Christian relief, development, and advocacy agency World Vision in the Philippines recently released its Year 2021 impact report highlighting milestones of directly assisting thousands of children and reaching millions of children through its various child-focused and community-based programs and advocacies implemented in over 30 provinces across the country.
World Vision National Director Rommel V. Fuerte shared, “In seeking and bearing witness to God’s kingdom, the ministry that we have built with all of our partners directly served more than 300,000 children by end of our fiscal year 2021. This is while the five national policies on child well-being World Vision has influenced to benefit more than 32 million children in the Philippines.”
“God has been faithful to each and every one of us for enabling us to do so much, despite the limitations and challenges in year 2021,” said Eduardo C. Jimenez , last year’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees for World Vision Development Foundation, Inc. “We praise Him for giving us the opportunity to work alongside thousands of partners and volunteers across the country to make this happen.”
Jimenez added that in alignment with the Philippine Development Plan and with the gracious support of donors, World Vision’s Health and Nutrition Program helped nourish 209,182 children aged below 17 years old, while its Education Program helped over 116,926 children, aged 5 to 17 years old, improve their learning outcomes.
In 2021, World Vision also relaunched its brand new child sponsorship campaign Chosen™, which aims to empower children to decide on their own and choose their child sponsors. One of the early takers for this campaign is supportive celebrity ambassador Nikki Gil. “The fact that I got to where I am today is a series of moments of being chosen first and foremost by God,” shares Gil on her experience with Chosen initiative. “There are times in our lives where we have limited choices. For children to be given the chance to choose who will journey with them to a brighter future — that’s such a big deal. Through Chosen™, you’re giving children the power to choose. How empowering is that!”
However rough and challenging it has been due to the pandemic two years on, thousands of children in the Visayas including Sogod, Tabogon, Compostela, Liloan, and northern Cebu received learning and activity packs which include a small radio, COVID-19 reading materials, a storybook, and a set of play cards and school supplies to complement the government’s efforts to promote education despite the massive lockdowns implemented last year.
“It is our prayer that like Jeremiah who started young as a prophet, we too continue to heed God’s calling for us to be bearers of good news and doers of good deeds in this world,” added Fuerte.