1. Clean-up

Last October, World Vision peace club members in Kosovo hit their neighbourhoods for a two-day clean-up. Albanian, Roma, and Serbian children and youth worked side-by-side, picking up trash to create a healthier environment. The project was also meant to increase cooperation between children of different ethnicities. At the end of the event, participants signed a petition, calling on Kosovo's prime minister to enforce existing environmental legislation.

2. Education

In Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, last spring, 4,000 residents watched outdoor plays about the proper disposal of household waste. Members of Community Led Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) Nepal, a World Vision program, performed the plays, which demonstrated why people shouldn't dump their garbage in the streets. CLEAN Nepal helps local school children raise awareness about environmental issues.

3. Reforestation

In February, World Vision organized a tree-planting day in Thaba Phechela, Lesotho. The community planted 5,000 fruit trees to help stop the soil erosion that has depleted more than half of this African country's arable land. Two years ago, residents of Ecuador's Cotopaxi province planted 7,000 native trees. World Vision donated the trees to prevent further soil erosion and landslides in the region. 

4. Community Intervention

In the Bangladeshi village of Birisiri, more than 500 community members built an embankment along the Sumeswari River last May. Due to soil erosion, several homes and sections of arable land have disappeared into the river. World Vision provided 5,500 empty sacks, which the participants filled with sand and stacked on the riverbank.

5. Campaigns

World Vision's 2003 "Plastic-Free Rivers" campaign in Bosnia-Herzegovina raised awareness about environmental issues at the community level. Due to inadequate facilities for waste disposal, large quantities of trash have been illegally dumped along Bosnia-Herzegovina's mountainsides and are floating down rivers and streams. The campaign reminded Bosnians that dumping their plastics and other garbage into rivers has long-term effects. 

With reports from Makopano Letsatsi in Lesotho, Jorge Mullo in Ecuador, Raphael Palma in Bangladesh, Asim Sahinpasic in Bosnia-Herzegovina, John Schenk in Kosovo, and Pradeep Silwal in Nepal.