Talk:World Vision International

This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest was declined. Some or all of the changes weren't supported by neutral, independent, reliable sources. Consider re-submitting with content based on media, books and scholarly works.

I work at Hill+Knowlton Strategies and we work with WVI and as such are conflicted. We'd like suggest some updates and changes to WVI page:

1. WVI now operates in 100 counties. ^[1]
2. Donna Shepherd is now board chair, replacing Josef Stiegler^[2]
3. Revenue was $2.7B ( 2015 )^[3]
4. WVI employees 44,000 people ( 2015 )^[4]
5. WVI never uses Evangelical as a description, we'd suggest updating the opening sentence to be: "World Vision International is a Christian humanitarian aid, development.." ^[5]
6. WVI is now headquartered in Stockley Park, near London, England. The First sentence in the 3rd paragraph should be updated. ^[6]
7. Partner offices should be London, Geneva, Bangkok, Nairobi, Lusaka, Dakar, Cyprus, New York, Los Angeles, San Jose, and Costa Rica. Update the 4th paragraph under Organization Structure. ^[7]
8. Under the Religion section, the organization, some additions. The charity has partnered with non-Christian organizations like Islamic Relief^[8], and joined several faith-based organizations of various religions in consulting with the World Health Organization to develop a safe and dignified burial protocol for Ebola victims.^[9]
9. Also under the Religion section, some suggested additions to the section around Richard Stearns and proselytizing. Stearns also stated that “we do not force our religious beliefs on anyone, and we don’t discriminate in our delivery of aid in any way.”^[10] World Vision is a signatory to the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief^[11], which states that “aid is given regardless of the race, creed, or nationality of the recipients” and “aid will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint.”^[12]
10. Also under the Religion section. Justin Byworth of WVI’s Development Resources Team has defined transformational development as the following: “Transformational development programmes include appropriate sectoral interventions, such as education, health, agriculture, and others. These interventions are planned and implemented to build local capacity and accountability… transformational development programmed increase awareness of human rights and international conventions and promote just practices for all, regardless of gender, ethnicity, caste, disability, religion, or age.”^[13]
11. In the Activities and philosophy section, the 2 sub-sections ( "Anti-Israel activities and philosophy" and "Supporting terrorist organizations" ) mis-represent WVI activities and philosophies. In no way are these representative of the organization as whole. We'd suggest these be moved the Controversies section and renamed to "Anti-Israel Comments" and "Gaza and Mohammad El Halabi/AusAid controversy" to better represent the issues and balance the page.
12. Also under the Activities and philosophy section, the first sentence mentions "financial records reveal that it has funded evangelical activities all over the world." This is an incorrect statement. No records exist in the WVI financial records or the Annual Review, as this sentence suggests.^[14]
13. Also under the Activities and philosophy section, in the second, third and forth paragraph. We'd suggest re-wording to remove the use of claim to be more consistent with Wikipedia guidelines on the use of claim.
14. Also under the Activities and philosophy section, we suggest the inclusion of the following additions to better reflect the organization’s recent activities. In 2016, the charity received the Friendship Order of the President of Vietnam for its contributions to the development of Vietnam over 30 years.^[15] That same year the charity’s microfinance arm, VisionFund International, received the Asian Development Bank’s Civil Society Partnership Award for developing a disaster insurance scheme in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.^[16]. World Vision partners with MasterCard to improve aid delivery through electronic payment technology.^[17] That includes World Vision’s Last Mile Mobile Solutions (LMMS), a system used to digitize aid beneficiary registration, verify identities, and speed up delivery and documentation of aid distribution, amongst other purposes. ^[18]The charity says that before LMMS aid programs were managed using paper-based systems prone to human error and potential fraud.^[19] The LMMS project was nominated as a 2012 Laureate by the ComputerWorld Honours Program in the Human Services category.^[20]
15. Also under the Activities and philosophy section, we'd suggest adding 4 sub-sections representing WVI's 4 core activities for "Clean water programs", "Child protection", "Nutrition" and "Women and children in conflict zones"
