And we’re excited to share with you a surprise: We’ve partnered with Jedidiah Clothing to create a limited edition t-shirt line to support our campaign. See the link below!

Be sure to check back throughout the week for stories about our work in the field, as well as interviews with WASH program experts!

Sponsoring a child helps provide clean water and other life-saving basics. Join us in fighting poverty holistically for just $35 a month. Change a child’s life for good!

And t-shirts are here! Through World Vision’s GIVEN program, in partnership with Jedidiah Clothing, we’ve designed limited-edition shirts portraying each sector of our work. Check out the designs for WASH!

Related articles

• Why World Vision? From “spare change” to lasting change
• Why World Vision? Communities Matter
• [Photos] A beginning and an end

1. What are the key ingredients to World Vision’s community development approach?

World Vision’s core mission is to focus intentionally on the well-being of children. By partnering closely with local community groups, churches, families, and children themselves, we address root causes of poverty that directly impact children, especially the most vulnerable. We believe that boys and girls should enjoy good health, be educated for life, experience the love of God and their neighbors, and be cared for, protected, and participating in their own development.

Our vision is “for every child, life in all its fullness. Our prayer for every heart, the will to make it so.” We believe that the best way to fulfill this vision is with rigor and integrity that honors the communities we serve and our donors. We’re not only focused on individual children, but on all of the surrounding conditions that impact children’s lives.

2. What’s different about World Vision’s sponsorship model? Why do we believe in it so strongly?

Early in my career, I had concerns about child sponsorship, many based on ideas that may have been inaccurate to World Vision’s approach. I’ve come to be a strong supporter of sponsorship, because I believe it can be a transformative tool for children and sponsors while providing a unique platform for long-term community development. Few other funding sources provide this kind of stable support.

I believe in child sponsorship because it improves well-being for sponsored and non-sponsored children equitably; brings hope and joy to children, their communities, and supporters; improves children’s sense of self and value; gives voice to children and communities, empowering them as agents of change; enables community-based care and protection of children; and helps supporters grow their understanding of poverty and how they can make a difference.

World Vision sponsorship is designed toward our belief that the most effective way to provide for a child is to address issues at the community level to improve the situation for all children and to reflect God’s love as we serve.

3. How is the community development connected to sponsorship?

Sponsorship supports our community development focus by enabling long-term engagement, fostering an approach that centers on children and their communities for sustainable change, and enabling children’s holistic development, connecting children, sponsors, and their communities.

It also strengthens support networks for children and their families, while creating a platform for community development that attracts additional resources to communities and helps supporters understand poverty, engaging them as advocates for change.

4. Why does World Vision use this model?

We believe that the best way to build better lives for children is to invest in the communities in which they live. Strengthening communities and families creates a safety net that empowers children to experience fullness of life. By partnering with families and local community groups, we strengthen the good work they’re already doing, ensuring that the ownership of their children’s future remains in their hands. We work best by supporting those who already have a vested interest in the future of their children.

By working with community stakeholders, we aim to effect change at a structural level. Many issues and challenges in these communities have deep roots, and it takes time to address these issues in constructive ways that will lead to lasting change.

5. What is an ADP?

ADP is World Vision’s acronym for Area Development Program. It is a distinct geographical area where we partner with local stakeholders to improve the well-being of children through multiple sector projects aimed at root causes of issues that negatively impact children. These geographic areas can vary in size, context, and population. Typically, they are where our beneficiaries live and work. Each ADP has its own staff and design, and while each ADP is unique, they all seek to support families and communities to address child well-being.

World Vision U.S. donors support close to 400 of the more than 1,600 total ADPs around the world.

6. How does an ADP work?

When an ADP begins, we work with the community to assess their needs. While identifying partners, we create a collaborative plan based on the community’s vision for its children. Together, we look at what’s already being done, what more can be done, and what we can do together.

