Breaking News: World Vision will lead consortiums of faith-based partners for two grants focused on global health and humanitarian response

The U.S. State Department recently announced World Vision as the lead partner in two multi-country grants that are among the largest in World Vision’s history. The grants are $250 million for health and $238 million for humanitarian response. Through this major U.S. government funding, World Vision and its consortium partners will multiply their impact through long-standing church networks and other trusted community stakeholders. For more than 75 years, World Vision has worked with 15 administrations, all with different perspectives, while staying focused on our humanitarian principles and our calling to reach the most vulnerable.

The global health grant alone is the largest public grant in World Vision's history and is projected to reach 22 million people annually with malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, mother and child health, and nutrition services. It will include training and equipping 30,000 community health workers. World Vision's effectiveness in training community health workers to saves lives has been demonstrated recently in research conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This work will be done in 16 African countries and the Philippines.

For the second grant, World Vision will lead a consortium of faith-based and local partners to provide aid and sustained humanitarian responses and strengthen emergency preparedness. The funding will be used to deliver urgent humanitarian needs such as food, clean water, and shelter across more than 30 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The grant aims to enhance the ability to respond effectively to emergencies and leverage the strength of faith-based partners to ensure that lifesaving assistance reaches populations more efficiently and with deeper community trust. The announcement comes as global humanitarian needs have grown at an unprecedented pace. Nearly 239 million people will require humanitarian aid and protection in 2026.

World Vision is a leader in these grants because of the many committed private donors who have invested in our development and humanitarian efforts. We have the capacity and technical expertise to succeed because of your investment. Despite the size of these grants, private giving remains the most critical source of funding to World Vision. And while these grants will enable us to provide help and hope to millions, there are many millions more who need us.

Mid-year results for Water  

In 2023, World Vision set an ambitious goal: to reach 30 million people with clean water by 2030. We are one-third of the way there—10 million people now have access to this life-changing resource.

The first half of fiscal year 2026 (FY26) marked the launch of Mapping the Blue Thread, World Vision’s Global Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene business plan for 2026—2030. The plan sets a clear path to expand access even further while strengthening the quality, transparency, and sustainability of services. Central to this effort is the expanded use of mWater digital tools to improve data accuracy and guide decision-making, alongside deeper integration with health and economic development programs to ensure water access drives broader community well-being.

We are now launching a digital version of our results that will be updated continuously instead of semi-annually. You can search by year or country going back to 2016. You can see that cumulatively we have reached more than 36 million people with clean water.

Thanks to your continued partnership, strong progress has been made across key targets from October to March. Nearly 918,000 people gained access to clean water, while more than 1 million people benefited from improved sanitation and over 827,000 people gained access to handwashing facilities.

A major focus of our work continues to be “finishing the job”—ensuring every household, school, and health facility in the areas where we serve has reliable water access. Following success in 39 areas of Rwanda, we are advancing similar commitments in Zambia, Honduras, and Ghana. In Zambia, we have already surpassed our goal, reaching more than one million people with clean water access while upgrading hundreds of schools and health facilities. Honduras is also making strong progress, reaching more than 82,000 people during this period and putting us on track to complete the work by FY28. Ghana has begun implementation and has secured co-financing agreements with the district governments in eight of the 23 districts where we are working.

Our mid-year fiscal year results reflect our focus on reaching the world’s most vulnerable populations, with some of our largest impact occurring in fragile contexts, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (81,294 people reached), Sudan (80,419 people), Ethiopia (73,362 people), Niger (56,160 people), and Afghanistan (53,446 people).

We are also improving the quality and reliability of water services. The majority of new water points 82% are household connections, while 16% were community taps and only 2% were handpumps, reflecting a shift toward more reliable service models. Meanwhile, we are actively supporting sustainable market and community-based solutions, equipping more than 2,300 entrepreneurs (92% of target) and forming and training 753 community water committees across the globe (33% of target).

Progress in schools and healthcare facilities was slower than expected during this period due to the rollout of new multi-year national plans, but we are redoubling our efforts to catch up in the second half of the year.

Empowering women remains central to our mission, ensuring that those most affected by water issues have a voice and a role in the solution. So far this year we have supported more than 1,500 female entrepreneurs and equipped more than 7,500 women as community advocates. We are also proud to report that more than 7,700 faith leaders (111% of target) have been trained and are promoting healthy hygiene and sanitation behaviors in their congregations and communities.

Mid-year results for Health

We are on track with our global goal to upgrade healthcare facilities having upgraded 1,307 facilities in the first 3 ½ years of our eight-year commitment. In our priority countries of DR Congo, Mozambique, Niger, and Zambia, we achieved our mid-year targets for children screened and treated for infectious diseases and malnutrition (97,867), faith leaders trained and advocating for improved health (208), and community health workers trained (2,193).  

Creating a movement 

Following the successful completion of Rwanda’s Finish the Job initiative, leaders from World Vision in Honduras and the government of Honduras traveled to Rwanda for a high-level learning exchange. The delegation met with Rwandan government officials and leaders of World Vision in Rwanda to gain insights into effective government collaboration, co-financing mechanisms, and sustainable service delivery approaches, while reaffirming a shared commitment to achieving access to clean water for everyone, everywhere.

Thank you for your partnership in providing clean water and improved health (in the name of Jesus). Together, we are transforming lives, restoring dignity, and moving entire communities closer to a future where everyone, everywhere has access to clean water. 

Prayer requests

Give thanks for God's favor in the progress made meeting our goals in Water and Health and for all the staff and partners that are making this possible.

Give thanks for the technology enabling World Vision to report more efficiently and effectively on progress.

Pray that World Vision is able to secure the resources needed to continue our progress.