Check out the highlights and major advocacy successes of 2010 that couldn’t have happened without you.

January 2011

A new year often prompts resolutions and thoughts for the future. It’s also a good time to reflect and celebrate the year just gone by. Check out the highlights and major advocacy successes of 2010 that couldn’t have happened without you!

Students intercede for Haiti through prayer

In response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, World Vision ACT:S — the campus activism network — called on campus leaders to mobilize their communities to pray for those affected by the devastation. Across the country, more than 200 groups responded.

Fighting child trafficking

The Senate introduced the Child Protection Compact Act (CPCA), thanks to efforts by World Vision’s advocates across the country.

Some 250 Women of Vision advocates from nearly 30 states urged the Senate to introduce this legislation aimed at reducing child trafficking and exploitation. College students across the country also lent their voices to this cause by participating in the National Call-In Day to End Child Slavery. An estimated 1,000 calls were made to Senate offices during this event.

We achieved a significant victory when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed this critical legislation. Unfortunately, due to the particularly contentious environment of the lame-duck Congress, it was never brought up for a full vote in the Senate. We look forward to continuing to advocate for the passage of this legislation with the new Congress. Read more about the status of the CPCA.

Conflict Minerals Trade Act signed into law

World Vision advocates pressed the U.S. government to pass legislation that will guarantee that armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) won’t benefit from Americans’ high-tech purchases.

Eastern DRC is rich with mineral deposits — some of which are used in electronics. Sales of these minerals have been known to fund militia operations, and in turn, the armed groups terrorize civilians as a means of controlling the mining zones and obtaining labor.

This new bill will empower consumers with the knowledge of whether their electronic purchases contribute to the DRC’s decade-long humanitarian crisis.<p>

Action Summit to End Malaria

Some 75 citizen advocates from 18 states traveled to Washington, D.C., just before World Malaria Day (April 25), and were trained by World Vision to personally deliver a simple message to their members of Congress: We must end malaria now.

While Congress has delayed finalizing fiscal year 2011 spending until at least late January, these advocates can claim a role in successfully advancing malaria funding. Despite the difficult spending environment, the malaria budget has continued to climb.

G8 Summit focuses on child, maternal health

Established in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals provide a roadmap for eradicating extreme poverty by 2015. The fourth goal is to cut by two-thirds the number of children under 5 who die.

Through the help of advocacy supporters, World Vision was able to influence Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to prioritize child and maternal health at the G8 Summit in Canada last summer.

Preventing youth violence in the United States

Young people from 12 at-risk communities across the country advocated for an end to gang violence at World Vision’s annual Youth Empowerment Summit.

More than 130 high-school-aged youth from urban and rural sites around the nation gathered in Washington, D.C., to collectively foster a vision for change in their communities and to present their policy recommendations to Congress. This year’s summit has been described by participating youth and adults as “the best one yet.”