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Children
Sustainability
Education
Gender
Food, water and sanitation
HIV/AIDS
Technology
Children
World Vision’s work focuses on the needs of children, with
special concern for children who are exploited, orphaned, homeless
or disabled.
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In Uganda, many children have been orphaned through the
AIDS epidemic. World Vision is supporting over 1,500 children
in the Rakai Birungi Byokka project through education, building
materials and training for teenagers in carpentry, mechanics
and agriculture. |
Sustainability
Project sustainability depends on people gaining skills to ensure
the benefits continue even after World Vision funding ceases.
Because poor people often live in areas affected by environmental
degradation and pollution, World Vision projects encourage people
to manage resources like soil, trees and water so that they will
be available to future as well as present generations.
| In the Philippines,
a community development program funded by World Vision and
AusAID helped the farmers’ cooperative to reforest an
area and implement sustainable agricultural methods. The people
are learning that by replanting trees, it is possible to grow
crops on slopes without causing serious soil erosion. |
Education
Educated, informed people are best able to participate in their
society and in decision making. Literacy and learning for children
and adults are important components of World Vision programs.
| In Senegal, World
Vision is supporting education and skills training for young
women. The women learn to read and write and also to sew and
make other craft goods that they can sell to earn an income
for their families. |
Gender
The poorest people in poor communities are females. Yet women are
the main carers of children and families. Full participation of
both men and women is vital to a community’s development.
World Vision involves women in program design and decision making,
as well as targeting specific programs to benefit women.
| In Thailand, where
girls from poor families are often lured into prostitution,
World Vision projects encourage parents to let their daughters
stay on at school, raising their chances of getting well-paid
steady work in future. |
Food,
water and sanitation
Good nutrition and clean water are two of life’s necessities.
As well as providing emergency food aid in crises like war and famine,
World Vision has long term agricultural programs training farmers
to grow new or better crops. Installation of water pumps or tanks
giving clean water close to people’s homes contributes to
improved community health.
| In the Omosheleko
valley in Ethiopia, World Vision first gave emergency relief
during the terrible famine of 1984. Since then, World Vision
has worked with the community on agriculture, soil conservation,
reforestation and water supply so that people will have food
security and better health. |
HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS is a priority for World Vision because it is the biggest
single challenge facing the development community today. HIV/AIDS
devastates entire communities and rolls back decades of development
progress. Currently, there are more than 13 million children under
15 who have lost their mother or both parents to AIDS, and that
number is rising fast – especially in Africa. World Vision
has been involved in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in Africa
and Asia for more than a decade.
| A recent evaluation
of one World Vision project in Uganda has found that it, together
with other national efforts and local campaigns, has made
a significant impact on the community’s ability to prevent
HIV infection and better care for people living with AIDS.
As a result, the HIV prevalence rate has been nearly halved
in the last decade from 14% to around 8%, by the use of strong
prevention measures. |
Technology
World Vision promotes affordable technologies using local materials
and designs that people can make, use and repair themselves. Examples
include suction water pumps, cement storage tanks and fuel efficient
stoves.
| In Indonesia, villagers
had to walk down into the river valley to get their water,
then carry the heavy water containers back up the steep slope
to the village. With World Vision’s advice and help,
they installed hydraulic ram pumps so that water can be pumped
from the river up to the village, saving much time and energy.
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