Support children in Africa

The country has been struck down by serious violations of human rights and communities need support. Many are facing food insecurity as the violence has stopped a lot of farming. Internally displaced people need better shelter, livelihood activities, clean water, child protection and psycho-social support. Our teams are working to invest in communities for the long term to break the cycle of crisis and response.

Poverty and conflict mean that women and children in DRC are vulnerable to sexual abuse, exploitation and kidnapping. As well as focusing on food aid, health care and child friendly spaces, we prioritise protection. We strengthen systems for child protection at local level and partner with others, especially faith leaders to tackle the root causes of child abuse, labour and trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Since 1971, we’ve been helping children in Ethiopia face poverty and hunger. 39 million Ethiopians, mainly in rural areas, don’t have safe water, and because of this, diarrhoea is the leading cause of death in under fives. As a world leader in providing clean water, our work here transforms children's futures.

Working with the most vulnerable children since 1974, we are now aiming to help 2.6 million by supporting people to become resilient to emergencies - helping households to start using climate smart agricultural technologies and enabling people to join savings groups. We are also engaging communities across Keyna on the subject of female genital mutilation, which is still a cultural practice in many areas..

Our projects in Malawi are improving the well being of 4 million children by focussing on ensuring children and mothers have better access to health care facilities, better nutrition, improved literacy and a safe environment. We also work together with children and communities to help them have a stronger voice, standing up for their right to avoid child marriage and stay in school.

We’ve been in Mozambique since 1983, helping over 3.5 million people build a better future by improving water facilities and protecting against malaria. Over the years, thanks to supporters, thousands of vulnerable young women have received sewing machines so they could start their own small businesses, and we have opened after-school reading camps, distributed books to book banks, and even produced new books in local languages - all to help children to boost their literacy skills.

Since 1994 we’ve been working to improve water supply, health facilities and food security in Niger, providing quality seeds to farmers in a country where out of every ten people living in poverty, nine live in rural areas. We also focus on child rights and education - training and resourcing parents to help their children study, setting up reading camps and providing books for children.

Children in Senegal are vulnerable to the changing climate – for 30 years we’ve been working to improve food production to avoid malnutrition. We also tackle issues that push children into exploitation like child marriage, female genital mutilation, child labour and trafficking. We have backed more than 500 local child protection committees and supported victims of child violence with medical, legal and psychosocial assistance.

We started working in Sierra Leone in 1996, during the civil war - after it ended, our work moved into long-term development. We work with the government to find innovative ways of supporting the remote training of healthcare workers, and help reduce maternal and child mortality rates through public health messaging.

Somalia's years of civil war, cyclical climate shocks resulting in floods and chronic drought have left millions of people fearful, struggling with poverty and hunger. We work where life is hardest, helping to free children and their families from the fear of hunger, poverty and disease. Somalia has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and our work aims to tackle that - of the children we treated for acute malnutrition, 97% were cured.

Since 1989 World Vision has been present in South Sudan and through our humanitarian work we have reached over 1.3 million people, 600,000 of whom are children. Conflict began in 2013 with millions forced to flee for safety – and hunger and malnutrition still ravish the country. Our emergency work provides food assistance, access to clean water and gives children and their families emergency shelter and essential household items.

Poor infrastructure and massive displacement of people because of conflict have undermined Sudan’s development and significantly affected children and their communities in various parts of the country. 40% of the population don’t have access to clean water, which we are working hard to rectify, while aiming to improve the well-being of boys and girls through access to food, health, nutrition and meeting educational needs.

Children in Tanzania are facing food and water shortages – making them vulnerable to disease and malnutrition. Since 1981, we’ve been working to help 15 million vulnerable children in the country. We are running many long-term projects including working with child refugees in Tanzania, from Burundi and the DRC, making sure they’re protected and healthy.

World Vision Uganda started in 1986 to tackle the causes of poverty and malnutrition following the war. The challenge is hard: the majority of people are subsistence farmers and many Ugandans live in extreme poverty. We support families to lift themselves out of poverty for good, training farmers on improved methods and setting up community savings groups.

Two key areas of our work in Zambia are water – as less than half of families in rural areas can access clean water, and child protection – because one in three girls will be married or pregnant before the age of 18 years. We have supported the development of hundreds of child protection committees and children's councils, empowering youth to protect themselves and others. We have also drilled boreholes, supported communities to upgrade household latrines and built school and health centre latrines to improve the overall sanitation and health of millions of people.

Zimbabwe has been hit by many catastrophes over the years: from drought and a refugee crisis in the 1970s and 1980s, to more recently flooding and a cholera epidemic. World Vision is committed to partnering with the people of Zimbabwe to improve their lives and has provided emergency assistance, increased access to education, supported the construction of water systems and focussed on agricultural development, loan programmes for Zimbabwean entrepreneurs and HIV and AIDS education.