Image: 129 children are now being sponsored in Senegal. © 2025 Ben Adams/World Vision.
WHO WE ARE
We stand with children facing the most difficult circumstances around the world. We partner with children, their families and their communities so that, together, they can overcome poverty and experience life in all its fullness. Inspired by our Christian faith, we work alongside children – of all faiths and none.
World Vision UK is part of the World Vision Partnership, the largest international children’s charity in the world.
Founded in 1950, World Vision celebrated 75 years of serving the world’s most vulnerable children this year. We have vast experience of working alongside communities and partners to take hold of opportunities which will transform children’s futures, whatever their circumstances.
This takes true partnership – with community leaders, local organisations and families themselves, as they highlight their needs and set their own goals. This integrated way of working equips and empowers communities to sustain progress and accelerate impact, long after we’ve left.
Our local staff are present in almost 100 countries, so when disaster strikes, we’re often already there. World Vision provides immediate emergency support. But we also stay – long after the headlines fade – helping children, families and communities to recover and rebuild their lives.
Within the UK, we continue to be champions for children:
We raise awareness of the issues facing children in the toughest places in the world and provide ways for children and young people here to speak out on the issues they care about.
We offer the public opportunities to engage with global issues at a local level, and to help create change through giving, campaigning and praying.
And we engage directly with government to influence changes that will improve the lives of the children we serve and the next generation.
Image: Children join in activites at a children's club in Sri Lanka. © 2025 Arlene Bax, Elissa Webster/World Vision.
OUR IMPACT, THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS
Last year we reached over 3.3 million people directly in 184 projects in 35 countries, of whom 1.8 million were children1.
THE WIDER IMPACT OF OUR WORK REACHED AN ESTIMATED
PEOPLE,
INCLUDING
CHILDREN.
We reached 2.8 million people, including 1.4 million children, as part of our contribution to World Vision’s emergency responses across 29 countries.
The humanitarian crises we responded to in 2025 were driven by interconnected forces – conflict, climate shocks, economic instability, pandemics and displacement. These factors amplify each other, creating cycles of vulnerability that no single intervention can solve. Some disasters require immediate lifesaving assistance. But it’s also critical to invest in integrated, resilience-focused solutions that can break these cycles, protect lives and deliver long-term impact.
There were more emergency projects, and we reached more people in emergencies this year than last year. This is an impressive result during a year of funding cuts and sector turmoil, demonstrating the commitment and resilience of our frontline responders. However, we reached fewer people in our longer-term development programmes because of budget reductions and significant shifts in the broader funding environment.
On the following page, we look at where and how we reached vulnerable children, before presenting stories from Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Zimbabwe, Burundi and Afghanistan, demonstrating the impact of community ownership, resilience and sustainability in reducing vulnerability. We also show snapshots of the range of our work in humanitarian settings.
This year, the World Vision Partnership was audited by the Humanitarian Quality Assurance Initiative (HQAI), an independent auditor for the humanitarian and development sector. We are proud to have had our certification against the HQAI Core Humanitarian Standard independently verified and renewed. We listen to feedback on our work and seek to continually improve it.
We also highlight the innovative work of the Youth Advocacy Network. A significant milestone this year was World Vision UK’s joint hosting of NOURISH: A Global Youth School Meals Dialogue – a youth-led digital event that platformed the voices and recommendations of young leaders from 12 countries.
REACHING THE MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN PLACES OF GREATEST NEED
In 2025, 57% of the children we reached lived in fragile contexts2 – a proportion that has more than tripled since 2016. Our programming focuses on places where conflict is present, governance is weakest and civil society organisations are under immense pressure. These are the places where children are at the greatest risk of harm – where education is disrupted, food can be scarce, and threats like child labour and child marriage loom large. The countries where we reached the most children were Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Zambia and DRC.
Children reached by country context
Children reached by sector
We work across various sectors to support vulnerable children. This chart shows the percentage of the children we reached (outer circle) through each sector, with adults on the inside circle, for comparison. This provides a high-level view of what we do. However, all our work brings together different sectors and evidence-based project models. Many of those we reached through our long-term programmes and emergency responses will have benefited from interventions in more than one of these areas.
HOW DID WE REACH THE MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN?
A child is regarded to be “most vulnerable” when they experience more than one of the following categories of vulnerability: serious discrimination, extreme deprivation, abusive relationships or disaster3.
Our approaches include all children, especially the most vulnerable. Below, we summarise a broad range of achievements across all areas of our work last year.
CHILDREN
113,675 children have a greater chance to thrive thanks to improved learning environments, school supplies or literacy interventions across 21 programmes.
Over 1,000 teachers and facilitators were trained in literacy, early child development or school management, and 22 classroom blocks were constructed or rehabilitated, with improved school latrine blocks and handwashing stations.
CHILDREN
118,205 children are safer thanks to child protection interventions, including reporting and referral systems. Over 100 early marriages were prevented, over 2,000 children received birth certificates and over 20,000 children participated in clubs, parliaments and advocacy on child rights. Over 1,000 trained faith leaders promoted child protection, gender equity and positive parenting and over 2,000 children with disabilities accessed therapy, assistive devices, inclusive education or medical support.
CHILDREN
Over 26,000 children took part in youth clubs and camps, following a syllabus focused on personal and spiritual growth, the love of God and loving one another.
CHILDREN
Over 390, 000 children benefited from interventions to eliminate malnutrition, and over 315,000 are growing up healthier as a result of our health interventions, including nutritional growth monitoring, immunisation and health education. We worked closely with communities where over 3000 children fully recovered from malnutrition. Tens of thousands of children are now fully vaccinated.
PEOPLE
Over 582,000 people benefited from interventions to improve safe water supply, sanitation and hygiene, through new boreholes, water points and school facilities. With communities, we built thousands of household and institutional latrines and handwashing stations, while our hygiene education reached tens of thousands of people, improving hygiene and sanitation habits, as well as menstrual hygiene management.
HOUSEHOLDS
Over 10,000 households are more economically secure after receiving livelihood and business support or agricultural inputs. We’ve set up over 1,000 savings groups, strengthening financial security for tens of thousands of members. Over 1,000 of the poorest households are no longer in poverty. Climate-smart agriculture is widely adopted in multiple programmes, strengthening food security and resilience, while thousands of households were trained in disaster preparedness and early warning.
All these achievements represent the work of staff and communities, including children. Our case studies give a deep dive picture of this. We received over 10,000 pieces of community feedback, with response rates above 90% in most programmes.
1 This includes people reached through humanitarian emergency responses and long-term development programmes in non-emergency settings.
2 World Vision International categories: High 0.2%: Mongolia, Medium 0.3%: Bolivia, Ecuador Low 15.1%: Zimbabwe, Kenya, Jerusalem West Bank, Lebanon, Nepal, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Ghana Very low 27.1%: Zambia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia, Niger, Burundi, Burkina Faso. Most fragile 57.0%: Syria, Afghanistan, DRC, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Myanmar, Central African Republic, Mali, Ukraine Crisis Response (including Moldova and Romania). Self-funding 0.3%: Mexico
3 For further information see WVUKs Most Vulnerable child research: Listening to the most vulnerable children. Final Research Report 2018-2022
Image: School children in a World Vision Area Programme in the North West Province of Sri Lanka. © 2025 Arlene Bax, Elissa Webster/World Vision.
STORIES OF TRANSFORMATION
