Skills for life, lessons in safety

Extreme poverty and illiteracy go hand-in-hand. That’s why World Concern is committed to making it possible for people of all ages to receive an education in some of the poorest villages in the world.

World Concern offers a variety of educational programs, from traditional schooling to lessons about health, disease prevention, farming and personal safety.

Motorcycle-riding teachers bring "School on a Mat"

Children and their parents in the villages of Southeast Asia are often unaware of dangers of child trafficking.

Sadly, sex tourism primarily targets children between the ages of 12 and 17 years of age.

The poor and uneducated children are most at risk of becoming tangled in a filthy web of illegal, underage sex. Their captors make promises to the children's families, and the children disappear for months, even years at a time.

We go to villages to prevent children from becoming ensnared in child trafficking.

Find out how we do it with our "School on a Mat" program.

Hope for disabled Vietnamese children

Many children are disabled in Vietnam. About seven percent of the population has some type of physical or mental disability, according to the Ministry of Health.

Tragically, these children have traditionally been ostracized. They often live in poverty. About one third are illiterate. It's worse for disabled women: about one half cannot read or write, according to UNICEF.

Read how we teach them to communicate and grow.

Photos from around the world

Education: A way to break the cycle of poverty

• Literacy rates in some countries where we work are as low as 25%
• Only 40% of men and 28% of women ages 15-24 in Burkina Faso know how to read or write
• Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 47% of the world's out-of-school children; 54% are girls
• There are an estimated 500,000 hearing impaired children in Bangladesh, but only 36 schools with a capacity for 1,750 students
• Fewer than 50 percent of all Kenyan children attend school
• Many families cannot afford mandatory school uniforms for their children without World Concern's help
  • sources: CIA, UNESCO and World Concern

Bringing understanding to remote villages

• We provide safety training for thousands of children in Southeast Asia who are at risk of becoming caught in sex trafficking.
• 3,500 children with disabilities in Vietnam receive educational assistance and advocacy from World Concern staff.
• Every year, World Concern-sponsored schools for the deaf in Bangladesh teach 110 children, while audiology centers test and consult with 1,000 people
• We teach children in villages with no schools or sponsor tuition for children to attend community schools
• World Concern child sponsorships allow children to have the opportunity for books, uniforms and food