Often, communities select key areas of focus for our work, which may cover critical topics such as health, education, economic development, and child protection. Each project is selected with children in mind, and children often participate and even lead the community through important changes.

Throughout our involvement in an ADP, we work with the community to manage, monitor, and evaluate progress toward the ADP’s goals. After a number of years, World Vision may transition out with the expectation that the community stakeholders are equipped and empowered to sustain the work. While we walk with communities for a time, we know that those stakeholders have been and will be there for much longer.

7. How does World Vision select new ADPs?

A few factors include access to the geographical area; population density (high enough for sponsorship to work, small enough to be manageable); risk factors such as natural disasters and violent conflict; the availability of infrastructure; and the community’s willingness to participate. Most of our national offices carry out assessments to better understand where to invest, often influenced by where poverty is greatest, as well as looking for areas that are under-served by other organizations.

8. What’s the average life-cycle of an ADP?

It varies, depending on the community’s needs. We tend to carry out three project cycles, each approximately five years long. Many of our ADPs transition after about 15 years. Some ADPs ask for additional time to meet critical goals, or to ensure that the community is able to sustain the changes. We want to stay as long as we can help bring change without creating dependencies.

9. What is your role with World Vision and the ADP model?

I am the senior director for program insight and results with World Vision’s International Programs Group. I lead a team that develops and demonstrates evidence of our contribution to child well-being. We work with national offices and ADPs to learn from data and research to better inform donors of the effectiveness of our work, improve practice in the field, and influence how we make decisions.

10. How did you come to do what you do?

After being raised by missionary parents, always focused on international affairs, I had the opportunity in college to work with Project Mercy, a small community-based organization in Ethiopia. That experience was transformative for me and led me to realize that I wanted to dedicate myself to working on issues of poverty in the developing world.

After undergrad, I returned to work in Ethiopia as a community development organizer. Later, I attained a master’s degree in international development from Tulane University. After working with World Relief for a number of years, I found my way to World Vision, where I’ve been for five years.

World Vision’s ADPs and community development begin with child sponsorship. Join us! Fight poverty holistically for just $35 a month by sponsoring a child.

Related articles

• [Photos] A beginning and an end
• Why World Vision? Communities Matter
• Why World Vision? From “spare change” to lasting change

Today, we have a great little video that illustrates World Vision’s approach to fighting poverty: developing communities and bringing them hope.

*     *     *

Before I came to World Vision, I was…not unemployed, but let’s say minimally employed. I was freelancing, scraping together an independent business while applying for full-time jobs.

The job search was tough, but I was lucky enough to have a family able to help support me during that time. I was on the market for more than 18 months, submitting almost 200 applications — and that was the hardest part.

Often, I never heard anything back about my applications at all. Others gave me a form-letter rejection, while a few others asked for a phone or in-person interview. The hard part was that in between these, when I didn’t have an interview pending, I was sent back all the way to square one. Having to start over again.

There’s a sense of doubt and hopelessness that can become personal, where you question your own abilities and worth — and you ask yourself whether this cycle of searching will ever come to an end.

While searching, sometimes just finding the next good job to apply to was enough to give me hope again — to get me excited about applying, interviewing, and moving forward. I would feel uplifted, energized by the mere possibility of this job I’d found but hadn’t even applied to. It was enough to keep me going until all that hard work finally paid off.

I imagine this same sense of hope for many people who live in the struggling communities where World Vision works. I think of them at the moment when they first find out that World Vision is going to come alongside them to introduce training programs, drill water wells, provide them with seeds and livestock, build schools, and so on.

Or I think of the entrepreneurs who receive small business loans through World Vision Micro — these amazingly creative people who simply lack the capital to realize their dreams and work themselves out of poverty.

Poverty is not simply a lack of material provision. It’s also an emotional and psychological state caused by a lack of resources.

