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Today, when 12-year-old Suzan arrives at school, she knows her teachers will be ready to start class at 7 a.m. She doesn’t have to worry about whether or not her parents will be able to send her back tomorrow. And she knows her teachers expect her to excel.

But this wasn’t always the case. Just six months ago, Suzan’s classroom didn’t exist. School was held under the trees. Her teachers had no choice but to live far away, making it difficult for them to arrive before 9 a.m. Learning standards were so low that few children did well enough to enroll in high school. Struggling to make ends meet, many families in the community couldn’t afford supplies, tuition, or uniforms.

World Vision recognized these barriers to education and began addressing the root issues. We worked with community members to help build classrooms for students and nearby apartments for teachers. We provided training that equipped Suzan’s father, and others like him, to increase their incomes.

Now, children and teachers show up to school on time and prepared, and the overall learning standard has improved. “The school has made a complete turnaround,” says deputy headmaster Godfrey Katumba. What’s more, children like Suzan are beginning to dream of a better future. “I want to be a teacher,” she says. “Teachers change the world.”

“Ten years ago, you would not hear all these sounds,” says Metness Ndila as she listens to the bleating of goats and mooing of cows — sounds of hope for her Zambian community. “We had lost all the animals we owned to disease.”

This meant losing a vital source of food and income. As a mother of seven, Metness struggled to find enough nutritious food for her children.

With no way to improve their crop yields or acquire new livestock, the future looked bleak for Metness and her family. But that’s when they received a life-changing gift: four goats from the World Vision Gift Catalog, along with training on how to keep them healthy.

“Things [got] better when the four goats started to multiply,” recalls Metness. “From the sale of [the offspring], we got back to our feet. I began to afford buying farm inputs and hiring people to help me in the farm.” What’s more, Metness was able to provide her children with plenty of nutritious food, and she could afford to send them to school.

Today, Metness has 15 goats, thriving crops, and cows she purchased after selling her produce. “Without all this, life would have been unbearable,” she says.

At 12-years-old, Selvin has seen unspeakable tragedy. But he is also filled with a remarkable hope.

Following the death of both his father and grandfather, this young boy has found comfort in knowing that his World Vision sponsor cares. “There is a person who wants to hold my hand and wants to help me,” he says. “I really want him to know that I keep him deep in my heart. I always carry him with me.”

And thanks to World Vision’s youth programs in his community, Selvin has become a strong, young leader. Not only is he part of the Children’s Basic Sanitation Committee, helping spread the word about proper sanitation and hygiene, but he also tutors other students. “I stopped being shy,” says Selvin. “I [am] able to speak up and say what I think.”

Selvin’s teachers know that he will use the things he learns to better his community. In fact, he’s already doing it by helping to monitor community health practices. Selvin is motivated by the changes that he’s already seen. People in his community live in safer homes and have knowledge of how to stay healthy. And children like him have hope for a better future.

As Selvin sees it, none of this change would have been possible without World Vision and child sponsors. “The sponsor sends the seed. World Vision is the farmer who plants it, and that yields fruit. I am the fruit of that seed,” he shares.

It wasn’t that long ago that 14-year-old Fiona’s morning routine included a treacherous walk down a steep, rocky trail to the local swamp. “From home to our water source, it would take us 30 minutes,” she explains. “Then 30 minutes going back.”

The reward for her hour-long journey? Muddy water that her family would use for cooking, cleaning, and drinking. Water that could give her younger siblings diarrhea. Water that often prevented her from making it to school on time.

“I always knew that sending them to fetch water would [make] them late for school,” says Fiona’s mother. “But I had no choice.”

The entire community used this stream for all their water needs — including bathing and watering animals. This meant it wasn’t only an obstacle to education; it also presented a serious risk to children’s health. But when it’s the only option, dirty water is often better than none.

Today however, Fiona and her community no longer rely on dirty water. Thanks to a water system installed by World Vision, her walk to get water now takes just a few minutes. And instead scooping up muddy water from the stream, she has a steady flow of fresh, clean water from a faucet.

This means she can make it to school on time. It means she doesn’t have to worry about her brothers and sisters getting sick. And it means her family — and entire community — has hope for a better future.

Elizabeth Apem, a mother of six, knows just how powerful an insecticide-treated bed net can be. She knows because she’s seen what happens without one. And she’s also seen the hope that this inexpensive, life-saving tool can bring.

“My daughter woke up from sleep complaining of a severe headache and joint pains,” she says, recalling the day her daughter Silale fell ill. “I checked on her and she was shivering in bed. She had [a] high fever.”

Living in rural Kenya, Elizabeth had no way to reach a health clinic in the middle of the night. The next day, when they finally got help, Silale was diagnosed with malaria. She had been bitten by a tiny mosquito.

And sadly, that bite proved fatal. After several days in the hospital, Silale succumbed to the disease. This was the second of Elizabeth’s children to die from malaria.

But in the midst of her sorrow, Elizabeth found hope. Thanks to an insecticide-treaded bed net provided by World Vision, she is confident that no more of her children will suffer from malaria.

Because malaria-carrying mosquitoes visit at night, sleeping under these nets prevents the spread of the disease. And ever since Elizabeth’s children received their net, none of them have gotten sick. “I am happy to get a net at last,” shares a relieved Elizabeth.