Past Features

Fazal Karim sent his six-year-old son to live with a relative in Peshawar because he was not well enough to make the grueling trip to the Chota Lahore camp in Swabi where the family is now living.

To help the government’s campaign against drug addiction in Thailand's Wang Wiset district, World Vision trains youth leaders and supports awareness-raising meetings and trainings, athletic competitions and other activities.

In Papua province of Indonesia, only 30 percent of children under five years have their births registered. See the story on World Vision's Asia/Pacific site.

Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed millions in the last decade. See the photos on the World Vision Africa regional site.

For years, Aida Bacalso had been tending a vegetable garden in her backyard - with little success. Now, by implementing new agricultural techniques, she has been able to increase her harvest so that she can feel secure in the amount of food she is able to store for her family.

In a series of drawings, young people from various African countries tell World Vision of the life of which they dream.

In the Philippines, tuberculosis (TB) claims 75 lives every day. Confronted by stigma and resigned to living fearfully with TB, many people do not seek the treatment they need.

“World Vision has been working in Myanmar for 40 years so when the cyclone hit we were able to work immediately with the local community, accessing 600 staff who were working with the community in development programmes,” says national director James Tumbuan.

Video: World Vision's microfinance programmes, run through subsidiary VisionFund, help women around the world to improve the lives of themselves and their families.

Safe and clean deliveries are slowly becoming the rule – not the exception – in some of Darfur’s villages.

A child protection and paralegal training organised by World Vision in the Philippines paved the way for one man to finally come to terms with his past. Click to view this story on World Vision's Asia/Pacific site.

Video: From an urban slum in Phnom Penh, a teenage girl describes the sort of city she wants to be living in.

World Vision has welcomed pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline’s decision to slash drug prices for the developing world.

When parents in a village in Iddukki district in India started working in cardamom plantations in their area, children also began dropping out of school. World Vision helped the community build a day care centre so that older children would no longer have to stay home to take care of younger siblings.

See the photo gallery on the World Vision Middle East regional website.

Children in Nepal have been severely impacted by the ten years of armed conflict, which ended two years ago. The state must move quickly to ensure that children in the cantonments are treated as children, not fighters, and are allowed to recover what has been lost of their childhood.

See the photo gallery on the World Vision Middle East regional website.

Shaji Chacko's alcohol addiction brought him down to the lowest points of his life - affecting his family and making him a pariah in the community. He is thankful World Vision staff came to his rescue, bringing him to a rehabilitation center that started the positive change in his life - and his family, as well.

In southern Serbia, people cite a long history of neglect and abandonment. But a few motivated citizens are working to ensure the benefits of a new day reach their communities, too.

World Vision participated in a national campaign last month that gave Lebanese children an important role in speaking out against violence and generating strong public interest in the issue (story on Middle East / East Europe site).

As the death toll from Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak increases, and the government declares a national emergency, World Vision has launched a massive health education campaign.

World Vision is bringing youth from around the world to speak out at the Third World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents in Brazil.

World Vision strives to help communities improve the health and nutrition of women and children. Watch the video.

Seven year-old Nway lost all of her family members, her house, her friends and her school when Cyclone Nargis devastated southwestern Myanmar on 2 May, 2008.

As the presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and neighbouring Rwanda attend an emergency meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, World Vision continues to call on regional and global leaders to take action to protect civilians and address the root causes of the crisis in the DRC.

Farmer-managed natural regeneration is a reforestation technique that empowers farmers to reforest their land in a way that benefits them, using plants native to their area.

Flood-affected communities are returning home in western Terai, Nepal amid warnings of more heavy rain. Some 140,300 children and their families were affected, when heavy rains caused flooding in Kailai District. Now, almost 85% have returned to their flood damaged homes with the decreased water levels.

In this video, renowned human rights activist Kailash Satyarthi talks about the shocking scale of child labour in India and its devastating impact on children.

This video shows how desperate and widespread child labour is in India, and features Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian activist and pioneer for the global child rights movement.

A few years back, illegal fishing activities were rampant in the coastal villages in Cebu, Philippines and fish stocks were being rapidly depleted. Now, these fishing villages are thriving.

With World Vision's help, two new fresh produce markets opened in Iasi city, in Pacurari and Tatarasi neighbourhoods at the beginning of August, giving farmers a much-needed opportunity to sell their produce at key locations twice a week without paying fees and commissions on goods sold.

