The interconnected nature of our 21st century world is fuelling many forms of child exploitation, a new World Vision report reveals. The report “Small World, Big Responsibility,” was released this month by World Vision’s United Kingdom office. It says that globalisation has led to the expansion of outsourcing and increased access to products manufactured around the world.

Grade 5 is when it started, Agnes Ntimama reports. The first girls dropped out of school in Grade 5 and by Grade 8, there were none left. Instead, they got married. Most girls from her school in southwestern Kenya were forced to endure a harmful traditional practice known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) by the age of 15.

Between 1990 and 2000, AIDS hit like a silent hurricane - picking up speed and gaining strength. I became swept up in the hurricane when I moved to Southern Africa in 1997. I was there as World Vision realized that the impact from AIDS could undo years of developmental progress. Millions of adults in their prime were dying, leaving children behind to be cared for by grannies, aunts and uncles. Having awakened to this sobering reality, World Vision launched the Hope Initiative in 2001.

In a private meeting with President Sarkozy and representatives of French and international NGOs, World Vision India national director Dr Jayakumar Christian challenged the President to consider the 200 million children who experience malnutrition.

Despite the rainy weather, nearly a dozen World Vision staff rallied together in the shadow of Paris’ most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower, at the Plaza of Human Rights Tuesday morning. The day marked the beginning of a week-long effort to use the annual G20 Summit to bring attention to child health around the world.

World Vision congratulates President Sarkozy and Carla Bruni on the news a precious baby girl, Giulia, has joined their family. Baby Sarkozy is privileged to be born to such parents, and also to be born in France where she is 43 times more likely to celebrate her fifth birthday than a baby born this year in the former French colony, Chad.

Child mortality rates are not only the problem but also a symptom and indicator of several other issues prevalent in Albanian society today. World Vision in Albania is committed to tackling these health issues through capacity building of health professionals, educating communities to adopt healthy life-style practices and advocacy initiatives.

Every year the deaths of one million children under the age of five could be prevented if international efforts were focused on increasing the number of women immediately and exclusively breastfeeding their babies. World Vision is calling for action with the beginning of World Breastfeeding Week this August 1 through 7.

“Last night’s rain makes the canal especially polluted,” says Pravitchaya Laeyoung, as she overlooks the Khlong Prem Canal in Bangkok, Thailand. Sponsored children are working to clean the canal by changing attitudes.

World Vision recently worked with the World Council of Churches Armenia Inter-Church Round Table Foundation to organise a training course for Armenian priests around issues such as HIV prevention and environmental degradation. (On World Vision's Middle East / East Europe website)

Ernie Rose could have been out labouring in the fields or working as a servant in the house of a wealthy family like her mother. She stopped schooling during Grade 5 in order to look after her younger siblings. “I felt compelled to take care of my younger brothers when my parents were separated,” recounts 13-year-old Ernie Rose. Thankfully, through World Vision’s Education for All campaign, Ernie Rose is now back in school.

A shortage of pediatricians is hurting Armenian children, especially those living on the peripheries of the country, says a World Vision-funded study released during round-table discussions in Yerevan, Armenia initiated as part of World Vision’s Child Health Now campaign.

The third edition of the "Khoshoracuyc" (Magnifier) newspaper has just been published, and students like 15-year-old Arsen Antonyan are determined to make it an agent for change by reporting on issues like the absence of a proper garbage collection system in most districts of their community.