POWER of HER primarily supports women and adolescent girls. However, it also supports men, boys, faith and traditional leaders, and the broader community to participate in being agents of change toward increased gender equality. As with all World Vision campaigns and programs, our love for the poor and oppressed is unconditional: we serve every child and every community, of any faith or none.

Your support benefits women and girls in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Honduras, Ghana, and Mozambique.

• Youth Empowered in Bangladesh focuses on equipping youth, especially girls, to learn about and take control of their own sexual and reproductive health, by examining and questioning the social, cultural, and gender norms that push girls into child marriage.
• The MotherFood project in Ethiopia and Ghana equips female entrepreneurs with equipment and training to manufacture fortified nutrition snack products, made from local ingredients.
• THRIVE in Honduras focuses on women and their families by helping them broaden their economic activities beyond subsistence farming to include activities like poultry production and other small businesses with the aid of World Vision’s micro-loan program, VisionFund International.
• The Every Girl Can project in Mozambique will equip girls to protect themselves from sexual and gender-based violence and become change agents in their societies, advocating for their own nutrition and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

We use several programming models for different purposes. A few examples are: ‘Men Care’ that helps to involve men in caring for children and contributing in the home; ‘Girl Power groups’ that bring adolescent girls together to learn about health topics; and ‘Savings Groups’ that bring women together to help them learn about economics and savings.

POWER of HER is facilitated by two veterans of international development and gender equality.

Melani O’Leary is a dynamic public health professional with over 15 years of experience designing, assessing and implementing health and nutrition programs in the not-for-profit international development and humanitarian sector. During her 14 years at World Vision, she has provided technical leadership in the design, implementation, and management of Maternal, Newborn, and Child health and nutrition projects in Latin America, Middle East and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Merydth Holte-McKenzie is World Vision Canada’s Senior Gender Equality Advisor. She provides leadership on the execution of an organization-wide gender strategy, operational plans, tools and resources for gender mainstreaming, and improved alignment with internal and external gender equality metrics. Merydth has been working on gender equality programming and strategy development for bilateral health, nutritional and social inclusion programs for more than 25 years.

We reach millions of girls and women every year with large-scale projects that provide everything from access to improved sanitation and hygiene to gender-specific support in emergency or crisis situations and much more. With over 70 years of experience and active in nearly 100 countries, World Vision has a proven impact in earning the trust of the communities we serve and contributing positively to the lives of vulnerable children and their families.