Dr Kathryn Kraft, Global Research Technical Director, provides insight about how Faith-based intangibles—like spiritual resilience, moral authority, and empathy—are powerful yet often overlooked drivers of peacebuilding. She reflects on how integrating these unseen forces into humanitarian programming can deepen impact and foster more authentic, community-rooted change, especially in humanitarian responses.

Maman Issoufou, a father of 13 living in Bouloun Kourou (Maradi region, Niger), saw his life transformed thanks to the Maradi Integrated Resilience Project (MIRP), funded by WFP and implemented by World Vision. Faced with advanced land degradation, water shortages, and food insecurity, he had to sell his land to feed his family. In 2019, the project restored his abandoned 8 hectares, providing him with income through "Food for Assets" activities, nutritional supplements for his children, and a solar-powered borehole for drinking water. Today, he is a model of resilience, no longer selling his land, investing in agriculture, and aspires to develop a market garden to further improve his family's nutrition.

Seraphine and Fulgence, a couple from Nyamasheke near Lake Kivu, endured over 21 years of poverty and hopelessness, raising six children with limited resources and a negative mindset. Their lives began to change two years ago when they joined World Vision’s Empowered Worldview (EWV) training—a faith-based program focused on mindset transformation and self-belief. Through the training, they realized their potential and received a $90 startup capital. With it, they rented land and began growing sugarcane. Their first harvest earned them $210, and they expect about $420 from their second. This new income allows them to provide for their children’s needs, strengthen their marriage, and dream about the future.

Discover Alpha’s inspiring journey of reconciliation in Barri Chiefdom, Sierra Leone, where World Vision’s child protection program helped reunite a mother and son through community support and education.

Inspiring stories from Bajhang showing how education livelihoods and protection programmes are transforming lives and communities.