I imagine that these communities and entrepreneurs feel the same sense of hope I felt when they first receive the news of a World Vision program or loan. They still have a lot of work to do, and there’s still uncertainty, but that hope is life-changing. It allows a person to keep going and do the work that will solidify that life change.

World Vision’s community development approach aims to address poverty at its root causes — access to capital and resources, but perhaps more importantly, hope — because poverty is too complex to solve through any simpler means alone.

This video, “How World Vision Works,” shows how our development approach can transform a community and bring them hope for their future.

Check back tomorrow for a more in-depth discussion about our community development approach with one of our experts in that field.

*     *     *

Matthew Brennan is the blog manager at World Vision U.S.

World Vision’s community development programs begin with child sponsorship. Join us! Fight poverty holistically for just $35 a month by sponsoring a child who will know your name and benefit from your prayers and support.

Related articles

• Why World Vision? Communities Matter
• Why World Vision? From “spare change” to lasting change

Our first photographer, Jon Warren, is the director of story and photo resources at World Vision U.S.; the second is Matthew Paul Turner, who is our blogger liaison and has traveled with us on blogger trips to Bolivia and Sri Lanka.

*     *     *

When World Vision establishes a new Area Development Program (ADP), as shown here in Burundi, we come alongside the community and partner with its residents in custom-designing a program that will best serve their needs.

Those needs may be food and agriculture…

Although they have no seeds for planting yet, Venantie and Collette Goretti till the tiny plot of land they have next to their banana leaf home. (Photo: Jon Warren/World Vision)

…or access to clean water…

Venantie and Collette walk several kilometers to fetch water every day. (Photo: Jon Warren/World Vision)

… or education, among others.

Venantie’s children are registered for World Vision sponsorship. The family helps write and sign a letter to a potential sponsor. (Photo: Jon Warren/World Vision)

World Vision begins by registering the children in the community, which gives them access to the benefits of child sponsorship– clean water, nutritious food, healthcare, education, and more — while they wait to connect with sponsors.

Families bring their children for the initial registration of children for sponsorship in Gasorwe ADP, funded by World Vision donors in the United States. Histories are taken, children are weighed and measured, and photographs are taken for sponsorship folders. (Photo: Jon Warren/World Vision)

The positive impact of World Vision’s new programs brings smiles to the children’s faces from the very beginning!

Families bring their children to be registered for World Vision sponsorship. (Photo: Jon Warren/World Vision)

*     *     *

When the community is ready, World Vision concludes its work in an ADP — shown here in Sri Lanka — once the customized goals have been met.

These goals may have included developing wells to provide better access to clean water…

A water well in Sri Lanka. (Photo: Matthew Paul Turner)

… or building schools to promote access to education, among many other kinds of World Vision projects.

A school built in Sri Lanka with World Vision’s help. (Photo: Matthew Paul Turner)

Our vision is “life in all its fullness” for all children…

One of many World Vision sponsored children watching the ADP closing celebrations. (Photo: Matthew Paul Turner)

…and our community development approachis the way that World Vision seeks to accomplish this goal.

Banners waved at the closing ceremony in Sri Lanka…

World Vision banners fly in the wind over the ADP closing ceremonies. (Photo: Matthew Paul Turner)

…while the children, families, and staff celebrated the work that World Vision had completed in that community. Matthew Paul Turner recaps the experience:

It was huge, a community-wide celebration that began at 9:30 in the morning with a parade…and this wasn’t just any parade. This was a parade that lasted for more than four hours, one that included a host of motorcyclists, a caravan of World Vision cars and vans, busloads after busloads of people, ordinary people who on some level had been affected by World Vision’s work over the last 15 years.

“It was huge, a community-wide celebration that began at 9:30 in the morning with a parade.” (Photo: Matthew Paul Turner)

The community is throwing World Vision a going-away party! It’s not a sad party. It’s a happy occasion, a day that that this community has been dreaming about and aiming toward for 15 years, an occasion that has special significance for the World Vision staff. “In the beginning, those first celebrations were 100 percent organized by World Vision, and today, THIS party is 100 percent organized the community!” Sudesh smiles when he says that. And with good reason! Today is a long time coming, a day that showcases the fruit of the community a la World Vision’s dedication.

