Recent Posts

Where kids’ books meet the real story: Building a healthy village

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Katie Smith Milway, World Vision board member in Microfinance, Stories

Emily, the successful beneficiary of a World Vision microloan, with her children and niece in Zambia. ©2011 Collins Kaumba/World vision

In the afternoon of our first day with World Vision in Sinazongwe, Zambia, Emily Syabubila, a widow and mother of three, gives us a tour of her compound. It consists of a one-room house with two beds for her and her daughters; another one-room home for her son; three raised chicken coops; an outdoor cook hut; and a raised drying rack for her corn. In my last post, I shared how microloans (similar to those described in my book “One Hen“) had enabled her to restore her family to economic and food security after malaria claimed the life of her husband. She now invites us to share in rituals of harvest and shuck dried maize with her. Hard. Then she...

Participating in protection

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Kevin Jenkins, president, World Vision International in Causes

Nepalese youths discuss their hopes for child protection in the country's new constitution with Kevin Jenkins, WVI President. ©2011 World Vision

Editor’s note: The following is a message that was shared with our staff around the world from Kevin Jenkins, president of World Vision International. As we share it here, we hope you find it as intriguing and worthwhile as we do. What helps children to prepare for — and cope successfully with — disasters? Why not ask them? With that simple question in mind, five organizations who regularly deal with crisis situations — including World Vision — asked 600 children in 21 disaster-vulnerable countries around the world what they thought. The answers were so powerful and informative that we turned them into a Children’s Charter for Disaster Risk Reduction, and presented them on May 12 to the third session of...

BOLIVIA BLOGGERS: Exploring sponsorship

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Lindsey Talerico-Hedren in Child Sponsorship

In Bolivia, Arminda, age 6, whose family's fortunes were dramatically changed by the gift of two pigs from World Vision's Gift Catalog. ©2011 Jon Warren/World Vision

You’ve probably read stories — on this blog or elsewhere — of how extreme poverty can create a vicious cycle of hardship and despair for families and communities. And maybe you’ve even heard of how World Vision child sponsorship helps break that cycle — by providing essentials that empower families, like nutritious food, clean water, healthcare, education, training, and more. But where does sponsorship become more than just a simple explanation? Here at World Vision, we’re constantly asking ourselves: How do we make sponsorship a personal experience, where poverty and its remedies are embodied in the stories of real people and real places? And how can we connect our supporters with that?...

Why I run…

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Michael Chitwood, national director, Team World Vision in Causes

Team World Vision runner Paul Martin with World Vision staff member Nano Ngwane during the Comrades ultra-marathon in South Africa. ©2010 Andrea Peer/World Vision

Maybe running’s not your thing. So marathons wouldn’t really be your thing. Five kilometers or 42.195 kilometers — definitely not your thing. Maybe your thing is music, or sporting events, or enjoying the beautiful scenery of the Pacific Northwest. Now that sounds a lot more like the Seattle Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. That’s because this marathon isn’t really your average running venture. Local bands play live music, and cheer squads line the roads every mile. Lake Washington neighbors come out of their homes to join the “crowd” en route from Tukwila, Washington, to downtown Seattle. It’s a “running [and I would add, outdoor entertainment] nirvana,” as the marathon Facebook page says....

Where kids’ books meet the real story: From malaria to microloans

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Katie Smith Milway, World Vision board member in Microfinance, Stories

Lodiaís smiles because she is healthier now that she no longer suffers from malaria because she sleeps under a mosquito net from World Vision. ©2009 Collins Kaumba/World Vision

I had the privilege last month of traveling with World Vision to the district of Sinazongwe, Zambia, where rolling hills covered in acacia, cacti, and fruit trees look remarkably like parts of Southern California. But tucked among them are mud brick huts with thatched roofs, small vegetable gardens by muddy pools, and high racks where cobs of maize dry beyond the reach of animals. We pass a small roadside market, where women sell tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, and stalks of sugar cane beside a banana grove. The statistics of this region belie the bucolic scene. Malaria plagues a quarter of children under 5, often fatally, and affects 9 percent of the overall population, according to Rose Zambezi, World Vision’s technical adviser...