Children’s health | World Vision

Tackling illness and malnutrition

Every day children are dying before they have a chance to live. Millions die annually from preventable causes. It’s a lottery of malnutrition, infections they weren’t immunised against, and illnesses that could be easily treated with the right health care. It can so easily be different.

World Vision focuses on three essential ways to improve health – especially for 0-5 year olds: good nutrition, protection from infection and disease, and access to essential health services.

Together, we can protect children’s health and well-being, so they can grow up healthy and safe, even in the toughest places.

Helping children grow up healthy

Good health empowers children, families, and communities. We enable vulnerable people to live fuller, freer lives by strengthening health systems and promoting good hygiene and nutrition.

A girl and boy sit on the floor outside, eating packets of nutritious food that helps malnourished children

Malnutrition

Malnutrition affects children like Pedro (left) and Teresa from Angola. They were diagnosed at a World Vision health screening and are eating enriched food called Plumpy Nut to aid their recovery.

Female doctor holds out an injection over a desk, leaning towards a mother. The child on her lap looks nervously at the syringe

Health

World Vision Mobile Health teams visit places like this internally displaced person's camp in Afghanistan to provide basic health services including growth monitoring and free vaccinations for children.

Girl and her mother stand in front of the private latrine in India

Hygiene

We work with communities to understand their needs, and work to provide simple improvements that help people maintain personal and environmental hygiene - like this latrine provided to a family in India. We also teach about the importance of soap and encourage a culture of hand washing.

You can be part of World Vision’s lifesaving work:

Vaccinating children from preventable diseases

Our TB programmes have an 88% treatment success rate

Supporting parents to feed their children nutritious meals

We reach another child with nutritious food every minute

Training health workers to help give children quality healthcare

Our therapeutic feeding programmes have an above industry standard 89% cure rate

Sponsor a child today, improve their life forever

In a world where 1 in 9 people don’t have enough food to eat, you can help make sure children have access to nutritious food.

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A child who suffered from malnutrition is fed a nutritious meal with a spoon by his mother

Tackling Extreme Poverty

Supporting Chipego's Family

Mildred's son Chipego, from Zambia, was malnourished back in 2017. With support from World Vision's treatment and the nutrition information and resources Mildred received, he improved rapidly and by October 2018 had reached a normal, healthy weight. His parents received a goat, so the whole family benefited from nutritious milk and greater income, and they joined the village savings group. Chipego's dad Conrad said, “Being part of the savings group has really helped us to be resilient and cushion the shocks experienced in our area because of the drought.”

Sponsor a child