World Vision’s ADPs and community development begin with child sponsorship. Join us! Fight poverty holistically for just $35 a month by sponsoring a child.

Related articles

• Why World Vision? Communities Matter
• Why World Vision? From “spare change” to lasting change
• A little support goes a long way for a vulnerable child

Be sure to check back throughout the week to see a beautiful photo blog, a video, and a Q&A with our community development expert!

Interested in learning more about World Vision’s holistic development model and our impact in the communities we serve? Check back each week as we delve into the sectors of our work, right here on the blog. You can also read more about read more about our impact on the World Vision website.

Our model for community development begins with child sponsorship. Join us in fighting poverty holistically for just $35 a month. Build a personal relationship with a child — and help transform an entire community!

Related articles

• Why World Vision? From “spare change” to lasting change
• Birthday celebrations: Wild for World Vision!
• My walk with World Vision to give water to the thirsty: Part 2

Jason is part of an impoverished family. His mother used to prepare pastries at a traditional bakery to support her children. Jason has one brother and one sister. He used to be shy, but not anymore. Like many other kids, he received support from World Vision with school kits, clothing, and other assistance.

However, beyond those things, Jason took part in many different workshops, seminars, and activities on children’s and adolescents’ rights, aiming to prevent exploitation and abuse, and to exercise participation.

Eight children’s forums and six local rallies, among many other activities, provided children and adolescents from Vida Nueva with spaces and opportunities to grow, participate, express themselves, and share with others. Several children, including Jason, decided to make videos about education. They chose the locations, the people, and the questions they were going to ask.

You can see Jason’s interview here:

Jason had the opportunity to travel to Ecuador to participate in a Ministry Integrated Regional Meeting, where he explained and showed the video. He has truly become a young leader of his community.

In addition, he has taken part in national children’s network meetings and national arena discussions. Currently, he is in high school and working to learn English, because he wants to study electromechanical engineering. In addition, he is learning to make videos by himself.

*     *     *

Additional reporting by Heillen Sanchez.

Read our Mother’s Day guest-blog series.

Consider sponsoring a child who has lost a parent. Your support will help bring life-giving necessities such as nutritious food, clean water, education, and healthcare. You will also have the opportunity to develop a personal, lasting relationship with your sponsored child through cards and letters.

Related articles

• Mother’s day thoughts: An orphan’s story
• Mother’s day thoughts: Offering hope
• Sumi’s journey from horror to new hope

Miss any of the other posts in this week’s four-part series? Read them here!

*     *     *

Lately, I’ve been pondering ways to have more kids. I know, sounds crazy. I’m 45 and can hardly handle my three kids without screaming. But even so, I’d love to adopt more. My husband, Dean, however, is not of the same mind.

Though I often become overwhelmed with the desire to mother the world, I know that adopting orphans is not always what is best for them. Most of the time, actually, I think it’s better if we can help them stay with family, in their countries, living out their dreams without having to go through the loss of all that is familiar to them, on top of the loss suffered that made them orphans in the first place.

The other day, I read the story below about a girl named Preaw, who lives in Thailand. It made me happy that I’ve purchased chickens for families and given monthly support to World Vision at different times throughout my life. It helped me realize that I can never underestimate the difference I can make in a child’s life simply by doing something that provides them with the resources to live another day, which is another day for a child to dream.

*     *     *

With her fringe hairstyle and long hair tied up into a ponytail, Preaw ran straight to her two-story wooden house and hurriedly knocked on the door.

“Uncle and Aunty, hurry, come and see my mother’s heart,” Preaw cried out. “She is very sick. She has asked me to come and call you.”

