World Vision is the world’s largest international children’s charity, working to bring real hope to millions of children in the world’s hardest places. 

Poverty, conflict and disaster leave millions of children living in fear. Fear of hunger and disease. Fear of violence, conflict and exploitation. Fear that robs them of a childhood.

Their local staff work in thousands of communities across the world to free children from fear. They live and work alongside them, their families and communities to help change the world they live in for good.

Their worldwide presence enables them to respond quickly to emergencies like conflict and natural disasters. They also use their influence and global reach to ensure that children are represented at every level of decision-making.

In 2013 donations from the UK transformed the lives of nearly 4 million children.

 

What They Do

Their vision is of a world in which every child has the chance to live life to the full; where they are loved, protected and cared for, and enjoy good health and an education. Where they can live free from fear.

For this to become a reality, they work alongside communities in close to 100 countries to bring about long-term change; they give children a voice in the places where decisions are made and they respond quickly to the emergencies that affect more than 250 million people around the world each year. As they do this, they focus on three key areas: child protection, child health and emergency response.

Child Health

To help address the underlying causes of preventable deaths, World Vision UK has developed a range of initiatives and projects that sustainably improve nutrition and food security and support maternal, newborn and child health in some of the world’s most difficult places to live.

Based on research, programming experiences and internationally recognised best practices, we support and develop policies, strategies, programmes and resources which:
 

• Help protect children living in the hardest places from undernutrition and ill health
• Meet the basic health service needs of pregnant women and children, ensuring availability of appropriately trained staff and resources ed to provide basic services like vaccinations
• Promote healthy behaviour and care seeking with appropriately trained providers, including skilled birth attendants
• Support the protection of women’s and children’s health and nutrition during emergency responses, both in the immediate response and in longer term rehabilitation
• Call for all governments, multilateral agencies and other stakeholders to be accountable for their maternal and child health commitments.

 

To strengthen our health projects and policies, World Vision works at local, regional, national and international level – from educating and empowering individuals and communities to advocate for quality healthcare to influencing government bodies to help ensure the delivery and reach of quality health and nutrition services.

Child Protection

Their vision is that by 2020 children in the world’s hardest places will live free from exploitation and abuse, in communities where they can flourish. They provide financial and technical support for World Vision programmes that empower children to protect themselves. They also work with their families, communities and governments to strengthen the systems that protect them. Often these children are hidden away, but working closely with the local community they are able to reach these most vulnerable children.

They also advocate for the UK government to use its influence to better protect the world’s most vulnerable children. Their main focus is protecting children from:
 

• Early marriage
• Child labour
• Sexual abuse and exploitation
• Impacts of armed conflict

Emergency Response

Whether an emergency is caused by natural or man-made disasters, climate change, drought, famine or war, their dedicated on-the-ground teams work to prevent loss of life and reduce suffering as much as possible for affected children, as well as their families and communities.

Their life- saving humanitarian action revolves around three Rs: response, recovery and resilience. In emergency situations, they help meet the following needs:
 

• Physical needs by providing food, water and healthcare
• Psychosocial needs with child-focused programming and creating child-friendly spaces
• Economic needs by rebuilding street markets or offering training in new livelihood skills and supporting/strengthening current livelihoods
• Protection of human rights for children and other vulnerable groups
• Spiritual needs, especially if children are used to belonging to a religious community.

In all of their emergency responses, they collaborate with the United Nations and other international and local aid agencies as well as with national and local government. This helps to avoid duplication, maximise efficiencies and ensure that all areas of need are properly met and there are no gaps in the overall humanitarian response – every child matters.

World Vision is committed to strengthening the local community’s ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. They seek to transform suffering into wellbeing while protecting rights, dignity and livelihoods – with a focus on children.