By Bernadette Martin | Engagement Manager
Our work has been impacted as COVID-19 has forced countries to implement lock downs and restrict movement. World Vision is responding to COVID-19 with a global response providing hand-washing and other safety messaging, supporting health systems and workers with protective equipment, and supporting children impacted by COVID-19 through education, child protection, food security, and livelihoods. For more information check out our GlobalGiving COVID-19 project: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/coronavirus-outbreak-world-visions-response/
We are pleased to share our 2019 results on World Vision’s Global Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Program. It’s been a year of tremendous impact for the most vulnerable, and we continue to learn and improve our efforts to ensure quality and sustainability. World Vision exceeded our yearly targets by reaching 3.4 million people with sustainable clean water, 2.6 million people with household sanitation, and 4.3 million people with hygiene behavior change promotion efforts. We also reached an additional 900,000 people with clean water during emergency situations.
World Vision is committed to reach everyone, everywhere we work with clean water by 2030, and we are on track to achieve our interim goal of reaching 20 million people with clean water between 2016 and 2020, having reached 16.1 million people in the first four years of our commitment. These commitments and our progress toward achieving them would not be possible without the support of our donors and partners.
During this reporting period, World Vision made a new commitment to reach 800 rural healthcare facilities with WASH services between 2019 and 2021, reaching nearly 7.2 million people who will use those facilities. This work is critical to ensuring a positive birthing experience for mothers and newborns, reducing healthcare-associated infections, and addressing antimicrobial resistance. It’s saving lives. World Vision’s leadership in both implementation and advocacy has played a significant role in bringing more resources to this effort. After just one year, we are ahead of schedule, reaching 399 healthcare facilities with clean water.
GLOBAL REACH
3.4 MILLION PEOPLE provided with access to clean drinking water
2.6 MILLION PEOPLE gained access to improved household sanitation
4.3 MILLION PEOPLE reached with hygiene behavior-change programming
Impact story - WASH UP! A partnership that’s growing up with its audience
Abigail Bucuvalas, Senior Director, Education Programs, International Social Impact, Sesame Workshop
Five years ago, Sesame Workshop and World Vision launched their partnership with the vision of establishing a school-based educational program about water, sanitation, and hygiene in at least 100 schools in 15 countries by 2020. At the end of 2019, we’re quite close to achieving our goal, with WASH UP!, currently reaching children in schools in Afghanistan, Ghana, Honduras, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. India just began its pilot in 25 schools, and conversations are underway for implementation in Kenya and Mozambique.
Sesame and World Vision partner together and complement each other in a unique way. We both believe young children are benefiting from the combination of our commitment to meaningful program outcomes, as well as our respective organizational strengths. WASH UP! is expanding geographically, capturing lessons learned and using these lessons to inform the development of new content for each new context.
The program also has been adapted to incorporate related topic areas, such as disability-inclusive WASH and neglected tropical diseases in West Africa, and social-emotional learning in the Syrian response region. The original program and these expansions have reached children ages 5 to 9 years old and their educators, most often through public primary schools.
Over the past two years, with generous support from Dubai Cares, Sesame and World Vision have leveraged the WASH UP! partnership to create Girl Talk, a menstrual hygiene management (MHM) and puberty education program for girls and boys ages 10 to 14 years old in rural Zimbabwe. This program enables WASH UP! graduates to continue their Sesame Muppet-hosted learning experiences as they grow and encounter new challenges, helping to address the enormous impact of the onset of menstruation on adolescent girls’ ability to continue participating fully in school. The program is implemented in World Vision-supported public schools and aims to improve participating children’s knowledge about puberty and menstruation, attitudes about menstruation, and self-reported behaviors related to MHM.
We are thankful to our donors for being part of this journey with us. Together, we are transforming millions of lives.
COVID-19 - poses a dire threat to vulnerable people in developing countries
The virus is a greater threat to the already vulnerable, and sub-Saharan Africa has a heavy burden of HIV and AIDS, malnutrition, and malaria, as well as diseases like tuberculosis and pneumonia that similarly attack the pulmonary system.
The health care system is already weak and inadequate with a low number of ICU beds. For example, prior to the pandemic, Kenya had 50, Uganda 42, Rwanda 32, and Liberia none.
Refugee camps put people at high risk of the virus because of overcrowded and often unhygienic living conditions and lack of access to medical care. This is a concern for millions of refugees in Africa as well as refugees from Syria and Myanmar.
• Because people are living in extreme poverty, there is no economic resiliency and even short lapses in work because of shutdown or illness will mean people will not have income for essentials like food.
• In areas where World Vision works, only half of healthcare facilities have water and only 16% have even basic hand-washing facilities with soap and water.
• This pandemic will disproportionately impact women; 7 of 10 frontline healthcare workers are women, and there is evidence of increased violence to women during epidemics (WHO).
• The necessary steps to prevent the spread and respond to the pandemic are similar to the U.S., with the most urgent needs being to educate and protect frontline healthcare workers and educate communities on prevention.
What is World Vision doing?
World Vision’s expertise in the prevention of the spread of infectious disease has never been more relevant than during this pandemic. One of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of the virus is to ensure that people have a way to wash their hands —and understand why it’s so critical. And of course, it’s difficult to wash your hands effectively without clean water.
World Vision is a leader in educating people on handwashing and reaches one new person with hygiene promotion every 10 seconds. In 2019 alone, we reached 4.3 million people with hand washing education and facilitated the building of nearly half a million hand-washing facilities. In the last four years, we reached a total of 16.5 million people with handwashing education. We have trusted partners including Sesame Street to make these efforts effective.
With our global operations, expertise, massive footprint, and long-term relationships withcommunities, faith leaders, and partners – we’re already responding to COVID-19 in more than 70 countries.
Our 4 objectives are:
For more information check out our GlobalGiving COVID-19 project: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/coronavirus-outbreak-world-visions-response/
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