In 2021, the world continued to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic along with wars and political unrest. Refugees and displaced people fled violence and persecution. Natural disasters left destruction in their wake. The world struggled with sorrow. But we have a loving God who walks with us through the valleys. He gives us many reasons for joy and celebration. World Vision’s communicators from around the world captured the sorrow, the heartache, the joy, the celebration, and the hope in this extraordinary year.

In Kenya’s drought-stricken Turkana region, women and children pull rolling barrels, which are easier to transport than jerrycans filled with water. In this community, people wake as early as 4 a.m. to beat long lines at the water hole, which is fast drying up. However, since this picture was taken, World Vision constructed a water tank in the area that harvests underground water. This has increased access to clean water for many families. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Martin Muluka)

Each year, thousands of people participate in World Vision’s Global 6K for Water, where participants walk, run, or roll to raise funds for clean water around the world. In 2020, COVID-19 prevented large gatherings, but in 2021, people ran together in smaller groups like this event in Palatine, Illinois, where more than 100 people gathered for the event. (©2021 Genesis Photo Agency/photo by Gary Gnidovic)

World Vision programs strive to include people living with disabilities like 12-year-old Beatrice. She not only received a wheelchair from World Vision, but a clean water source that’s wheelchair accessible. “I’m grateful to World Vision for the wheelchair that has made my movement easier, and for the water. Life is beautiful,” Beatrice says. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Derrick Kyatuka)

Gifts given through the World Vision Gift Catalog can help a family rise out of poverty. Frederick from the Philippines believes that the gift of a boat, motor, and a net will double his daily income. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Florence Joy Maluyo, Jhoy Maung)

Laksmi was sexually trafficked at the age of 15. She says, “I’m stuck in the red-light area and can’t change that. But I want my children to move out of here and have their own life.” World Vision established an anti-trafficking network with the Indian police, which is helping Laksmi’s family to realize her dream. This network helps vulnerable children like Laksmi’s daughter, Binsa, enroll in school. It also set up Child-Friendly Learning and Recreation Centers for vulnerable children. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Jim Kasom)

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta (in khaki at the center) receives blessings from the elders who have vowed to use their influence to end female genital mutilation. The president urged the community to embrace beneficial cultural practices and do away with harmful ones that prevent women from being active participants in Kenya’s development. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Sarah Ooko)

A 7.2 earthquake struck Haiti in August and brought a boulder crashing down on the home of Jasmine and her 4-year-old daughter, Nelly. “My mother held unto me and didn’t let go,” says Nelly. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Guy Vital-Herne)

Pioneering midwife Connie Apio, of the Opetta Health Centre III in Uganda, clearly brings joy to the children she spins on a merry-go-round. Sometimes healthcare means attending to emotional needs as well as the physical. World Vision supports the clinic with a water system and latrines. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Fred Ouma)

COVID-19 left India reeling earlier this year. World Vision’s office in India strengthened rural health systems by providing medical supplies and oxygen concentrators as well as offering psychosocial support to families and children. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Luke Aslaksan)

In Syria’s northwest region, a child receives vital medical care through World Vision’s partner hospital. There they specialize in treating children with critical cases between birth and age 13. (©2021 photo courtesy of Hand in Hand for Aid)

Hurricane Ida left thousands in the Gulf Coast area without power and with damaged homes. World Vision partnered with local churches like Full Assurance Ministry Churches of God in Christ in Amit, Louisiana, to distribute relief supplies such as bottled water, shelf-stable food, hygiene supplies, diapers, tarps, and sanitizing supplies. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)

A World Vision relief convoy drives through the northern Ethiopian countryside. World Vision is committed to stay and deliver life-saving aid, including food security, child protection, shelter, and helping people access clean water, sanitation, and hygiene programs and supplies, while also prioritizing staff safety during unrest. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Fitalew Bahiru)

Tears run down Fatema’s face as she sits in the rubble of a fire that raced through the Rohinya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Fatema cries, “We are always being haunted by unbearable sufferings. Woes have become inevitable part of our lives.” World Vision provided hot meals the next day and repaired water systems right away. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Xavier Sku)

