When an earthquake hits in El Salvador or a ty­phoon in Thailand, we immediately telex, fax or phone the office to find out if there's anything we can do.

How nice, then, to discover it works in reverse too!

After the earthquake shook Newcastle, WVA got messages of concern from offices in Peru, Bangladesh, Guatemala and other places. They had heard and seen it on their news!

I was able to tell them that our whole Newcastle staff (all one and a half of them) were fine. It's a good feeling to be connected with caring colleagues so far away, yet so close.

From the combined skills of Rowland and Bill W comes the following interesting statistic:

By the end of 1989 there was a little less than a tonne of excess food in the world for each starving person. A small truckload of excess food for every starv­ing child, woman and man.

Where is most of it? More than half of it in devel­oped countries like Australia. Why don't we ask our government to give more of it away? Good question.

The first quarter shows we are staying close to budget for revenue and costs. When you remember that we predicted ambitious growth in a number of areas, this is a good confident beginning to our year.

Here are the numbers:

Estimated Revenue so far   $10,737,474

Budget                                   $10,259,218

Same Period Last Year        $8,679,560

How about that! 5% better than planned and 24% better than last year! Congratulations to everyone who continues to work so hard.

After her recent visit to Bangladesh, Pam Mercier from Brisbane, wrote a lovely story which will be pub­lished in the next "World Vision News." Here is part of it:

My thoughts return constantly to the women I meet in Bangladesh and Thailand. They live in a different world from the one I am used to, and it's a frightening one.

These women, unimportant human beings in their community, become very special to me. Their life is so burdened yet they struggle to feed their families. Their children are all important to them. How can they bear the suffering, the sickness, the seemingly endless life of existence?  They are prisoners of poverty. They have so little, yet they smile. I wonder what they think of this western woman with short hair and skirt, freely riding around in cars and on motorbikes?

Bangladeshi women are shy, covered from head to foot in their saris, peeping out as I pass. I make a point of looking into the eyes of every woman I meet and smiling. I want to communicate with them, and they smile back. The more women I meet, the more I realise the unspoken bond, Eastern woman to Western one, different yet feel­ing the same. They call me "Sister", they are curious but they try to reach out to me. In my heart I feel the warmth of common humanity. I try to feel and understand the suffering, not with pity, but with compassion.

I see so much suffering. In Klong Toey, a Bangkok slum, a woman aged about 30 sits on a step outside a one room shack. She is dying of cancer. She receives no treatment ‑ she has no money, and is worried about her children. I identify with her; I've been there, the only difference is I had treatment because we were born in different countries. We pray with her, and then walk away. I hurt, where is the justice?

While staying in a village in Bangladesh, I hear a baby cry pitifully for two days in a little thatched hut outside the window of my room. I ask the interpreter to ask the mother what is wrong. She has a three year‑old girl clinging to her and a two month‑old baby in her arms. Her husband has recently died of TB and her milk has dried up. She is just 18 years old.