Women of Vision Puget Sound supports the following World Vision projects in. . .

UGANDA:  Youth Psychosocial Care Project in Uganda
Supporting Children Traumatized by War

An entire generation of children in Uganda has grown up in a region engulfed in war, and
many experience symptoms of depression and anxiety. World Vision is working to assess the
mental health needs of war-affected people in Uganda and is offering psychosocial support for
traumatized children.

Modeled after the intervention that was carried out among adults and youth affected and traumatized by war in northern Uganda in 2001, World Vision partnered with Boston University in 2004 to launch the Uganda Youth Psychosocial Care project. The project focuses on youth in the Masaka, Rakai, and Gulu districts of Uganda. The overall goal of the project is enhanced community capacity in resilience, psychosocial, and peacebuilding skills for young people.

In July 2004, the first research phase of the project was carried out in Gulu. Through interviews conducted in the local language, it was discovered that war-affected children in Uganda often do not care whether they live or die, lose interest in school, lose their appetite, do not feel like talking, cry when they are alone, do not sleep at night, and experience frequent headaches. This study was used to establish psychosocial assessment instrument that identified three mental health problems—depression, anxiety, and aggression with social problems.

Recent Accomplishments
The Uganda Youth Psychosocial Care project achieved the following in fiscal year 2006
(October 2005 through September 2006):
-Three interpersonal therapy facilitators were trained and hired to join eight others to facilitate control groups.
-Three groups of war-affected youth were treated from June 2006 through September 2006 in Awer camp near Gulu.
-54 teachers in six schools in Awer camp received sensitivity training on psychosocial issues with a specific focus on youth depression.
-In addition to group counseling, individual young people affected by war were counseled.
-Follow-up was conducted on previous project beneficiaries.

Future Plans
The Uganda Youth Psychosocial Care project will continue under a new interpersonal therapy strategy. The strategy includes training current facilitators to become trainers of trainers, identifying suitable community volunteer facilitators and training them in interpersonal therapy, and partnering with community-based organizations to ensure project scale-up and sustainability. In addition, play therapy will be adopted for children younger than 14, and parents and caregivers will be strengthened through self-help support groups.

Nicaragua:  San Nicolas and Posoitega
Providing Water and Sanitation

ZAMBIA:  The Kapululwe Project
Microenterprise and the Fight Against HIV and AIDS in Kapululwe

In Zambia, approximately 68 percent of households live below the poverty line, and almost two-thirds of the population survives on less than $1 per day. Only 37 percent of the rural population has access to clean, safe water. According to UNICEF, an estimated 17 percent of adults are HIV-positive. Many of Zambia’s impoverished try to make a living through self-employment activities. Local banks refuse to provide them with credit because they lack collateral, however, which traps
them in a cycle of poverty.

Many small-business owners in Africa do not have the funds to grow their businesses, which makes it extremely difficult to escape poverty. World Vision is working with Harmos Microenterprise Development, a microfinance institution, to provide credit for these individuals in need. This will enable impoverished Zambians to use the loans to boost their income and provide for their families. The program offers small loans and business training, as well as education on HIV and AIDS. Women are invited to form solidarity groups, which join together to form Community Banks of approximately 30 women. After receiving management training and electing officers, the Community Banks each receive a 16-week loan. They then divide the loan into smaller loans for individual members to invest in business activities. As they move up the economic ladder, World Vision loan officers provide business coaching and spiritual support to help them reach their full potential.

Recent Accomplishments
As of September 2007, World Vision has:
-Strengthened the capacity of 625 clients (70 percent of whom were women, plus a total of 55 youths) through diversification of business ventures
-Increased business income by over 20 percent for clients
-Provided education on HIV and AIDS for 235 new clients; of these, 75 percent are women engaged in microenterprise activities
-Increased the ability of the clients to provide financially for their households
-Provided the youths with youth life skills training
-Helped decrease risky behavior of clients through involvement in microenterprise and HIV and AIDS education
-Created and sustained 152 jobs, impacting 408 children
-Disbursed a total of $83,839 in loans

Goals for Fiscal Year 2008
Between October 2007 and September 2008, World Vision will:
-Distribute new loans to more than 1,200 clients, 60 percent of whom will be women
-Involve 789 or more women in the economic program, which includes HIV and AIDS discussions
-Train 800 women in basic business management skills

ZAMBIA:  Twachiyanda
Community Partnership

A Community Partnership works to transform areas in the world that are deeply affected by the
AIDS pandemic and a severe lack of basic necessities. World Vision assists these selected
communities with nutrition, health, and educational needs while facilitating HIV prevention
and engaging in care and advocacy for those affected by AIDS. Your commitment, coupled
with World Vision’s effective community-based approach to development, ability to partner
with and mobilize local churches, and more than 55 years of innovative care for orphans and
vulnerable children, will provide the people of Twachiyanda community development area with
a better hope for the future.