16. New "Clean water programs" Sub-section under Activities and philosophy section: World Vision is the world’s largest non-governmental provider of clean water^[21]. An independent study found that nearly 80 percent of World Vision water wells remain in operation 20 years later^[22]. In 2010 philanthropists David and Dana Dornsife donated $35 million to World Vision over five years to bring clean water and better hygiene to 7.5 million people^[23]. In 2015 the Dornsifes made an additional commitment of $40 million with the goal of ensuring that every rural resident in 25 countries where World Vision works have access to fresh water by 2030^[24]. World Vision has offered a 6-year grant to the University of North Carolina’s Water Institute to help improve the charity’s clean water programs across Africa^[25]. In 2014, World Vision and Grundfos announced that more than 1,000 Grundfos solar-powered pumps would be installed throughout sub-Saharan Africa to provide a water supply for 2 million people^[26].
17. New "Child protection" Sub-section under Activities and philosophy section: In April 2014 World Vision signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to combat child exploitation in tourism and enhance collaboration between these two organizations^[27].In June 2014 World Vision released a study on child sexual abuse in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam. According to the report, most children and adults in these countries have a limited understanding of child sexual abuse, seeing it primarily as penetrative rape^[28]. Other abusive acts were not recognized. The report recommended greater education of parents, children, and other stakeholders to help prevent child sexual abuse^[29]. In September 2016, World Vision and ChildPact launched the Child Protection Index (CPI)^[30]. Using indicators based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the CPI compares a country’s current child protection system against a common set of standards. Nine countries participated in the pilot project, all of which are signatories to the UNCRC. World Vision and ChildPact say that the Index can be used at any time to hold governments accountable to their UNHCR commitments^[31]. In its 2016 annual review, the charity says that 41,000,000 children had benefited from their work to date^[32].
18. New "Nutrition" Sub-section under Activities and philosophy section: World Vision says it has provided food assistance to 8,800,000 people across 33 countries as of September 2015^[33]. World Vision is the World Food Programme’s largest NGO partner, working together in 33 countries^[34]. For example, the WFP and World Vision have worked together in Myanmar for more than 10 years through food distribution, school meals, and other programs^[35]. On February 2nd, 2017 the two organizations launched a program training residents of urban South Sudan to grow food within their homes^[36]. With $55 million in support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Vision aims to address malnutrition and food security in Zimbabwe^[37].
19. New "Women and children in conflict zones" Sub-section under Activities and philosophy section: World Vision CEO Kevin Jenkins stated that the charity works to “mitigate the impact of conflict on women and children.”^[38] Jenkins argued that women and children are excluded from peace processes globally, and that their place in peace-building should be guaranteed^[39]. The charity co-authored a report tracking progress towards the goal of eliminating child marriage globally by 2030^[40].
20. In the section "Child sponsorship", the following addition. As of 2015, there were 3.3 million sponsored children worldwide^[41].
21. In the "Controversies" section and sub-section we suggest renaming to "Gaza and Mohammad El Halabi/AusAid controversy", we'd suggest the following recent additions reflecting recent developments: World Vision CEO Kevin Jenkins made a statement condemning any diversion of funds and any support for terrorism, committing to a “full review” and an externally conducted forensic audit during which the charity’s Gaza humanitarian work would be suspended^[42]. After Halabi pleaded not guilty to all charges, World Vision stated that they not seen any credible evidence supporting the allegations against him^[43]. On March 21st, 2017, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade concluded their inquiry into whether or not taxpayer money was siphoned to Hamas through World Vision. The Department “uncovered nothing to suggest any diversion of government funds.”^[44]
22. In the "Controversies" section and sub-section "Evangelism", we suggest following addition: UNICEF has said that faith-based organizations (FBOs) “can establish credibility and authority with local religious communities and, in many instances, continue to support beyond the duration of specific projects. Beyond this, many FBOs have locally connected operational networks that can be mobilized for response… such networks can enable FBOs to respond in an efficient and sustainable manner and reach into communities in ways that secular NGOs often cannot.”^[45] UNICEF specifically cites World Vision as an example of this^[46].

