Since projects started in 2019, we identified and adapted to many operational context changes. Here are three significant examples from each of the countries we operate.
HONDURAS was hit by hurricanes Eta and Iota in November 2020.
These catastrophes caused major damage, particularly in the Sula Valley area, resulting in landslides, floods, road closures, crop losses. People lost their homes and were forced to flee. Churches and schools provided temporary shelter, but the large number of displaced people combined with a pervading sense of hopelessness led to increased violence and crime. The impacts of the hurricanes hurt families that had already been struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic—unemployment jumped as factories and other employers were affected by the storms.
We adapted and responded by deploying our team for wider emergency response efforts—in the immediate neighbourhoods covered by the Childhood Rescue project and beyond, where needs were greater. Through this humanitarian assistance, 9,172 families received psychosocial support, hygiene kits, care kits for children under five, blankets, water filters, wheelchairs or clothing.
In DRC, national park boundary changes led to the creation of new armed groups, ethnic conflict and violence.
When the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) redrew the boundaries of Virunga National Park beginning in 2019, people lost access to farmland, crippling their ability to earn a living. The land losses have created frustration and hopelessness, leading to ethnic conflicts and the formation of new local armed groups. In 2021, there were many instances of kidnappings, killings, looting and sexual violence, along with public demonstrations against the ICCN.
We adapted and responded by enforcing strict security monitoring and communication to prioritize the safety of staff and families involved in our projects. Staff movement was restricted and project activities were halted when necessary. Because families' ability to grow food and earn income has suffered, World Vision incorporated livelihoods projects into our ongoing health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) activities, ensuring more holistic support.
The situation in AFGHANISTAN became even more complex after the Taliban became the de facto authority in August 2021.
Afghanistan's people are contending with many emergencies simultaneously. Together, these threats have caused a full-blown humanitarian disaster that is both natural and anthropogenic, brought by decades of conflict, climate change, drought, food insecurity, displacement and COVID-19. Children face starvation, malnutrition, water shortages and disease. They are vulnerable, displaced, and at risk of violence and harm, and the rights of girls and boys as equals is being threatened.
The situation is especially dire for women and girls, with barriers to accessing healthcare and education and several policies that curtail women's freedom of movement, expression and association. Many are deprived of the ability to earn an income. In addition, economic crisis has sent prices skyrocketing, while simultaneously diminishing people's purchasing power.
With increasing desperation, families are taking on unmanageable debt burdens and relying on dangerous coping measures to survive, such as child labour and child marriage. Afghanistan's children are among the world's poorest and most vulnerable, and they urgently need support now, especially now given the change in leadership and the uncertainties this has brought since August 2021.
For 20 years, World Vision has worked to address massive life-saving humanitarian needs in Afghanistan, striving to protect girls and boys, provide them with an education, promote better health and sanitation and help to build livelihoods.
We adapted and responded to the impacts of August 2021 by temporarily placing our Childhood Rescue project in Herat into hibernation to ensure the immediate safety of our project participants and staff. Even so, World Vision Afghanistan is committed to remaining for the long term, with most of its 380+ staff being locals.
World Vision has worked in liaison with the wider humanitarian community to press for assurances that women have equal rights to continue to serve as humanitarian staff, work in agency offices, travel to site locations and for women to benefit from our programs. With these assurances given, our humanitarian responses have restarted in the four provinces where we work, including Herat.
Staff safety and security continues to be one of World Vision's priority concerns. Staff care and peer support processes have been in place for months, informed by context analysis and scenario planning. The commitment and strength of World Vision Afghanistan staff to the most vulnerable children and communities has been nothing short of exemplary.
