World Concern Sudan staff member named CRISTA Employee of the Year

Harun Ringera, CRISTA Employee of the Year

Harun Ringera has seen the World Concern Sudan staff grow from just three people in 2006 to more than 50 today. He has seen traumatized former child soldiers become literate and employable. And starving families not only survive, but learn to grow their own food. Most recently, he has seen the people of Southern Sudan, who have never known life without war, celebrate their independence.

Harun is being honored next week in Seattle as CRISTA Ministries’ Employee of the Year. He will be recognized at a reception on Monday, February 28, at the CRISTA campus, 19303 Fremont Ave N, Shoreline. World Concern is one of CRISTA’s seven ministries.

As program manager, Harun oversees the day to day operations of World Concern’s vocational training, food security, microfinance and economic development programs in Sudan. Although he works 12-hour days and is away from his wife and children in Kenya for two months at a time, Harun said he feels called to work in Sudan.

“My strength is visiting families in their homes, praying with them, and seeing improvements,” he said. If you want to learn to succeed in Southern Sudan and to motivate people, learn to appreciate them, and give them hope.”

A native Kenyan, Harun attended college in Nairobi and will earn his Master’s degree in Development Studies in October. He is the youngest of seven children and the first in his family to be educated beyond primary school.

Harun said he was very excited to learn he had been named Employee of the Year and for his first trip to the U.S. “I thought that World Concern Sudan was not known,” he said. “I felt like David [from the Bible], a shepherd being anointed king.”

--World Concern staff

World Concern, part of CRISTA Ministries, is a Christian humanitarian organization that helps lift people out of poverty through activities including microfinance, agriculture, disaster response and small business development. World Concern works with the poor in 22 countries, with the goal of transforming the lives of those we touch, leading them on a path to self-sustainability. Worldwide, World Concern offers life, opportunity and hope to nearly six million people.