Category Archives: Child Sponsorship

Investing in the present — and future

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Laura Reinhardt in Child Sponsorship

Back from her recent trip to Romania to cover the brutal cold and snow that buried much of Eastern Europe, leaving many families struggling to survive, World Vision’s Laura Reinhardt shares a story of how World Vision sponsorship in a small community is helping to break the cycle of poverty and social stigma....

Freedom from poverty: The key to life in all its fullness

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Peter Warski in Child Sponsorship, Stories

This past August, I had the honor, for the first time, of visiting World Vision’s field programs in Guatemala. This Latin American country is a gorgeous place — a lush, beautiful landscape, and equally beautiful people. In stark contrast to such beauty, however, is the presence of poverty across much of the country. Malnutrition is a major problem here — 45 percent of Guatemala’s population is stunted. Particularly in rural areas, families struggle with limited access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. But poverty does not define the people of Guatemala. Nor, as I discovered, does it undermine their ability to find joy and hope. And World Vision is working to help families and communities overcome it — for good....

Greeting cards spell joy for sponsored children

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Evelyn Eldridge in Child Sponsorship

Recently, while working on a video project in Malawi, I had the chance to see a group of young children eagerly waiting as World Vision staff members delivered their sponsors’ greeting cards to them. If you’re a child sponsor, you’ve most likely seen these cards in the mail. World Vision sends them to you throughout the year for special occasions — Christmas, Easter, your sponsored child’s birthday, etc. — so that you can sign them and mail them back to us. As they come in, we package them and send them to the appropriate World Vision sponsorship programs around the globe, where they are distributed to the children. At times, I’ve wondered whether it’s really a big deal for me...

PHOTO BLOG: Child sponsorship reaches parents, too

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Jon Warren in Child Sponsorship

Children, children, children. Everything we do at World Vision is for children. But when I visited a sponsorship area in northeast India earlier this month, program staff first wanted to show me the work they were doing with parents. They believed the most effective way to make a difference in the lives of children was to care about the whole family, improve parents’ livelihoods, and involve the entire community in long-term problem-solving. As a parent myself, this made complete sense. My life centers around my kids. Make my earning more secure, and I’m better able to care for my family. Improve community structure, and everyone benefits. So I was first shown fish ponds and weaving groups, rubber trees, and orange...

Photo stories from Swaziland

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Abby Metty in Child Sponsorship

Photo stories from the Valley of Heaven | World Vision Blog

World Vision photographer Abby Metty traveled last week to Swaziland with a group of pastors from Austin, Texas, to look at the impact of sponsorship on children in rural communities. The country has a 24-percent HIV infection rate, but World Vision is working to feed and care for thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children across the country. Here are some of Abby’s favorite pictures from the past week in the field....