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Our Story |
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How WTN US began When the Asian tsunami struck in 2004, David Purviance was living with his wife in southern India. A few days after the tragedy he was on the beaches of Tamil Nadu witnessing the devastation firsthand. Initially he provided psychological intervention (art therapy) for children in temporary shelters who had survived the tsunami. He purchased teddy bears for children who had lost parents and built playgrounds in three villages where children were traumatized from their experience. Working with a local Indian charitable organization he funded a project that provided medical and psychological help, nutritional supplements and hospital fees to over 700 pregnant women and nursing mothers in 20 villages who had survived the tsunami but lost homes and family members. (Click for Tsunami projects) His efforts caught the attention of an English charity called Wherever the Need and he was asked to become their India representative. In 2006 he and his wife Jean founded Wherever the Need in the United States. They continue to split their time between the U.S. and India. David was formerly executive director of the charitable organization Plenty International and later was public relations director at the University of Montana, retiring in 2003. |
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How WTN UK began Wherever the Need began in England from the efforts of two men, Andy Barrs and David Crosweller (photo above), who were moved to help in the Balkans after witnessing human suffering on the news. When Yugoslavia broke apart in the late 1990s and civil war created tens of thousands of refugees, David and Andy learned of a man who was ferrying supplies to refugee camps in his van. David asked to join him on his next trip, but the man surprised him with his answer. Rather than accepting David’s offer the man said, “Well if you really want to help here is what you can do. Ask your friends and family and everyone you know to donate money, blankets or food. Then you find someone with a van and ask to borrow it for a week. Drive the van filled with whatever you’ve collected to the Balkans, find a refugee camp, give away your supplies, drive back to England and start over.” It was a very empowering thing to suggest and David, supported by Andy’s fundraising expertise, did just what this man advised, ultimately making 14 trips to refugee camps in the Balkan states of Croatia, Serbia and Kosovo. This experience proved to David that two people really can make a difference and they set up Wherever the Need as a charitable organization in England in 1998. |
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Board Members David Purviance (President and Executive Director) Jean Purviance (Secretary/Treasurer) David Crosweller Roger Housden Patrick Spiger |
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Copyright © 2007 Wherever the Need. All rights reserved. |
