Gladys picking peppers

Every morning, Gladys wakes up and runs into the kitchen for breakfast. Her mother, Olga Campos (37) prepares her a healthy meal; Soy milk, green tortillas made out of vegetables, eggs and beans. Gladys who is 4 and half years old looks very healthy and happy. They all live in the community of Santa Ifigenia in Honduras. “Thanks to the recipes I learn from the World Vision project, ‘Common pot’, I saved my daughter’s life,” Olga says very proudly. A few years ago Gladys use to suffer from anemia, she almost died. Her father Jaime Coto use to work at other people’s farm, making a daily income of $6. This was not enough to properly feed his family. “We struggle for a long time with money, my daughter was very sick and it was hard for me to afford Ramon and Ana Julissa, my other 2 children ́s education,” Jamie recalls.  

Estella & Augustine in front of their garden.

Estella and Augustine Nsabika’s story is one of family and faith. It demonstrates how the THRIVE model is helping vulnerable households climb the rungs of the economic ladder and increase their economic stability. This strong framework is the basis of THRIVE - growing families through education and faith.

With an air of accomplishment, Augustine showed me around his compound. “That used to be our house,” he said, pointing towards a single room muddy house. He then took us to the new house he was able to build for his family. Augustine’s new house is made of kiln-baked red bricks, iron sheets, and has window panes. The satellite TV antenna on the roof attests to Augustine’s prosperity.

The contrast between the old and new house illustrates perfectly the transformation that has happened in Augustine’s household. The entire village knew Augustine as a drunkard who did not take care of his family. “I would spend the little money we had on beer and go home without food for my family, and yet expect my wife to give me food,” recalled Augustine.

Last year, we announced a new audacious goal of providing clean water to everyone, everywhere we work in Rwanda by 2022. This article provides an update on that effort. 

Our commitment to Rwanda is complementary and flows out of two other high-profile commitments that we have made for World Vision’s water programs. The biggest goal is to reach everyone, everywhere we work with clean water, which is 50 million people, by 2030. This is consistent with and shows World Vision’s commitment to help achieve the UN Sustainable Goal 6.0 of universal access to clean water and sanitation by 2030. To ensure that we stay on track, we set an interim goal of reaching 20 million people between 2015 and 2020. We’re on track towards both of these and have reached 10.4 million people with clean water in the first 2.5 years.

Nearly 3.5 million children and youth participate in World Vision discipleship and values education to strengthen their faith, their relationships, and their sense of self-worth. (©2018 World Vision/photo by Jon Warren)

At Christmas, we celebrated the birth of Jesus — the Light of the World. Through all of our work and throughout the year, we follow Jesus in spreading his light, to “shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16, NIV).

Our work to reduce material poverty goes hand-in-hand with our work in Christian discipleship to overcome spiritual poverty. Children cannot truly experience fullness of life unless they have the opportunity to experience and deepen their understanding of God’s love.

In the next five years, World Vision has a plan to expand our work to engage at least 2.5 million people in activities that strengthen the Christian faith of children and youth.

There are five main areas in which we help children experience the love of God:

Wilson is conducting one of his training sessions with Grace during her 5th pregnancy.

At the age of 67, Wilson Masiga might consider slowing down and enjoying his seven children and forty grandchildren. Instead, Wilson still rides about 10km every day on a bicycle, traversing villages in Busia District, eastern Uganda, carrying the message of good health.  

Wilson is one of the Community Health Workers (CHW) in this area. He has served in this role since 2011, after he and others were selected by the local leadership and community members. They were trained by the district health inspector, followed by additional training by World Vision in 2012. “We were trained in malaria control, nutrition and child protection, among others. World Vision has continued to give us refresher training along the way, reminding us that we are the first ‘health centers’ to help our communities,” says Wilson. 

Liyana Zenasi hails from Zenasi village in Chilenje Area Program in Malawi. She is married to Enosi and together, they have 4 children, age ranging from 6 to 18. For years, they have engaged in rain-fed subsistence farming, using traditional farming methods and with no involvement into micro enterprise. Providing for the family’s basic needs and supporting children with school supplies was an uphill task. They could hardly harvest enough from their fields and had no other source of income.

Fetlework with several of her Sunday school students.

Listen to Mesrach read this story.

“I know what these kids were missing because I have been in their position,” says Fetlework. “During my time as a Sunday school student, we had the smallest kid from age three to the oldest at 14. We all sat in one classroom and most of the things said, I don’t remember. Me and my friends never liked that,” Fetlework said. 

Pastor Getnet remembers too, “Full Gospel Church had a Sunday school service however it was practiced differently. Parents used to bring their children and drop them into one large classroom where all of the kids used to sit. They only had one teacher assigned and whenever the teacher missed church we let them join the congregation since we had no other option.” 

More than 250 men, women, and young people from around the globe came together for World Vision’s 14th Annual Strong Women Strong World Event in New York on November 30. They learned more about the plight of women and girls in the developing world, and what World Vision is doing about it.

In her keynote speech, First Lady of Rwanda, Jeannette Kagame said, “Women and girls are capable of bringing about significant change to their environment, despite obstacles that stand in the way of their advancement. If the existing impediments to women's advancement were removed from their paths, the impact of change could be more powerful."

Dominica leads her students in a lesson on social studies.

Dominica Chelatan (24) displays a rare trait, she has a photographic memory of her childhood. Her recollection of her upbringing speaks to the survival tactics she developed, living in a culture that had little regard for a girl child.

She was born into a large traditional Pokot family of twenty children. Her father was a village elder who was respected in the community. His words were like commands and nobody dared to disobey him. The sad thing is, he had no regard for education.