When we say that $30 can help provide food and care for a child for a month, what are we REALLY saying? How does that $30 donation actually translate into the food and care that World Vision is said to provide? The answer is more complicated than you might think. But we'll do our best to make it simple to understand, because it's important for you to feel confident that money you donate to us or raise on our behalf is being used the best way possible, and with the greatest amount of integrity.

 

A well can provide a reliabe source of safe water, and dramatically improve life for the nearby villages

When World Vision works in a community, they do it through what we call "Transformational Development." What that means is that instead of going in, dropping off some food to hungry families, and leaving again, we partner with the community to determine the needs, develop solutions, and implement them. This is not a quick fix. Our typical plan is to be involved in a community for between 15-20 years, depending on that community's specific needs.

 
How it works

 
To help secure a future for the world's poorest children, World Vision focuses on lasting, community-based transformation. Our long-term projects help families gain access to critical necessities like clean water, sustainable food sources, health care, education, and economic opportunities. We refer to these as the pillars of transformational development. Each one is vital, and dependent o the ones before it. Nothing else can be affected positively until a reliable clean water source is provided. Once water is secure, sustainable food sources are the next step in a community's viability, and so on.

 
We also address special challenges like the AIDS pandemic and exploitative practices that threaten children and keep communities trapped in poverty.

 
Each of these challenges interacts with the others. For example, the issues of food scarcity and AIDS are not exclusive. The AIDS pandemic is a key factor in food insecurity throughout Africa, as healthy men and women who normally would tend to the fields become sick and unable to work to provide food for their

Supporting activities like this potato farming cooperative help strengthen food security for everyone involved.
children. Often this forces widows and even children into situations where they engage in risky behaviors to try and secure food for the family. Those behaviors in turn lead to greater risk of contracting HIV & AIDS.

 
What this all means to you

 
So how does this all translate into the $30 you've read about in our materials? Well, it boils down to this. When you take the funds you've raised for World Vision, especially as they pertain to providing food and basic care to children in our programs, and divide that amount by the number of children benefitted, the global average does come out to approximately $30 per child per month. So that's why we say, every $30 you raise can help provide food and basic care to a child for a month. It's easy for people to understand, and an amount that potential donors and sponsors can relate to. So, indeed, every $30 you raise can help feed and care for a child for a month.
 

For a brochure that explains World Vision's developement work in more detail, download the PDF here.

  
As always, we welcome any questions you might have. Please contact us any time via email, or by calling 1-800-7FAMINE (1-800-732-6463).