Munkhjargal's family have lived through the hardest time imaginable until they met World Vision. With their youngest daughter sponsored, they joined the Seeds Tools and Training Project, and now they are able to protect themselves from the effects of increasing natural disaster.

Children are speaking out for change – and the G8 must listen, writes Laurence Gray, Advocacy Director for World Vision’s Asia-Pacific region

"The water carried my pencil, writing booklet and books to sea,” 7-year-old Edward Torneo said. "I was terrified; the rain and wind was strong.” Edward and his mother and two older sisters live in a coastal village that was severely hit by Typhoon Fengshen.

Environmental problems, including changing weather patterns, deforestation and the effects of mining are having a direct impact on residents of Palawan in the Philippines. World Vision is supporting reforestation, raising awareness and helping communities to organise themselves.

“Don’t become a slave” was just one of the slogans spread across two major Georgian cities recently through World Vision’s public awareness campaign on human trafficking.

The inauguration of a new school in Iacobeni village in Romania’s Iasi County means its children now have access to clean drinking water, sanitation facilities and effective, safe heating.

Ma Than* is one of hundreds of now homeless people queuing for aid in front of a monastery in an Ayeyarwaddy delta town. In her neighbourhood, Cyclone Nargis destroyed 40 out of 50 houses, including hers. World Vision had more than 500 staff on the ground in Myanmar when the cyclone hit and is providing assistance. (*Name changed)

World Vision transforms communities by helping residents capitalise on their greatest resource—themselves and their shared goals. Thriving communities create better lives for both sponsored and non-sponsored children. The 15-year transformation of one project area in Chile serves as an example.

Lojini and Shyamali share a unique friendship. Their cultures are different and in the backdrop of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka they should be rivals; but they are best of friends because World Vision brought them together through a Children's Forum.

The global food crisis is an extremely complex issue. This guide is designed to briefly highlight a few significant factors and give you a general understanding of the problem in five minutes or less.

Lebanese children met to exchange knowledge and learn more about peace and diversity on 8 March in World Vision’s office in Lebanon, a country that has been devastated by 15 years of civil war. The meeting was part of the “Children Council” project, one of the many advocacy projects of World Vision in Lebanon.

In the wake of massive explosions at a military depot in Albania on 15 March, Lavdie Elezi fled with her two sons Olsi, 7, and Endri, 3. Endri had been knocked unconscious and may lose his hearing. World Vision is providing aid to the displaced and is operating "child friendly spaces."

Gifts-in-kind are of great necessity, especially in the winter when kids from vulnerable families are in dire need of warm clothes. For families living on social benefits and hardly making ends meet, buying clothes for their children is as difficult as affording heat. As part of its multi-faceted programming, World Vision delivers products donated by companies to disadvantaged children around the world.

"In just a matter of minutes, we had nothing left except the clothes on our bodies," said Alma Lleneta, 37, whose home was crushed in a landslide after days of rain led to landslips and severe flooding in Bicol, Philippines.

At a time of mixed emotions for Kosovo’s multi-ethnic population, fourteen "Kids for Peace" clubs are modelling cooperation between communities. More than 400 children are urging adults to follow their example of building peace and tolerance throughout Kosovo. Kids for Peace clubs are designed by children, for children, and supported by World Vision.

Sponsored children in the Philippines are bringing a breath of fresh air to a small village that has earned a reputation for the stench of fish processing waste products indiscriminately discarded in open canals. After attending World Vision's "Children’s Participation in Citizenship and Governance" awards programme, sponsored children Marvin and Maricar proposed that a communal septic tank be built and engaged the community in their campaign.

Mirabela and Vasile cannot hear or speak to their baby boy, David. When doctors and nurses raised their concerns about how hearing-impaired Mirabela and Vasile could care for their baby, World Vision social worker Sonia Iorga became involved in the case, committed to keeping the family together. Through writing and gestures, she counselled Mirabela on parenthood. Now, David is growing fast with good physical and mental development.

Aníbal Medina, 11, is a sponsored child who lives on an island in Nicaragua Lake. Aníbal, along with 15 other children, attends a school on the shore of one of the other islands. He has a special role. Aníbal is in charge of steering a small boat that transports seven other children and him from the surrounding islands to their classes. As well as supporting the school, World Vision has assisted the community to buy three school boats, so that the children can travel to their school and maintain steady attendance.

A former sponsored child recently told World Vision about how she has become an advocate on behalf of thousands of vulnerable children in Colombia.