Families displaced by violence in the Central African Republic get much-needed USAID food supplies at a World Vision distribution. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Tchaya Zogoto)

A reassuring word from a World Vision staff member before a boy chooses his sponsor at a Chosen event in Ecuador. (©2021 World Vision/photo by IDR)

In 2019, Balamanikandan, now 9, ran to be the first person in line to receive a World Vision Gift Catalog goat. He named the goat, Thulasi, which means basil. Thanks to the gift of goats, Balamanikandan can attend his fourth-grade classes in his Indian community, without worrying about paying his education expenses. He says, “Now Thulasi has grown big, but still she likes to be with me.” (©2021 World Vision/photo by Luke Aslaksan)

Five-year-old Martha loves to help her mother, Malcon-Rosa, especially with planting flowers. Malcon-Rosa is a long-term volunteer for her community, which is full of sponsored children. She says, “For love of children I started to get involved with World Vision Honduras.” (©2021 World Vision/photo by Andre Guardiola)

When my mother started teaching, I started performing better and my friends began approaching me for assistance so that they should catch up on the lessons they are struggling with. They call me teacher,” says 9-year-old Phillip who aspires to be just that. Phillip teaches his friends behind his Malawi house, near a kraal in which his family keeps goats and a big mango tree. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Collins Nankhuni)

Maholy, a 9-year-old sponsored girl in Ecuador, is already a talented artist. She says, “I liked doing this drawing, because while I was doing it, I imagined what the place was like and the people who were there when the child was born, and what was special about that night with the very big star lighting the manger. If I had to give Jesus a gift it would be a guitar to sing the most beautiful songs.” (©2021 World Vision/artwork by Maholy, 9-year-old sponsored girl)

Balancing her way across a rice field with her friends, sponsored girl Lilima has lots of reasons to smile. Her father graduated from a World Vision training program in Bangladesh and is now a successful farmer. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Golam Habib)

On the tough road to recovery, a former child soldier walks his daughter to school in South Sudan. When he was abducted, he says, “All my dreams got brushed off, and my life went dark, stained with the blood and tears of innocent people. No child deserves this.” World Vision assigned a social worker to him and provided him with a sewing machine when he graduated from tailoring class. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Scovia Faida Charles)

With power provided by solar panel arrays, Oscar teaches computer classes to students in rural Zambia, as part of a Post-COVID-19 Early Education Recovery Project. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Tigana Chileshe)

Ayasha dreams of finishing her education in Iraq and becoming a teacher. Her family has clean water to drink and to cook with thanks to P&G water purifying packets that World Vision has taught the family to use. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Shayan Nuradeen)

Sabrin Adam, in red, plays with a friend to distract herself from constant hunger. The drought in her area in Somalia makes it hard for her to stay focused on school. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Gwayi Patrick)

Xiao, who has a disability, learns to use a handrail that leads to the latrine, one of the benefits of many years of sponsorship in his Chinese community. (©2021 World Vision/photo by World Vision staff)

A Go Baby Go training in Ecuador helps parents develop skills to raise healthy children who will live their lives to the full. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Andrea Proaño)

Lillian, a South Sudanese refugee, plays with her healthy child. Agricultural training from World Vision helps her make the most of the farmland she rents from the host community in Uganda. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Aggrey Nyondwa)

Suraiya, 19, struggled with menstruation sanitation when she first joined a child forum in Bangladesh. Now World Vision has helped to construct healthy toilets, a place to bathe, and disposal sites, a blessing for girls who live in the area. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Lipy Mary Rodrigues)

World Vision staff member Yuot Bol Yai leads a proud vocational education graduating class as they march down the road in South Sudan. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Scovia Faida Charles)

Sponsored child Evelyn is a dynamo in her Honduran community. The 14-year-old maintains a close relationship with her American sponsor, who is her own age. That sponsor has helped Evelyn become a courageous advocate for education for adolescent girls. Evelyn dreams of being an agronomist. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Rafael Zalvidar)

Hana woke up at 5 a.m. to go with her mother to a World Vision/World Food Programme distribution center for refugees and displaced people in Erbil, Iraq. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Shayan Nuradeen)

