From the 2025 Convention of the Synod
Written by Michael Stolz, Executive Director of Australian Lutheran World Service

ALWS began 75 years ago, helping refugees displaced by World War II find a new life in Australia.

Today, that legacy lives on as we support displaced people and refugees around the world in 14 countries.

After this session [at the 2025 Convention of the Synod], like most of you, I’ll have lunch. Maybe a salad wrap. Or a sandwich. Maybe even something warm and comforting.

But if I were a father in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, lunch would be very different: just 40 grams of maize porridge. That’s less than a handful – no salt, no flavour. And that’s all there is – for breakfast, lunch, dinner. Day after day. But here’s the thing: I’m a father. So I’d skip that meagre lunch and give it to my child. Because hunger is terrible – but watching your child go hungry is worse.

This is the cruel reality for hundreds of thousands of families in Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps, where food aid has been slashed in half. And where the ripple effect is devastating not only stomachs – but futures.

Kakuma and Dadaab are two of the largest refugee camps in the world.

Kakuma is home to over 270,000 refugees from various countries, including South Sudan and Somalia. Dadaab currently hosts more than 330,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia. Together, that’s over 600,000 people – most of them women and children – living with uncertainty, loss, and immense need.

Since the early 1990s, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has been managing these camps, providing education services. They have built a trusted, effective, and deeply embedded presence.

And ALWS is proud to support that work. In fact, you, through us, have been helping people fleeing war and persecution for 75 years – beginning with displaced people from WWII starting new lives in Australia.

Today, that same mission continues. Refugees from Europe in the 1940s. Refugees from South Sudan and Somalia today. Always the same commitment: to restore dignity, opportunity, and hope.

But now, a new challenge. The US government recently halved its humanitarian aid to Kenya, compounded by a 40% cut from UNHCR.

The consequences are staggering:

  • Food rations down to 40 grams of maize per meal.
  • Children going to school hungry – and struggling to stay awake.
  • Class sizes of 150 students, four children squeezed onto each bench, barely enough books to go around.
  • Teachers, many refugees themselves, receiving just a few dollars a day – and even that is at risk.
  • Girls facing increased threats of sexual violence if schools close.
  • Children with disabilities pushed even further to the margins.

The long-term cost? An entire generation deprived of education – the one tool proven to break the cycle of poverty and trauma.

There are 106,514 refugee children whose futures now hang in the balance.
Among them, 4,575 children with disabilities.

In the past few months alone, 35 staff have already lost their jobs due to these cuts. These were not just numbers on a payroll – they were teachers, support workers, and community protectors. Their loss has dramatically reduced the ability to provide both food and essential services.

Without school, children lose more than knowledge. They lose stability. They lose safety. They lose the one place where a different future might still be possible.

ALWS, in partnership with LWF, is acting now to:

  • Pay and retain teachers, so schools can remain open.
  • Support girls to stay in school, where they are safer and more empowered.
  • Include children with disabilities, giving them equal access to learning.
  • Protect classrooms from collapse as international aid recedes.

But we can’t do it alone.

As part of our 75th anniversary we set the bold target to support 75,000 children.

Every dollar matters. Every dollar protects a teacher’s job, keeps a child in school, offers a path forward in a place where almost everything else has been taken away.

Stand with us. Support us. Help us keep education alive in Kakuma and Dadaab.

We have held four Walk My Way events around Australia in the last 3 months, and are already half way to our target of helping 75,000 children.

Maybe today, like me, you’ll skip lunch. Because for some children, skipping lunch is normal. But skipping school doesn’t have to be.

Together, we can feed minds, not just bodies. We can give children who’ve lost everything something no one can ever take away: education.

May God bless your generosity.

Thanks also to our sponsors LLL and LEA.