new boys, Amarateca, Jan 2021
New boys in class, Honduras, 2021

Transparency and reporting to our donors

When you donate to World Villages for Children, the money goes to the countries and schools within the Sisters of Mary programmes where the need is most pressing. It provides for the existing children in school and also funds new school places for the most deprived children who are urgently in need from the regions. This includes funding a regular yearly intake of new children at the existing schools as well as help with school expansions within country (eg Honduras) and new schools in new countries (eg Tanzania).

When the Sisters of Mary utilise your donations in the care of the children, they report back to us in detail on the expenditure. We monitor this activity both from the UK and on-site at the schools. Our independent auditors scrutinise these reports and the entire grant distribution process to ensure accuracy and compliance with sector standards.

female students in masks scoop water from new water well in Guatemala

Your support in 2021

This transparency allows us to report back to our donors at a detailed level. So we know that in 2021 in the Philippines The Sisters were able to resume community outreach to access remote regions and meet more deprived children in need this led to 1,940 new children being welcomed into school in July 2021.

In Mexico, a new building at the boys’ school was completed this year helped to increase places available at the school alongside robust healthcare and hygiene practices in place to ensure Covid-19 protection for the children at school. As a result 1,784 new children were welcomed into school in 2021.

In Guatemala your generosity has allowed the Sisters to address the rising cost of care, the Sisters developed new projects to improve the sustainability of their programmes – like the new water well at the Girlstown which will reduce dependency on water deliveries during the dry season..

Nursery children holding hands dancing
Tanzania - Nursery and Training Centre

With the relaxation of lockdown restrictions in Brazil, the Sisters’ valuable community work restarted and thanks to our donors they were able to welcome 183 of the poorest girls from the remote regions of Brazil into a place at school in January 2022.

In Honduras, we saw the first graduates from the boys’ school in Amarateca, which was built in 2017, in December 2021.

In Tanzania, late 2021 the programmes achieved two milestones; the completion and inauguration of the third school building at the main girls’ school in Kisarawe to increase capacity there, and the completion of the new nursery and training centre in Kiluvya. The new training centre offers vital technical education for young women aged 17-22 years old who were unable to complete their secondary schooling. Whilst their children are cared for and have vital early learning, the girls develop the skills they need to find work and support themselves and their families.

Evelyn, Philippines graduate with OJT girls

Sustainability

Your support creates lasting change in poverty within every one of the communities where we operate our programmes today. Our graduates help us to sustain our work with their commitment to ‘pay it forward’.

They further our mission by giving a helping hand to the Sisters of Mary, assisting with the younger children who’ve come after them, helping current students into work experience, we call it On the Job training (OTJ), or graduates into employment. Some return to teach or fulfil other jobs for the schools; a few others even find their vocation.

The result is a lasting change that profoundly and effectively transforms many more lives than those who have experienced our programmes first-hand.

Student hugging his father

Impact

The programmes you fund break the cycle of poverty for children in the poorest regions. They transform families and entire communities.

To date, more than 150,000 children have graduated from our education programmes and had the opportunity to realise a brighter future.

These children have gone on to support generations of their own families with access to better healthcare and  education, multiplying the effectiveness of our mission and the impact of your donation many times over.