That night, her mother passed away. It’s a painful memory, even now, 13 years later.

Preaw lost her parents while she was studying in primary school. At that time, 8-year-old Preaw was accepted into the child sponsorship program with World Vision.

Preaw’s mother had been sick for one year before she died. Preaw received full support from World Vision, such as milk, rice, and other dry food to help relieve their troubles.

When her mother died, Preaw and her younger sister were taken care of by their uncle.

The uncle, Daeng, and Preaw’s aunt have one daughter of their own. Daeng grew tobacco, and the family had quite a hard life. As he had carpentry skills, Daeng migrated to other towns to find work.

In the midst of life’s struggles, Preaw found comfort in an unlikely source — the sport of archery. A cousin introduced Preaw to the bow and arrow when she was a sixth-grade student.

“Archery requires concentration and accuracy. I like archery because it helps me in my concentration,” Preaw says.

Preaw practices recurve archery before she joins the competition at the indoor sports stadium in Bangkok. (Photo: Somluck Khamsaen/World Vision)

The thrill of hitting a target dead on became Preaw’s mission. As she continued in her education, she practiced consistently in her extra time.

“Problems are meant to be solved and obstacles overcome. Success is up to us,” Preaw says confidently.

Meanwhile, Preaw continued to receive essential educational support from World Vision. She received much encouragement from World Vision staff, as well as school uniforms, supplies, school fees, and special gifts for her birthday every year from Mom Thelma, her beloved sponsor.

With her archery, Preaw started to achieve results locally and was selected to attend regional competitions. Many times, Preaw uses her cash gifts as payment for her travel expenses to compete in archery in Thailand. As she continued to excel in the sport, she started to travel internationally, and her sponsor helped pay for some of those entry fees as well.

In 2007, Preaw was selected to represent Thailand in the 24th South East Asia Games, held in Nakhon Ratchasima. She won a bronze medal in recurve archery at a shooting distance of 70 meters.

Preaw has also competed in many archery contests in Thailand and overseas, such as World Archery Championships & Para Championship held in Italy in 2011. She is now training to compete in a national level competition.

“I’m not skillful yet. I still have much training to do,” she says modestly.

Preaw’s commitment to her sport is equaled to her commitment to her education. She loves to study and is not willing to miss school even for one day. She often uses her free time after finishing her house chores to review her books.

She’s come a long way from being the orphaned girl in the village.

Preaw is now a third-year student at Rattanabundit University in Bangkok, majoring in science and technology. When there are no classes, she teaches archery to children. She earns some money to pay for her personal expenses without troubling her uncle, as she is already grown up.

Today, at age 21, Preaw is determined to help relieve her uncle’s burdens and send her younger sister to a nursing school. She dreams of furthering her education and finding a job upon completion.

“Thank you very much, Mom Thelma, for your love and kindness in sending me special support every year. World Vision has given me love and support all along, advice in my studies and for my family,” Preaw says with a smile. “I really can’t imagine what my life would be like without Mom Thelma and World Vision. I would probably not have a good future like today. Thank you very much.”

*     *     *

I love that Preaw calls her sponsor “Mom Thelma.” She sees that this lady, whoever she is, half a world away, is doing what moms all over the world do for their kids every day — making sure they have enough to eat, that they get an education, and that they can grow up to live their dreams with family they love.

How amazing it must be for Mom Thelma to see the impact she has had on this girl’s life. It encourages me. I can, we all can, in the way Mom Thelma does with Preaw, mother the world. Sponsor an orphaned child today.

*     *     *

Carole Turner is a wife, mother (1 biological & 2 adoption miracles), singer, writer, actress, anti-establishment revolutionary, and the artist/owner of Painted Effects.

Read the other posts in our Mother’s Day series:

An orphan’s story

Offering Hope

Rice on Mother’s Day

Consider sponsoring a child who has lost a parent. Your support will help bring life-giving necessities such as nutritious food, clean water, education, and healthcare. You will also have the opportunity to develop a personal, lasting relationship with your sponsored child through cards and letters.

