World Vision and Children in Crisis: Transforming the Lives of At-Risk Kids

What is Children in Crisis (CIC)?

Millions of children around the world are being denied their basic rights to quality education, healthcare and protection from abuse and exploitation. World Vision's Children in Crisis programme provides urgent help to vulnerable children and teenagers that Child Sponsorship does not typically reach, such as those living in refugee settlements or politically unstable countries.

From as little as $10 a month, you can help support children orphaned by AIDS or left with physical and emotional scars in countries torn apart by war. CIC also helps us respond quickly to emergencies and disasters – from supplying basic food, shelter and hygiene items to providing life-saving medical care.

Issues covered: Education and advocacy; emergencies and disaster mitigation; health and disabilities; children at risk; HIV and AIDS
Focus countries: Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Mongolia, India, Myanmar and Papua New Guinea

How does it help children?

Funds from World Vision's Children in Crisis programme are used to transform the lives of at-risk children and their families in five key crisis areas:

• Children at risk: helps children escape dangerous, abusive and exploitative situations, such as being sold into prostitution or forced into child labour
• Education and advocacy: helps children access basic quality education so they can escape poverty and reach their full potential.
• Emergencies and disaster mitigation: provides essential items such as food, clean water and shelter to children affected by conflict or natural disasters (e.g., famine, war, earthquakes, floods)
• Health and disabilities: increases children's access to safe water, proper sanitation and medical treatment, and advocates for the rights of children with disabilities
• HIV and AIDS: supports children orphaned due to AIDS, caregivers looking after the sick, and educates the community, especially youth, on how to avoid HIV infection

What does it achieve?

World Vision's Children in Crisis programme is guided by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which sets out the international standards for the care, treatment and protection of all children under 18 years old. Since its launch in July 2005 to the end of the 2010 financial year on 30 September, 12,215 CIC supporters have contributed more than
$5.8 million towards helping at-risk children and their families in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific.

CIC's most recent achievements include educating thousands of youth about AIDS prevention in Tanzania, Rwanda and Malawi; providing emergency supplies, healthcare and child-friendly areas in disaster zones, such as the earthquake-hit eastern Shan State in Myanmar; helping prepare children with a disability to enter the government school system in Mongolia; and enabling thousands of children to escape from the worst forms of child labour in India.

How can you get involved?

You can choose which of the five Children in Crisis areas to support – education and advocacy; emergencies and disaster mitigation; health and disabilities; children at risk; HIV and AIDS – and how much you would like to pledge each month, starting from $10. Just call 0800 800 776 to pledge your support to the area you are most passionate about. By supporting one – or more – of these areas, you can make life easier for children faced with challenges we could only imagine. Make a pledge today and help be a voice for those who go unheard in our global community.

You can also make a one-off donation now to our Children in Crisis emergency fund