Located in Kalomo district in Zambia’s Southern province, Twachiyanda falls under the
traditional leadership of Chief Chikanta. The area’s 37,000 people live in about 100 villages
in households of approximately 10 people. Half the population (51.9 percent) is younger than
20, creating a high dependence ratio. Most residents are farmers, growing corn, peanuts, and cotton and keeping livestock such as cattle, goats, pigs, and chickens. They must deal with constant droughts and outbreaks of animal disease, as well as traders who buy their produce at low prices.
Like the rest of Zambia, Twachiyanda has a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS. When parents become sick or die, children lose their providers of food and other support, as well as losing access to agricultural knowledge. Distant fields are left fallow, and labor-intensive practices are abandoned,
limiting the variety of foods produced. In addition, households affected by HIV and AIDS often sell off livestock to meet medical costs. Vulnerable children drop out of school and have little or no means of obtaining food. Food insecurity and HIV and AIDS create a lethal mix. Malnutrition weakens the immune system, making HIV-positive people more susceptible to opportunistic
infections such as tuberculosis. This leads to a faster progression from HIV to AIDS and a rapid decline in health. Sick people cannot work in the fields, and the food situation degenerates even more.

A 2005 study of orphans and vulnerable children throughout Twachiyanda concluded that the number of orphans and vulnerable children had increased from 1,838 to 1,912 in the past year—an increase of 4 percent—and the number of households with orphans and vulnerable children increased from 525 to 617—a 17 percent increase.

Transforming the Twachiyanda Community
With your gifts during fiscal year 2008 (October 2007 through September 2008), World Vision and the Twachiyanda community plan to accomplish the following activities:

-Purchase and distribute 1,000 orange seeds, 1,000 Moringa tree seeds, 550 22-pound bags each of corn and peanut seeds, and 1,100 22-pound bags of assorted vegetable seeds
-Train 1,000 children who are orphaned or vulnerable and people living with AIDS in improved crop production, and 1,100 children who are orphaned or vulnerable and people living with AIDS in livestock and small business management
-Train 500 children who are orphaned or vulnerable and people living with AIDS
in mushroom production
-Purchase 774 female goats and 284 male goats, and provide each of the beneficiaries with three female goats and one male goat
-Purchase 300 chicks and building materials to construct three poultry stables
for a poultry project
-Conduct two trainings for support groups—a four-day training for effectively managing the finances of community income-generating activities, and a training session for organizational capacity building, which will enhance community-led initiatives
 

MONGOLIA:  Fighting Poverty Through Education

Mongolia has experienced severe economic and social decline since the 1990s, as the world witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Being dependent upon the Soviets for economic support, Mongolia saw most of its state institutions deteriorate as the U.S.S.R. withdrew all of its funding in one three-month period. This action launched Mongolia into a process of national rebuilding, paving the way for conversion toward a democratic society. Domestic violence, alcoholism, rising school dropout rates, and child abuse and abandonment are weakening the framework of the family institution, the backbone of Mongolian society. Accordingly, these social ailments have made it increasingly difficult for Mongolian children to receive a quality education.

Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was estimated that the literacy rate in Mongolia was 98 percent. Now, with multitudes unemployed, children are forced to drop out of school to help support their families. It is estimated that 15 percent of children ages 8 to 15 are not attending school.


Providing Nonformal Education for Vulnerable Children
It is estimated that 30 to 40 percent of Mongolians live below the nation’s poverty level. The
suffering economy has given way to a rise in unemployment, and many children are leaving school
to help their parents make ends meet. To help battle this, World Vision has established nonformal
education programs for children suffering through especially difficult circumstances. These
programs offer basic literacy and education as well as vocational skills, to give children the
tools they need to support themselves and build successful, self-sufficient lives.  The ability of these children to reach their God-given potential depends on the physical, social, and spiritual strength of their families and communities. For those who have dropped out of school in Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar, World Vision is working to provide basic instruction, or nonformal education, through a variety of ways.