Colin hk canada (talk) 16:32, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

 Working Working on it and reviewing it right now. This is pretty large so it will take a bit. :) CHRISSYMAD ❯❯❯¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 13:12, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

Thats in general good. In particular the conflict with Israel needs to be more balanced and also needs more of a consistent presentation of the history of this conflict. I tried to do it already a bit but probably not enough. But please take into account that we need independent sources and it can not be the goal to realize the wish-list of World Visions PR department one to one. E.g. Point 5: There are enough sources to characterize World Vision International as evangelical. And actually point 5 doesn't really deny this fact; it only says that they don't use the word evangelical in their public self characterization. That they don't describe them self as "evangelical" has to do with the fact the they donor is some countries are to a large part not evangelical and to characterize them self as evangelical may not be of advantage for their PR efforts. But the article can not be an extension of WV Internet presentation, we need to describe what the sources say. Regarding point 9: Be aware that evangelicals (and btw. also catholics) often differentiate between "proselytizing" and "evangelism" where proselytizing has the more restricted meaning of converting someone by force or with some pressure. When they say they don't "proselytize" it doesn't mean they don't evangelize; that's PR talk. This has also to do with point 10: In their public description they describe "transformational development" nearly a a pure secular development program and never mention that evangelism is an integral part of it. Concerning the location of headquarter: Last time I checked the California Business registration (businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/ ) World Vision International was still active registered in California, and the governing body (which is the Board of World Vision) is also located in California. Only the executive headquarter moved to London. Thats exactly described so in the box, so there needs to be no change. Only the description in the text seems to be outdated. In case there have been some new developments here we need independent sources for this. --MTYM (talk) 19:03, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

I'm just going to mark this as declined for having insufficient reliable sources, as is shown in the reflist below. jd22292 (Jalen D. Folf) (talk) 17:24, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

Requesting changes again with sources update to reflect correct citation titles. The changes include 46 source citations urls, 37 are third party sources and not WVI. Colin hk canada (talk) 17:48, 6 September 2017 (UTC)

Important is the quality of the sources not the numbers, which are actually much lower if the sources that are cited several times only counted once. Also, citations #38and #39 from Huffingtonpost are not marked as WVI but are co-authored by WVI president Kevin Jenkis and not really independent. The same is the case for the article cited from Jstor in #13; the author Justin Byworth was until 2014 World Visions UK Chief Executive. Others are by businespartners of WVI which have common interests with WVI like #17 from Mastercard. --MTYM (talk) 08:21, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

I'm closing this request as I don't see a reply to MTYM's (talk) final concerns. May re-open when improvements to source quality are achieved.  Spintendo  ᔦᔭ  07:54, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Should this section (with proposed edits, back and forth, and declines) be in chronological order rather than at the top of the page? ++Lar: t/c 13:42, 14 August 2019 (UTC)

This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest has now been answered.

Please change the "Key People" section on the right hand side of the wiki article from "Josef Steigler (Chairperson Int'l Board)" to "Ms. Donna Shepherd (Int'l Board Chair)" per ^[1]. The body of the article has the correct information but not the grey section with key information to the right of the article.

Thanks JonSnyder77 (talk) 17:32, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

 Done –Ammarpad (talk) 17:42, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for speedy deletion:

• Wvi relief.jpg
• Wvi relief2.jpg

You can see the reasons for deletion at the file description pages linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 05:38, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest was declined. Some or all of the changes weren't supported by neutral, independent, reliable sources. Consider re-submitting with content based on media, books and scholarly works.

