40 Hour Famine - 40 Hour Famine success stories

40 Hour Famine success stories

Wondering how the money you raise helps hungry kids?

Here’s an update on some World Vision projects that got a great boost from funds raised in last year’s 40 Hour Famine.

Cambodia: helping children who’ve lost their parents

For families living in poverty in Cambodia, getting enough food can be hard. But for children who’ve lost one or both parents, it’s even tougher.

Vibol lost both his parents and his younger brother, and now it’s just him and his elderly grandma living together in their little house. “I miss them so much,” Vibol says. His grandma couldn’t earn enough money and for a while they were going hungry. “There was not enough rice to cook,” he says.

But a World Vision project helping children like him – and funded by people like you doing the 40 Hour Famine – has helped bring relief to Vibol. The project ensures that he’s got enough food, as well as school materials so he can stay in school.

“I can now cook for my grandson,” says Vibol’s grandma. “We will never forget every good act of World Vision staff whose members come and visit and support my family regularly.”

“My grandson now looks fresher and I hope he will become a teacher as his dream,” she says.

Chooks, bees and rocks: helping Kenyans combat drought

Constant drought in Laisamis, Kenya, had a huge impact on people’s crops, animals and incomes. It meant more children were going hungry because their parents couldn’t grow enough food. So with your help, World Vision started a project to fight hunger and help people cope with the lack of rain.

The project taught groups of people about “small scale irrigation”, which is all about how to harvest enough water to grow crops on a small piece of land. Others learnt how to keep chooks and bees as a way to earn money (and get tasty eggs and honey).

Greenhouses have been one of the best successes of the Laisamis project so far, allowing people to grow lots more vegetables to eat throughout the year – especially tomatoes!

To help mums keep their children healthy, World Vision organised growth monitoring sessions, where women could take their children to get weighed and measured to make sure they weren’t malnourished. They could also watch cooking demonstrations and learn about nutritious foods. But the dads weren’t left out! Some of the men learned about good hygiene and nutrition for children under two as well.

Most importantly, the people of Laisamis needed a way to catch rainwater so they could grow enough food to keep their children healthy. So World Vision helped them construct a “rock catchment” method of catching and storing water.

The village chief was so excited about the water project. He said, “We have never seen anything like this in our village...this water will serve the community for a very long time even if the rains disappear.” Laisamis has been a real success story. And it’s all because of YOU!