Cary, NC, August 13, 2007—In its continuing effort to develop key partnerships and leverage global ministry opportunities, international Christian broadcaster Trans World Radio (TWR) announces its associate membership with the Association of Evangelical Relief and Development Organizations (AERDO). AERDO is a professional forum for nonprofit Christian agencies and individuals engaged in relief and development work. TWR also participates in the AERDO HIV/AIDS Alliance, a group that pursues collaborative involvement in HIV/AIDS projects around the world.

“AERDO members have been working in partnership with Trans World Radio for many years, and I know they have all been impressed with TWR’s programs and collaborative spirit,” says Chad Hayward, executive director of AERDO. “Without question, TWR’s niche and expertise in the communications marketplace will prove extremely valuable.”

Tom Watkins, TWR’s global coordinator for HIV/AIDS ministry initiatives, agrees that partnering with AERDO represents a prudent coalition. “This association is really a natural fit for TWR,” he says. “Radio is a strategic tool used by relief and development agencies to convey educational messages and relief effort information whenever crises and tragedies occur around the world.”

Following the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, TWR worked with fellow associate AERDO member International Bible Society and used portions of its crisis-related book When Your Whole World Changes in special programming for tsunami survivors. TWR also partnered with Link Care Center, a ministry committed to providing restoration and compassionate care worldwide. “We created a series of unique radio programs that offered practical, biblical ways to process stages of trauma,” says Watkins. “Counseling-type broadcasts often provide a stabilizing voice to help people get through periods of trauma and grief.”

Also significant to TWR and AERDO is the AIDS epidemic, which TWR has addressed head-on for 20 years. Since 1987, TWR has aired HIV/AIDS-related programs in Africa, and today it ministers to those with AIDS and helps in the prevention of the disease by broadcasting AIDS programming in some 10 countries globally.

Most recently, TWR has come alongside Kerus Global Education to produce a radio drama program offering a character-based prevention strategy promoting abstinence and fidelity. Kerus and TWR are working with local churches and faith-based organizations to train local leaders to facilitate faith-based listening groups targeting children and families.

TWR is also involved in the following relief and development type projects:

• Open Schools Worldwide, an innovative, Christ-centered education delivery system aimed to serve marginalized children, is a collaborative endeavor of Association of Christian Schools International, Kerus Global Education and TWR. The project relies on a network of strategically located resource centers and aims to serve street kids, orphans and other vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.
• Advocacy programs to come alongside on-the-ground efforts of relief and development organizations, such as a child advocacy radio broadcast being piloted in Kenya with Compassion International. The program began in October 2006 and has received wholly positive response from listeners.
• “Farming God’s Way,” a biblically based approach to African agriculture that addresses how to institute long-term practices that preserve and care for the land.

“We are always looking for ways to come alongside organizations that have a wholistic approach to sharing the gospel,” Watkins says. “TWR’s desire is not to just throw out seed to the wind, so to speak, but rather to team up with people who are on the ground, experienced and have strong relationships with the local church. In everything we do, we want to assist the church.”