World Vision staff in Bangladesh gather for their annual Day of Prayer. On October 1 each year, World Vision staff all over the world dedicate the entire day to prayer — seeking God’s guidance for the coming year. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Fariha Jahan)

Bereket, in a blue jean jacket, has ample reason to dance with her friends in front of the new school the community built with World Vision’s assistance. This school in Ethiopia, built with running water and latrines, will reduce class size and congestion. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Tamiru Chewaka)

Children release balloons into the air to celebrate the opening of the seventh and eighth Child-Friendly Learning and Play Spaces. These provide a safe place to learn and play for children living in the areas ravaged by the 7.2 earthquake that struck Haiti on August 14, 2021. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Rode Chery)

Now that Neeraj has become an Indian politician, he puts into practice what he learned as a sponsored child. “What I’ve learnt from World Vision, I’m making it reach the poorest of poor,” he says. “It has always been my desire and efforts to be of help to the person who really needs me.” Neeraj goes a step further — he now sponsors a child through World Vision in India. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Manjeri Mridula Narayan)

Severe drought in Kenya kills not only livestock — who many rely on for survival in this semi-arid area — but also wildlife, like this giraffe. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Martin Muluka)

Farmers learn how to plant and trim trees in a Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration training program in Ghana. Elizabeth says, “Tomorrow my children will come and reap the benefits of the trees that I have planted.” (©2021 World Vision/photo by Abena Agyei-Boateng)

Five-year-old Denis never leaves his mother’s side during harvest time. He knows a good harvest means plentiful food and extra money for clothing and treats. Denis’ mother, Joyce, is one of the smallholder farmers in Uganda supported by the World Food Programme and World Vision. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Aggrey Nyondwa)

A Pond Sand Filter installed by World Vision provides clean water for Shika and Rima in Bangladesh. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Suborno Chisim)

Hira and other members of adolescent girls’ club participate in a life-skills training to increase their ability to think critically. Hira says, “We enjoy games and sessions where we learn about foods, physical growth, hygiene, and gender discrimination.” (©2021 World Vision/photo by Himaloy Joseph Mree)

Energetic 3-year-old Schamaelle is never far from her mother — checking on the food she’s cooking and bringing needed utensils. She even tries to help prune in the garden but more often ends up trampling everything not taller than she is. USAID and World Vision partnered on an emergency food security program, which helps Haitian families buy nutritious food. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Guy Vital-Herne)

Alexandra encourages other teens in Honduras to delay marriage and childbirth until they have a good education and are adults. “Studying defines my future,” says Alexandra. “I am young, and I have my goals. What I want the most is to graduate from college with a nutrition degree, have my job, manage to buy my house, and eventually know when the time will be right to start a family.” Alexandra took part in World Vision’s youth network and now, as part of her senior project, shares the knowledge she learned in that program. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Rafael Zalvidar)

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, first-time mother Mary felt empowered to make the healthy choices for a the birth of her thriving baby boy, Festus. The Kenyan mother received regular visits from community health volunteers organized by World Vision, with support from USAID. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Susan Otieno)

In South Sudan, an excited Abraham (wearing orange pants) gets to play with his friends again. Another Abraham helped save his life. World Vision’s Boma Health Promoter, Abraham Willam’s visits ensured little Abraham got the support he needed to recover from the measles. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Jemima Tumalu)

A children’s club in Senegal meets every Wednesday where they practice hygienic handwashing with soap, as part of a lesson on COVID-19 prevention. (©2021 World Vision/photo by Alexander Amadou Gassama)

Mustafa, a refugee living in Uganda, loves the goats his family received through the Gift Catalog. His mother, Edina, recalls her excitement when the goats arrived. “We had lost everything in South Sudan. I knew these goats would help us rebuild for the future.” (©2021 World Vision/photo by Aggrey Nyondwa)

The Phu family of Myanmar offers a prayer of thanksgiving at each meal. They are grateful for their transformed lives brought through World Vision’s agricultural training and saving programs. “We pray for World Vision and donors every time we have our meal. … Our family will always remember them in our prayer” (©2021 World Vision/photo by Saw Moo Kale)

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