Our fourth Leadership 4 Service project - World Vision in Grand Prairie

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Dr. Bob Pierce began World Vision to help children orphaned in the Korean War.  To provide long-term, ongoing care for children in crisis, World Vision developed its first child sponsorship program in Korea in 1953.  As children began to flourish through sponsorship in Korea, the program expanded into other Asian countries and eventually into Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Today, monthly contributions from sponsors enable World Vision to provide impoverished children and their communities with access to clean water, nutritious food, education, health care and economic opportunities.

Their impact, in their words:

When our work began in 1950, our approach was basic. We provided food and shelter for children in orphanages through child sponsorship. Over the years, we’ve learned the complexity of finding long-term, meaningful solutions to poverty.  We work in the most difficult contexts, in some of the poorest countries. But we believe in children. And when we partner with children and families, we can help them transform their communities.

Making progress

Measuring the progress of our development work toward community change is essential.

• We design each program to measure specific indicators to track our progress toward child well-being.
• We measure where things are at the start by carrying out a baseline survey.
• We look at how each community is doing in relation to other communities and the rest of the country.
• We monitor progress along the way.

How does World Vision help transform a community?
Watch this fun, animated video to see how we work in the field, partnering with children and families to help them break the cycle of poverty.

• After 3-5 years, we re-measure those indicators to compare with the baseline.
• All of the information we’ve gathered can help the community reprogram, make better decisions, and even change course if necessary.

All along the way, we share our results with the community and community stakeholders so that they can be aware of what change is being reported, and validate it. The community also provides us with context through qualitative interviews and focus group discussions.