One avenue is the Nonformal Education for Children in Especially Difficult Circumstances (CEDC) project, designed to provide a standard level of education for
a large percentage of school-aged children in the city. By alleviating the lack of
education for these children, World Vision hopes to fight poverty at one of its root causes.

The main objectives of the Nonformal Education for CEDC project are to:
-Repair and improve school environments
-Provide access to education for children in Ulaanbaatar who have dropped out of school
-Successfully transfer students from a nonformal education setting into secondary
schools
-Educate children who have dropped out of school to a level at which they can benefit from further technical and skills training within the Mongolian education system
-Involve beneficiaries in formal or nonformal training.
 

WORLDWIDE:  Child Sponsorship

Through WORLD VISION, WOMEN OF VISION encourages sponsorship of children in countries all over the world. The impact of a child sponsorship is significant in improving the lives of children, their families and their communities.

THE UNITED STATES: 

The Church of Mary Magdalene

Our group plans, donates and serves a hot meal after their Saturday service approximately once a month.  It means so much to the women of this church when they meet and are served by women of the community. For most of them, the meal provided is the finest meal they will have all week.
Equally as important, our presence shows them there are people in the world who really do care for them.  We also support them with a financial donation.

This is a ministry for women who are struggling to be free from multiple difficulties including
homelessness, poverty and abusive treatment. It is for women who have been robbed and
raped emotionally, spiritually and physically.

The Church of Mary Magdalene is ecumenical and non-denominational. All women, with or
without Christian faith, are welcome.  Find more information at www.churchofmarymagdalene.org.

Vision House

We will be involved in various hands-on projects.  For example, cleaning and organizing a storage unit  which contains donations for families and assisting in setting up a "store" where residents can "shop" for free for household items and running a Valentine's Day party for residents' children.

Since 1990 Vision House has provided transitional housing with integrated support services
to homeless single mothers and their children and separately to homeless single men recovering
from drug and alcohol addiction.

Our success is achieved by addressing the root social and economic problems that many homeless people have to overcome in order to break free from the cycle of homelessness. Our vision is to make a significant contribution to the community by reducing the number of homeless men, women and children in Washington State. Our Vision is to dramatically change the lives of the homeless by providing housing and services, enabling our residents to avoid homelessness, poverty and abuse in the future.  Find more information at www.vision-house.org.

Books on Tape

We record and supply books on tape to children at Concord Elementary School in White Center, WA.  The students at Concord are a transient population of recent immigrants and a large majority of the children do not speak English in their homes. In fact, they represent a total of 16 different languages.  In order to facilitate their understanding of English and improve their pronunciation, the children use headsets to listen to the story on tape while they are reading the book.  This is a beneficial and much appreciated learning aid.

 AIDS Walk for Orphans

In honor of World AIDS Day on December 1st our chapter participates in a 6,000 Steps fundraising walk in remembrance of the 6,000 children who will lose a parent because of AIDS each and every day.  Learn more and donate. . .

Backpack Project

Each year the WOV-Puget Sound Chapter has the privilege of providing over 600 back-to-school backpacks filled to the top with school supplies for selected schools in the Seattle area, providing children from financially distressed families and communities with the essential supplies they need for learning.

Backpack distributions take place in cities in which World Vision serves children, families, and communities through the Storehouse.  Cities served include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Picayune, MS, Portland, Seattle/Tacoma, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Appalachia and Albany, GA.

AIDS Caregiver Kits

AIDS is the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time.  Every 14 seconds a child loses a parent to this relentless pandemic. Yet there is hope. Local volunteers and family members in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are already caring for people living with HIV. But they lack even the simplest items needed to prolong lives and comfort the sick.

Assembling Caregiver Kits is an effective, hands-on way Women of Vision and others can: 

Show Christ’s unconditional love to those suffering from AIDS
Equip caregivers with the practical materials they need
Encourage caregivers to continue caring selflessly for their neighbors    Learn more. . .

 

Sponsor a Child for as little as $30 a month...