Related articles

• Mother’s day thoughts: An orphan’s story
• Mother’s day thoughts: Offering hope
• A young girl’s journey toward education in Nepal

Miss any of the previous posts in the series? Read them here!

*     *     *

I have a 10-pound bag of rice in my pantry.

It’s not in there because rice is our favorite food.

In fact, we haven’t eaten rice in months because of the diet we choose to follow.

I can’t make myself throw it away. But I don’t eat it. And I don’t really want it. I know I’ll use the rice one day. But for now it’s just taking up space.

Usually, this doesn’t bother me much.

Photo: ohamanda.com

Now, he lives with his unable-to-work father and 10-year-old sister under a bridge. Well, they live there in the daytime — until the police come around at night shooing them away.

To provide for his small, shattered family, Phoe collects handmade bamboo baskets from garbage dumps and resells them. If he has a good day, he can collect the equivalent of 70 cents and buy four cups of rice for himself, his father, and his sister to share.

I have a 10-pound bag of rice in my pantry.

How did the world get like this? Why can I have an entire closet devoted to food while Phoe struggles to get a bowl of rice once a day?

How are children orphaned and forgotten?

How did excess become the norm for me?

Up until a few months ago, Phoe’s norm was poverty and lack. Then, some of his friends told him about a special place. Phoe says,

“I didn’t exactly know what it is. But my friends told me we can play, learn reading and writing there, and that place provided meals, too. They introduced me to staff from that centre, and I went with them. There were a number of children. At first, I wasn’t very happy to go there. But, after a few days, I was happy and excited to go to the centre as I made many friends there. I took my sister to the centre, too. The staff at the
centre are really kind and patient. They teach us reading, writing, basic calculation, and life skills. We read poems and sing songs, too. We can watch TV there. We can have a shower there and the centre provides clothes for us, too. Moreover, we can have two meals a day with delicious curry.”

This center Phoe frequents is a drop-in center staffed by World Vision. I’ve seen places like this at Haitian refugee camps in the Dominican Republic. The centers I saw were simple tents with friendly staff who were there to talk, play games, and give hugs. It was a literal oasis in a place of sadness, fear, and upheaval.

It doesn’t take much to change a child’s life for good. It doesn’t take much to bring a child from poverty to full tummies and education. For the price of a couple 10-pound bags of rice, for the price of the mani/pedi you’d give your mom for Mother’s Day, you can support orphaned children through World Vision’s sponsorship program.

Phoe didn’t get a new house, new family, or a college degree from World Vision. He was simply taken in and loved. For the first time, he experienced kind and patient adults, schooling, singing, TV, showers, clothes, and two meals a day! What a difference from Phoe’s life before, a life where every bit of his family’s well-being was on his young shoulders.

With money and support from sponsors, World Vision can do even more than two meals a day. This center in Sangon City has temporary housing for street kids — housing where Phoe now lives:

“I don’t want to stay on the streets anymore and I’m too tired to hide at night when the watchman patrols in the market while we are sleeping. That’s why I decided to stay at the shelter. My sister is staying with her foster parents, and World Vision staff accompanies me to visit her every month. My plan is I will learn a vocational skill and then I will try my best to earn my living with the skill. I’m happy here. I feel that this is where I belong.”

Photo: ohamanda.com

When you sponsor a child, your monthly gift of $35 is a gift of mothering. It’s a gift of life. It’s a gift of love.

*     *     *

Amanda is a stay-at-home mom of two who blogs at ohAmanda.com and is the author of Truth in the Tinsel. In her former life, Amanda was a children’s pastor — overseeing, organizing, and developing ministry for kids in nursery through middle school. But now that she is a mom, her “skills” are used up on her kids!

