why ignoring children’s input keeps school meal programmes from reaching their full potential.

Waliya Samuel Sawasi shares his emotional journey from a troubled past to becoming a community change-maker through the GEDSI program in WVPNG’s BEAN Project—empowering his wife Kewela and inspiring transformation in Balimo.

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.

World Vision's new study shows that access in schools to clean, safe, and inclusive WASH facilities are not just improving health, but education too.

Matthew Pickard, Regional Leader, Southern Africa, highlights how true transformation in education and health emerges when communities lead. He urges policymakers and NGOs to listen first and invest in community-driven solutions that foster lasting change.

This article highlights a week-long training workshop held in Kananga, Kasaï Central, where more than 30 itinerant inspectors from the Ministry of Education were trained on World Vision’s Unlock Literacy 2.0 approach. Designed to tackle low reading comprehension rates among primary school pupils, where only 9% of Grade 3 children can read with understanding, the training equipped inspectors with the skills to integrate the method into the national curriculum, support teacher training, and provide ongoing coaching. Participants expressed strong commitment to applying the lessons learned, underscoring the programme’s role in strengthening foundational skills and promoting inclusive, quality education in the DRC.

The new initiative was about joy, inclusion, and learning that transformed over 1,000 children across Tirana, Kamëz and Durrës.