New York, NY – September 26, 2005 -- Christopher Redner, an award-winning journalist and producer, has traveled worldwide, reporting on the issues that impact children. Redner wants his work to help people develop an intelligent, compassionate response to global issues. That's why he created World Week.

"People often see images of hunger, violence, disease, natural disasters and environmental destruction," Redner says. "Many shut these images out or say 'I can't do anything about that.' And you can't blame them.

"Unless you can place negative images -- violence in the Middle East, a devastating tsunami in southern Asia or destruction of the Brazilian rain -- in a context and understand what caused them and what you can do, it is natural to shut the images out, emotionally if not literally.

"I want to help people discover that however bleak things look, we can make a difference," Redner says. "We can't solve all the world's problems, but we can make things better. Perhaps the biggest change we can make is in how we understand our world and the people who share it with us."

World Week offers fun and educational activities designed to help people understand what life is like for people suffering from disease, abuse, hunger, discrimination and environmental devastation. There are free leader's guides for each World Week activity that explain how to organize the event.

"There's an old saying, 'If you want to understand people walk a mile in their shoes,'" says Redner. "World Week activities offer participants new perspectives on age-old issues by placing them in the shoes of the poor."

Participants in the "Water Walk" activity, for example, take a four-mile trek through downtown streets, carrying buckets of water. They learn how hard women work in developing countries just to gather water. And they can raise money and recruit child sponsors through an international organization to help provide clean, safe water for people who desperately need it.

Participants in the "Gender Banquet" prepare and attend a meal, during which they learn what it is like to be discriminated against on the basis of gender. Participants in "Prison Wear" design T-shirts honoring people subjected to human rights abuses and write letters on their behalf.

By choosing a cross-section of activities, participants learn how major global issues are related -- how poverty causes environmental degradation, how human rights violations thwart peace, how the poor are most affected by natural disasters, how discrimination limits education or how lack of education fuels overpopulation.

Many World Week participants are supported by friends, family and neighbors who pledge to sponsor a child or otherwise help people suffering from hunger, disease, abuse, discrimination and environmental degradation.

"One week won't solve our social and environmental problems," Redner says. "But people can make a world of difference in a week. And if we follow up by learning and doing a bit more every week, we can have a tremendous impact." Redner hopes that World Week participants will do that by acting on the Bible's admonition to "provoke one another to love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24).

"We can be the difference between life and death, between hope and despair for a lot of people. But getting involved with World Week doesn't just benefit the poor; it helps us.

"It is very easy to become materialistic, apathetic or cynical. Most of us want to resist that tendency. We want to do something to make a difference, we're just not sure we can. World Week empowers people with knowledge, understanding and practical steps they can take to make things better."

Free World Week materials are available at www.worldweek.org and through Christian concerts tours like the Will Play For Food tour, the Joy to World Christmas Celebration tour and the Joy to the World Easter Celebration tour.

World Week will be celebrated November 13-19, 2005.