World Vision Launches Largest-Ever Capital Campaign to Empower 60 Million People Amid Pandemic

-Aid agency aims to raise $1 billion to offer 60 million people "life, hope, and a future"

-Campaign comes as the world's most vulnerable suffer from the impact of COVID-19

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May 03, 2021, 12:28 ET

SEATTLE, May 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Christian humanitarian organization, World Vision, is launching the largest capital campaign in its 70-year history, aiming to raise $1 billion by 2023 to help 60 million people lift themselves out of extreme poverty.

Edgar Sandoval Sr., president and CEO of Christian humanitarian organization, World Vision, with Rohingya children at the World Vision Surjaful Learning Center for children in Camp 13, in the Cox's Bazar Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Today, World Vision launched its largest-ever capital campaign aiming to raise $1 billion to help 60 million people lift themselves out of extreme poverty. Credit: (c)2019 World Vision/Jon Warren

The eight-year campaign - Every Last One – is more vital than ever as the world's poor are reeling from the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic with extreme poverty rising for the first time in 22 years. The World Bank predicted that COVID-19 will add as many as 150 million extreme poor this year, half of them children. Meanwhile, conflict, COVID-19 and climate shocks are fueling global hunger and food insecurity at alarming rates, with the World Food Program warning of "famines of Biblical proportions."

Amid this suffering, World Vision's staff also are seeing child marriage and violence against women and girls on the rise. The essential community development programs that make up Every Last One work together to respond to these needs in areas where World Vision works, and its focus on empowering women and girls is integrated into everything it does.

The campaign invites Christian philanthropists to support seven key areas of development through multi-year programs in over 50 countries. These include giving 25 million people access to clean water - a cornerstone of World Vision's poverty-fighting programs - and providing vital healthcare for mothers and their children, including nutrition support and treatment to two million pregnant women, newborns and children under five.

Every Last One also aims to offer emergency assistance to 16 million people when disasters and humanitarian crises strike; protect children from violence, and provide parents, teachers and Christian leaders with training and resources for children to discover their faith in Jesus.

The campaign also will provide educational opportunities such as literacy programs for children, targeting one million people with books and training. It also aims to empower 4.4 million people with resilient livelihoods by providing recovery loans for families affected by COVID-19 and teaching better farming techniques to equip families to anticipate and overcome economic and weather-related shocks, ultimately improving livelihoods.

"For 70 years, wherever and whenever people were hurting, World Vision and our donors have come to their aid," said Edgar Sandoval Sr., World Vision's president and CEO. "The COVID-19 pandemic is our generation's Vietnamese refugee crisis, Ethiopian famine, Rwandan genocide, or HIV/AIDs crisis. This is the most ambitious initiative that we've ever launched, but we are God's people. This is God's ministry. And this is our time."

World Vision operates its development programs in nearly 100 countries around the world. Monthly donors also empower communities through its popular child sponsorship model. The organization leverages gifts – large cash donations, corporate gifts-in-kind, and public grants to maximize impact.

Major capital campaigns like Every Last One are a catalyst to this work. Investments from thousands of philanthropists, corporations and foundations build on World Vision's proven development expertise and its commitment to lasting change in the communities it serves. World Vision typically works in a country for an average of 12-18 years, developing long-term solutions and assisting communities to own their development outcomes by partnering with local leaders and community members.

World Vision sees providing access to clean water as a crucial weapon in the fight against poverty since it solves many of the factors that keep a family impoverished such as poor nutrition, health and the inability to earn an income. The organization is the largest non-governmental provider of clean water in the developing world, reaching one new person every 10 seconds and three more schools every day. In February it announced it met its goal of bringing clean water to 20 million people worldwide.

The new campaign will bring clean water to additional 25 million people, halfway towards World Vision's ambitious goal of bringing clean water to everyone, everywhere they work by 2030, or 50 million people.

"With the support of our donors, we have seen meaningful progress in the fight against extreme poverty, but COVID-19 threatens to undo it, especially in the toughest places in our world," Sandoval said. "Through our Every Last One campaign we're envisioning lasting change, leaning into our proven, comprehensive solutions that bring life, hope, and a future to the world's most vulnerable people, each precious in God's sight."

About World Vision:
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization conducting relief, development, and advocacy activities in its work with children, families, and their communities in nearly 100 countries to help them reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender. For more information, please visit www.WorldVision.org/media-center/ or on Twitter @WorldVisionUSA.

SOURCE World Vision U.S.