Read the other posts in our Mother’s Day series:

An orphan’s story

Offering Hope

Consider sponsoring a child who has lost a parent. Your support will help bring life-giving necessities such as nutritious food, clean water, education, and healthcare. You will also have the opportunity to develop a personal, lasting relationship with your sponsored child through cards and letters.

Related articles

• Mother’s day thoughts: An orphan’s story
• Mother’s day thoughts: Offering hope
• Sumi’s journey from horror to new hope

Over the next few months, we’re excited to share with you the vision of our ministry, exploring two areas — how we work, and what difference it makes for those whom we serve.

Expect infographics, stories from the field, and Q&As with development experts each week as we highlight how our community development helps create freedom from poverty through a variety of interventions — such as clean water, food, education, and economic development.

To kick it all off, here are a few words from Rich Stearns, president of World Vision U.S., along with a graphic introducing our theme of “Why World Vision?”

*     *     *

The other day, there was a homeless woman standing on the corner just a few miles from my house. She held a sign saying, “Single Mom. Please Help.”

We have all been in a situation like that, wanting to respond to a person in real need, yet knowing that whatever we have to give at the moment isn’t enough. We all recognize that offering some spare change doesn’t fundamentally change the life of a homeless person.

We want to help, but we realize that homelessness is complex. Someone living on the street needs more than our spare change. They may have addictions, psychological troubles, work and family difficulties. To really meet that person’s need requires experience, expertise, multiple interventions, and lots of time.

You see, homelessness is a symptom of an array of deeper problems. Addressing it can require job training, affordable housing, mental health care, substance abuse recovery programs, and maybe even changing laws and government policies.

Other forms of poverty, in the United States or around the world, are similar. If we want to solve the root causes of poverty, we have to address them all at once. We can’t just offer our “spare change.” It isn’t enough to pack a meal, build a house, dig a well, or staff a health clinic.

(Photo: World Vision)

A community suffering from hunger doesn’t need food to be handed out. They need new agricultural methods, irrigation, access to markets, farmers’ coops, or new seeds. But even if we can help them solve the food problem, they still may face a host of other daunting challenges: bad water, diseases like malaria or tuberculosis, lack of education, and no economic opportunities.

And even providing a community in poverty with all of these things still isn’t enough. Solving poverty is about more than just providing things a community might lack. It’s also about how people think and behave. There may be oppressive or harmful cultural practices that need to change, such as early marriage or gender inequalities.

Solving these less visible problems involves addressing the community’s culture and values through things like youth leadership development, women’s support groups, and programs that address stigma and confront community leaders regarding harmful behaviors.

It involves creating new community-based institutions such as farmer’s co-ops, education committees, water and sanitation monitors, tutoring programs, and community savings and loan groups, so that people are working together productively. It also means equipping the community to find their voice to speak up to their local government to advocate for better services like roads, electricity, and more teachers and health workers.

That’s why World Vision works across a number of “sectors.” If we are to solve poverty — and not simply put a bandage on its symptoms — we have to do it all alongside a community. Thinking back to the homeless mom I recently saw, it can be a good thing to offer some spare change to someone like her. We should probably all do that a little more often.

But sometimes, as business guru Jim Collins says, the good is the enemy of the great. And the great thing is not to simply lessen the effects of poverty, but to solve it.

With World Vision, your “spare change” doesn’t just alleviate the suffering of those in poverty. For about a dollar a day, we are able to fundamentally change the situation of a child and her community. We address all of the root causes so that a child, her family, and her community are freed to live the full and abundant life that Jesus offers to us all.

*     *     *

Rich Stearns is president of World Vision U.S. and author of Unfinished: Believing is only the Beginning. Follow Rich at RichStearns.org.

Through World Vision, your spare change really can make a world of difference to a child in need. For about $1 a day, your monthly contribution will help provide a child with access to life-giving basics like clean water, nutritious food, healthcare, education, and more!

