News & Stories

Child Protection

Voices

Salmina escapes from child marriage

Last year, at only 15, Salmina felt that her life was at stake when she was forced to marry a 58-year-old man and leave school. Thanks to a community member who was trained in child protection issues by World Vision, she escaped from the nightmare. Now she is looking forward to going back to school and pursuing her dream of teaching mathematics.

Voices

Child sacrifice: Protection through pierced ears in Uganda

In certain districts of Uganda, child sacrifice is a real danger. Today, Kari Costanza writes from Uganda about 3-year-old Sharon, whose pierced ears may protect her. Read how a World Vision-supported amber alert program is helping to recover children that have been taken.

Voices

World Poetry Day: “Childhood Lost” by Propaganda

In honor of World Poetry Day, we’re featuring our partner, spoken-word poet Propaganda, with a video of his poem “Childhood Lost”: “Childhood is worth saving, because once it’s gone, it’s gone.” Watch this powerful video, and learn more about Childhood Lost.

Special Features

Crying for their country

FEB. 1, 2014, JORDAN AND SYRIA — Of the 8 million people displaced by Syria’s war, more than half are children. Many arrive in neighboring countries with little more than the clothes on their backs and memories of friends and home. Here in Jordan, they take refuge with their families in a crowded camp or suffocating accommodations, mourning lost loved ones and yearning for their former lives. Each child has a story.

Voices

A child marriage: Betrothed before birth

The documentary Girl Rising aims to ignite a movement to educate girls around the world. Millions of girls, like Jenneh in Sierra Leone, face barriers like child marriage to their education. This is Jenneh’s story.

Voices

Syrian children: Coping with trauma through drawing

Betsy Baldwin, program management officer for World Vision’s humanitarian and emergency affairs team, writes today about a recent trip to Lebanon. Visiting Syrian refugee children who had fled their homes, Betsy witnessed firsthand the effects of the trauma these children had been through. Here, she describes the heartbreaking stories she saw illustrated by these children’s hands.

Voices

A poem to an unknown mother

World Vision’s Elda Spaho writes about child protection and the programs World Vision supports in Albania that help abused and abandoned children. Read Catherine’s story and the poem she wrote to her absent mother.