash. Sometimes it makes more sense for growers, grocery chains, manufacturing and production facilities, distributors, and corporations to give actual food, supplies, equipment and more that can be used in our relief efforts.

Operation Blessing is proud to be at the forefront of developing innovative gift-in-kind partnerships and approaches. They can be

extremely beneficial for everyone involved – especially when food or products that would otherwise be largely wasted can be repurposed to help those in need.

Operation Blessing secured gift-in-kind donations totaling $235,871,880 in FY 2015. These donations – much needed food, clothing, medicines and relief supplies – were delivered to vulnerable families through our programs around the world.

PROCUREMENT & CORPORATE RELATIONS

Condensed Financial Information for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015.

REVENUES:

Gifts in Kind ........................... $ 235,871,880 Contributions ............................. 20,443,786Other Revenue ................................ 147,188Total Revenues .................... $ 256,462,854

For Operation Blessing International’s complete financial statements audited by our independent auditors KPMG LLP, please visit www.ob.org/financials or write to: Operation Blessing International, Public Relations Dept, 977 Centerville Turnpike, Virginia Beach, VA 23463.

FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP91.9%

Gifts in Kind

8.0% Contributions

0.1% Other Revenue

98.6% Programs

0.8% Fundraising

0.6%General &

Administrative

EXPENSES:

Programs ............................. ($ 254,669,186)Fundraising ................................. (2,151,268)General and Administrative ........ (1,395,116)Total Expenses ...................... (258,215,570)Gains and Losses .............................. $5,811Decrease in Net Assets ........... ($ 1,746,905)

BOARD MEMBERS:

DR. M.G. “PAT” ROBERTSON Virginia Beach, VA

A.E. ROBERTSON Virginia Beach, VA

GORDON ROBERTSON Norfolk, VA

WILLIAM HORAN Virginia Beach, VA

DAVID MELILLI Laguna Hills, CA

WILLIAM DOONER Memphis, TN

THOMAS DAUGHTERY, M.D. Winchester, VA

ROBERT FANNING Virginia Beach, VA

CONOLY PHILLIPS Virginia Beach, VA

DR. M.G. “PAT” ROBERTSON Chairman

WILLIAM HORAN President and Chief Operating Officer

JAMES BARR, JR. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

RANDY MORELL Secretary

STEVEN O’GRADY Vice President of Operations and Logistics

PAMELA ERICKSON Vice President of Procurement and Corporate Relations

DEBORAH BENSEN Vice President of Media and Development

DAVID DARG Vice President of International Operations

JODY HERRINGTON-GETTYS Vice President of U.S. Disaster Relief and Programs

RONDA SHERMAN Executive Director of Philanthropy

OFFICERS & LEADERSHIP TEAM:

Charity Navigator Rating

Forbes ranked OBI as one of America’s Most Efficient Charities with 100% rating in fundraising efficiency.

Consumers Digest named OBI one of “America’s Top Charities”

OBI is a member in good standing of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA)

P.O. Box 2636 | Virginia Beach, VA 23450 | 1.800.730.2537 | operationblessing.org

Live Your Faith. Bless The Poor.