Consider sponsoring a child who will know your name and benefit from your prayers and support.

Related articles

• My walk with World Vision to give water to the thirsty: Part 2
• The gossamer thread, part 2: A different story
• [Video] The miracle of a microloan

Miss the first one? Read it here!

*     *     *

This Mother’s Day, I am acutely aware of what it means to be motherless. Not because I don’t have a mother. I actually am blessed with an amazing mom, mother-in-law, and step mother-in-law. Three amazing women, three of my own children. My heart is full.

But this Mother’s Day, I am also a mother to a child who will spend the day separated from her mother. Her mother is not yet capable of caring for her. So this is my first Mother’s Day as a foster mother.

I can fathom what it must feel like to not be able to parent your child. This past week when our foster baby’s mom was asked to fill out a form about her biggest concerns for her child’s development, she wrote, “I am worried she will be adopted by another family.”

My mother’s heart broke for both mother and child.

World Vision steps in much like a foster parent and cares for children around the world who are parentless, or whose parents simply can’t care for them properly. One such family they are helping is Pyae Sone Kyaw and his mother, Daw Mee Nge.

Daw Mee Nge was widowed when her husband died of HIV at only 36 years old, leaving her to care for her son and young daughter. She soon realized that he had also left her with the same deadly disease that killed him.

Pyae Sone Kyaw quickly assumed the role of the “man of the house,” dropping out of school and going to earn money in the market, leaving home at 6 a.m. and returning at 9 p.m. I think we can all agree that this is no life for a 13 year old.

A mom in Myanmar isn’t that different from a mom in America at our core. We both want the best for our children. For them to have the best possible life. For us to be able to provide our children with a home and stability. This isn’t Daw Mee Nge’s reality.

“I was very ill and had to stay in the bed. I am very sad to see my son working for the whole family at a very young age and I couldn’t do anything for him as a mother. There’s no one to help us. We were very helpless. At that time, another problem came. We needed to pay for the rent. We needed to pay 100,000 kyats [U.S. $120] for six months’ rent. How can we pay that amount of money when we struggled to have daily meals? We had no place to stay and nowhere to go, so we stayed in the market.”

Homeless, poor, subject to the elements, and very unsafe. This was the best this mother could do. In America, when a mother can’t provide for their children, agencies step in and make sure that children are safe.

Thankfully, in Myanmar, World Vision has stepped up and alongside Daw Mee Nge to help her provide a better life for her family. Pyaw Sone Kyaw is now enrolled in a non-formal education class where he can learn and have meals. World Vision also secured housing for the family and helped Pyaw Sone Kyaw find a more stable job.

Daw Mee Nge also benefits directly from World Vision. She has access to anti-retroviral therapy and is feeling much healthier these days.

“I felt I was alone and there’s no one to help me. But I’m now really happy to know that World Vision cares. I’m very grateful to World Vision for encouraging me and giving me strength to hold on my hope. I’m now selling the salted fish and saving some part of the profits so that I can pay for the rent for next six months. I’m happy that I can send my daughter to school again and very pleased to see she’s studying in grade 1.” She smiles.

Hope. It is what I hope to offer the baby in our care. It is what I hope to offer her mother as she is able to focus on getting better while her child is well loved and cared for. And it is what World Vision offers families around the world.

Be part of that hope. Sponsor an orphaned child today.

*     *     *

Jill Anderson writes at Just Jilly, where she blogs about her love of fashion, family, and fun. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with her husband, three children, and foster baby.

Read the first post in our Mother’s Day series: An orphan’s story

Consider sponsoring a child who has lost a parent. Your support will help bring life-giving necessities such as nutritious food, clean water, education, and healthcare. You will also have the opportunity to develop a personal, lasting relationship with your sponsored child through cards and letters.

Related articles

• Mother’s day thoughts: An orphan’s story
• Afghanistan: Worst place to be a mother
• A young girl’s journey toward education in Nepal