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How do we end extreme poverty? It starts by changing the question from an abstract one of “How do we end extreme poverty?” to a concrete one of “How do we help small farmers earn a lot more money?”
Why small farmers? Since we’re talking economics, let’s look at the numbers. Globally, 80% of people live in rural areas. Two-thirds of them live in extreme poverty and farm small plots of land. And about half of them are women, like Agnes and Anjela (you’ll hear their stories soon).
According to the World Bank, 692 million people, or about 8.5% of the world’s population, live in extreme poverty.
Is this number good? Is it bad? Is it expected?
This number actually represents one of the best and biggest stories of human accomplishment in the last 200 years. Extreme poverty affected almost everyone alive about 8 generations ago. Its plummet around the world since then is astounding.
But 692 million people still need an economic jumpstart. The good news? Through World Vision’s proven THRIVE (Transforming Household Resilience in Vulnerable Environments) approach to economic empowerment, families ARE lifting themselves out of extreme poverty — and you can join them in their journey! You’ll be offering families a set of proven tools that inspire and equip the heart, the mind, and the pocket. Better yet? Thanks to generous donor partners Stu and Robin Phillips, your gift will be matched.*
Will Agnes’s master plan work?
Agnes, 60, is struggling to raise children for a second go around. But this time, things will be different thanks to Biblical Empowered Worldview training. |
Black tea for breakfast. Many times that’s all there is. For Agnes, it’s all she can do most mornings for the four grandchildren she’s raising by herself in Kenya.
At 60, Agnes works hard. She’s got land — a small house on a quarter acre where she’s able to grow produce that she sells. But still, there’s barely ever enough money for food.
Paying the school fees for Charity and Wesley, two of her grandchildren who dream of becoming pilots, is hard. When the younger two, Joy and Remie, start their education it’ll only get harder.
Agnes has already raised children once, and she deeply desires for life to be different for her grandchildren. “I want to take them to school, not the way I failed my own children,” she says. Yet when unexpected expenses hit, Agnes often falls into debt and has trouble paying for school.
But Agnes now has a plan, one that points to a better future for the children in her life. “Through the plan, at least I will be in a position to pay school fees for the grandchildren comfortably,” she says. “I can make sure they have enough food always and also buy them clothing.”
How so? It’s all because Agnes recently participated in World Vision’s Biblical Empowered Worldview training. She’s embraced that she’s a child of God, filled with potential. Through this biblically based curriculum, she’s shifted her mindset and gained the confidence needed to see the resources available to her. Extreme poverty is no longer a given.
And so, Agnes created an economic plan. Then, at the completion of her training, Agnes and other women formed a savings group. This will allow her to save money and access small loans. Agnes’s first order of business? Diversify the food she grows and buy a cow.
And finally, through World Vision’s THRIVE approach, she’ll learn to maximize her crops and connect with buyers. That’s the power of a small farmer, unlocked.
How THRIVE equips hardworking families to … thrive!
The THRIVE approach to economic empowerment gives families like Agnes’s what they need to improve their incomes and become more resilient in the face of unexpected expenses and hardships.
Robin, a World Vision donor partner for decades, explains it best: “World Vision’s THRIVE model teaches people living in extreme poverty how to provide for themselves and their families. They are no longer dependent upon anyone else. They come to understand what their God-given abilities are. They have personal dignity because they are empowered to provide economically, often for the first time in generations. It changes the trajectory of the lives of women and girls in a radical way.
“The THRIVE model has the ‘ingredients’ to show people living in extreme poverty how to change their lives spiritually, economically, and relationally [in a way] that can be passed down for generations to come.”
Our four sequential, evidence-based tools have been proven to empower families to move themselves up the economic ladder. A recent study showed that every $1 you invest results in an estimated $6.67 in economic benefits — a 667% increase — to families participating in the THRIVE program.
“Despite the fact that I am a widow, I can do so much.”
“I was living in a mud house. Now I am in a modern house,” says Anjela, who’s now thriving thanks to World Vision’s Biblical Empowered Worldview training. |
Anjela lost her husband in 2008. She spent sleepless nights worrying about her young children’s future. Kevin was 5 at the time, and Enoti was 10. “There was a season that I had lost hope,” she says.
Then came her enrollment in World Vision’s Biblical Empowered Worldview training, and Anjela found renewed hope and faith that a better future was possible. “After [Biblical] Empowered Worldview,” she says, “I opened my eyes and started doing farming for business. I joined a savings group. I started to do poultry and built my house. Despite the fact that I am a widow, I can do so much.”
Her son now attends a university and her daughter has graduated. Anjela has become someone people look up to in her community. She stands tall among her peers, and she’s reaching out her hand to guide them. “There are so many widows like me in the community who had given up,” she says. “After seeing that I am doing well, they come and learn from me.”
Become part of success stories like Anjela’s
Many people want to change their circumstances but find it difficult to break the cycle of poverty. Feelings of powerlessness and low self-worth can dominate their worldview and hold them back. The Biblical Empowered Worldview training, a foundation of our economic empowerment approach, helps people understand their own worth and how they can live into their God-given potential by using their talents and resources to transform their lives and community.
Overall, we have huge goal in mind. Together, with your help and God’s grace, we’re committed, by 2030, to equip everyone, everywhere we work in 11 countries — at least 10 million** people — with access to the tools they need to lift themselves out of extreme poverty.
But this goal is about so much more than big numbers. It’s about individual people that Jesus loves deeply. Agnes. Anjela. Kevin. Enoti. “Jesus cares about the poor and He wants us to care about them,” says our friend Robin. “World Vision’s THRIVE model is the best investment someone can make to help people lift themselves up out of extreme poverty!”
*Gifts to the Economic Empowerment Fund given before 12/31/2025 will be matched up to $1,000,000.
**To reach 10 million people, World Vision needs to raise $200 million in new support from our U.S. philanthropic donors as part of an overall goal of $275 million, which includes field office funding.
