World News & Stories

In 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh, killing more than 1,100 people. Many workers had received an ultimatum that day after complaining about dangerous cracks in the structure: go to work now or lose your pay. In the days that followed, Canadians watched in horror as information was released linking some of their favourite clothing brands with garments being sewn in that very building.

Despite its delicious taste, chocolate does more harm than good when it's sourced unethically. But ethical chocolate can transform impoverished cocoa-producing communities into thriving ones... just ask Mayra!

What started in 1985 as a way to shake the cobwebs off after New Year’s Eve has now grown into a family affair for the Courage clan. Gaye Courage, the “Queen Polar Bear” and mother to Co-Founders Todd and Trent, was the one who instigated the whole thing when she told her boys to “go jump in the lake”. Today, Gaye joins the family on New Year’s Day to take part on the largest charitable polar bear dip in Canada.

They’re known on television as the Property Brothers. Good-looking and confident, they stride into millions of Canadian living rooms each week with real estate and design advice. But when World Vision’s brand new ambassadors, Vancouver-born twins Drew and Jonathan Scott, stepped into a one-room hut in Delhi, India, they were clearly treading new ground.

My first public screening of the film Girl Rising was in Seattle. The theatre was sold out. The energy was electric. Despite five years of work on the film and a huge campaign to support it, I wasn’t nervous. I was more curious to see how people would respond to the stories on the screen.

One day, about seven years ago, I was in a mall and came across a World Vision kiosk. Normally I'd just pass it by, but this time something, or should I say someone, jumped out at me. I saw a picture of the cutest little boy that instantly made me stop. Right then and there. I started sponsoring Ruben.

Children should be playing, learning to read and write and experiencing happy, healthy childhoods. But when there’s not enough money to put a meal on the table, children have no choice but to earn their keep. It’s a growing problem, particularly in countries that don’t have strong governments, laws and regulations to make sure children are going to school, not down mine shafts.

This Saturday, I got to meet real-life superheroes. They were refugee mothers, recently arrived from the Middle East having escaped Syria. All of them had come to a giant playdate organized by World Vision and the Mennonite Central Committee for their families. 

They may not share the same views when it comes to politics, but on the issue of child slavery, these five Canadian MPs all agree: it needs to stop. Wayne Easter, Russ Hiebert, Dean Allison, Wai Young and Isabelle Morin, took to the bustling streets of Phnom Penh and Bangkok, where they met slavery’s youngest victims.

The health clinic in Nnalinya, a village in central Uganda was in very poor shape. And as things go in Nnalinya, being one of the poorest and least serviced parts of Uganda, it would have remained that way for many years if not for the determined advocacy efforts of local residents.

Fourteen-year-old Haitian Sonite Edmond despondently recalls being forced to work as a restavek when she was just six years old. Meaning “to stay with” in Creole, restaveks are children working in domestic slavery, as Sonite was forced to when she went to “stay with” her godmother in Port-au-Prince.

When disaster strikes, World Vision is positioned to respond, to help mitigate the impact on vulnerable communities. Here's how.

In the aftermath of the earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010, World Vision initiated the largest single-country disaster response in the organization’s history. Over the last three years, as the focus has shifted from emergency relief to long-term development, World Vision has helped several million Haitians.

One hundred dollars a month: that’s the price Amira is paying for the small one-room shack her family is living in off of a main street in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. It’s an exorbitant price for Syrian refugees. And one Amira isn’t sure she can continue to afford.

Winter is here. And children are freezing. Literally. The Syrian families who’ve fled their homes have nothing except the clothes on their backs. It’s not enough. They’ve given up jobs, warm beds, school, loving friends, security, stocked pantries and more — all to stay alive. Here are their stories.

Ever wonder what that extra gift for your sponsored child's birthday buys? Group birthday celebrations held once a year, like this one in El Salvador, are happening in your sponsored child's community too. With group birthdays, every child in the community gets to feel special and most of all, loved!

For fifteen-year-old Mao, poverty turned an innocent sleepover at a friend’s house into a childhood trapped in Cambodia’s sex trade.

Sponsorship is about more than just giving money to someone in need — it’s about letting children know that they’re loved!

Water is a lifesaver, but it can also be a major threat to human life when it's contaminated. Learn more about waterborne diseases.

World Vision answers your frequently asked questions about Child-Friendly Spaces.