1. Replace first paragraph of history with following (it correctly explains how WVI was founded -
The charity was co-founded in 1950 as World Vision Inc. by Robert Pierce, Kyung-Chik Han and Frank Phillips.^[1] It was founded after Pierce was invited to Korea by Han to speak at Young Nak Church, followed by another speech in Seoul. After the breakout of the Korean War weeks later, Pierce and Han continued to collaborate on relief efforts in the region.^[1] The first World Vision office opened later that year in Portland, Oregon,^[2][3] with a second office following in 1954 in Korea.^[4] During the early years, the charity operated as a missionary service organization meeting emergency needs in crisis areas in East Asia. World Vision operated as a missionary service organisation meeting emergency needs of children in crisis areas in East Asia following the Korean War.^[1]

2. Add Project Seasweep to the history -
In the late 70s, World Vision ran Operation Seasweep in the South China Sea to rescue Vietnamese refugees that has been displaced due to the Vietnam War. The refugees were often referred to in the press at the time as "boat people."^[5]

3. Add reference to following history sentence and rephrase to improve accuracy -
In 1977, World Vision were one of the twelve agencies that founded the "Association of Evangelical Relief and Development Organizations" (AERDO) in Wheaton, Illinois. The organization went onto be rebranded as the Accord Network.^[6]

4. Add following historical milestones to history -
At the end of the Rwandan Civil War in 1994, World Vision provided relief and rehabilitation services, before offering child focused area development programmes in the country.^[7]

As a continued effort to reduce the global number of cases of HIV and AIDS, World Vision launched Hope Initiative, aimed at ending mother-to-child transmission of HIV.^[8]

5. Add the following to the programs section -
Following the start of the 2022 Ukrainian conflict, World Vision International launched a response in the region to provide aid through the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).^[9] Part of this included a much needed fundraising effort, which raised £150 million in its first week in the UK.^[10] Much of the relief effort and response in the early days of the conflict was focused on the migration of people, specifically children crossing Ukraine's western border into countries such as Moldova and Romania.^[11]

In May 2022, World Vision International announced a Global Hunger Initiative to help over 45 million people suffering with famine and starvation.^[12] The crisis was said to be brought about by recent conflicts, the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change.^[12] 43 countries were identified as part of the initiative that had hunger hotspots.^[12] This included Afghanistan, where famine had reached levels unseen in decades in the country during 2022.^[13]

CharlieDaveyPowell (talk) 12:25, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

• Not done - Fails verification, self published source
  • Following the start of the 2022 Ukrainian conflict, World Vision International launched a response in the region to provide aid through the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).^[1]
    • Fails verification
  • In May 2022, World Vision International announced a Global Hunger Initiative to help over 45 million people suffering with famine and starvation.^[2]
    • Self published source

Make sure none of the cited sources are authored by the organization, its people, or its financial partners.

If you cite a source, then either that source must explicitly fact-check the claim to which it is attached, or it must be very easy to navigate from the claim to another source. For the "Disasters Emergency Committee" claim, I am not able to verify World Vision launching the aid response.

These were the first two I checked and they both failed. Please check everything.

Bluerasberry (talk) 15:37, 28 September 2022 (UTC)

@CharlieDaveyPowell Hi, new editor here, and I am cleaning up the backlog. This is one of the oldest outstanding requests, and I do not see any activity since the last editor asked for better sources. I'll close this request in a few weeks unless there is some activity. Cheers. Duke Gilmore (talk) 03:37, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

Closed for now. Three months and no answer from OP is enough in my opinion. Thinker78 (talk) 03:56, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

 Not done for now: Please establish a consensus with editors engaged in the subject area before using the {{Request edit}} template for this proposed change. Check guidance in Wikipedia:Edit requests#Response time Thinker78 (talk) 03:54, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

Hello, @Bluerasberry: @Duke Gilmore: @Thinker78:, thank you for your responses. I’m just picking this back up. Would you prefer me to resubmit or can this be resolved without an official submission? Some comments below.

- Agree about Global Hunger Initiative, will look for more solid reference. 3 also needs more work, so that and 5 I will park for now. - 2. and 4. don’t seem to have any issues, could those be included?

To summarise, 5. and 3. need more work (references), but it would be great if you can look at 2 + 4. CharlieDaveyPowell (talk) 09:49, 14 February 2023 (UTC)

@CharlieDaveyPowell I would advice to start discussions without the edit request template, wait for a week or two for responses. If no responses, start a new edit request but follow the guidance in WP:MAKINGEREQ, dealing with one item at a time. This means, one separate post and thread for each item.

Otherwise, you can see that the queue for conflict of interest edit requests is very long. My guess is that most of those that go without resolution or take too long are because they are overly long or have other issues. Thinker78 (talk) 20:11, 14 February 2023 (UTC)

• Failed verification I checked the first cited source to verify the names of the claimed founders. I do not see the name "Frank Phillips" in this source. @CharlieDaveyPowell: Can you explain why I am not find the information you shared in the source that you cited? Bluerasberry (talk) 00:21, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

  @User:Bluerasberry thanks for the reply. My requests 1, 3 and 5 seem to have issues so no need to look at those currently. However, 2 and 4 seem to have strong references so it would be great if you could look at those? I've included them again below this message to make it easier.

  2. Add Project Seasweep to the history -
  

  In the late 70s, World Vision ran Operation Seasweep in the South China Sea to rescue Vietnamese refugees that has been displaced due to the Vietnam War. The refugees were often referred to in the press at the time as "boat people."^[1]

  4. Add following historical milestones to history -
  

  At the end of the Rwandan Civil War in 1994, World Vision provided relief and rehabilitation services, before offering child focused area development programmes in the country.^[2]

  As a continued effort to reduce the global number of cases of HIV and AIDS, World Vision launched Hope Initiative, aimed at ending mother-to-child transmission of HIV.^[3]

• CharlieDaveyPowell (talk) 10:35, 28 February 2023 (UTC) CharlieDaveyPowell (talk) 10:35, 28 February 2023 (UTC)

Failed verification @CharlieDaveyPowell: I fact-checked the HIV claim. The cited source does not mention the Hope Initiative or World Vision.

Can you refer me to any of the people at worldvision.org/about-us/media-contacts? I would like to video chat with one of them to discuss the basics of Wikipedia editing and set the organization up for success in a more formal Wikipedia collaboration.

Wikipedia is the most requested, published, accessed, and consulted source of information on crisis of all kinds. That should make Wikipedia an attractive partner to WV. I am a coordinator for Wikipedia:WikiProject Disaster management and d:Wikidata:WikiProject Humanitarian Wikidata, which is within the domain of expertise for World Vision. World Vision spent about US$ 2 billion last year, but Wikipedia is arguably 1000x more influential in WV's communication domain as measured by what I know about Wikipedia's traffic and what I can guess about WV's communication.

It is not uncommon that when I see an org like WV approach Wikipedia they start with a PR office which got a US$10k retainer from them and which is billing $250/hour for wiki editing. I appreciate you coming here, thanks, but I do not think WV is backing you with that level of support, and for that reason I think a discussion would be worthwhile to establish mutual understanding of what Wikipedia volunteer support WV is consuming and what Wikipedia can offer for partnerships. You personally are doing great as an editor but the wiki volunteer editor community expects organization like World Vision to come with more preparation and not be asking for so much volunteer labor support from the wiki editors.

If someone at WV would meet with me then I could talk to them by video chat, recorded and published if they want the transparency, or otherwise just casual. What I want from WV is development of wiki articles not about the WV brand, but to move their expertise and knowledge about humanitarian issues into general Wikipedia articles covering those topics.

Please relay my message to your team. Let's explore a more in-depth collaboration. Thanks. Bluerasberry (talk) 17:25, 28 February 2023 (UTC)

رزكار عمو سيمو 88.254.2.136 (talk) 16:33, 23 December 2023 (UTC)