Channels of Hope

Channels of Hope for HIV was the original adaptation of Channels of Hope. As one of World Vision’s core HIV and AIDS response models, it pools current and potential volunteers to mobilize the infrastructure, organizational capacity, and unmatched moral authority of local churches and faith communities toward positive action on HIV and AIDS. World Vision works with churches and other faith-based organizations to coordinate and equip sustainable, community-based HIV and AIDS programs, with an emphasis on reaching orphans and vulnerable children who need care and support. This methodology is not only effective for faith leaders but has also been greatly effective with target groups such as teachers, community leaders, and youth.

Key outcomes:

• Faith communities are engaged in actions that contribute to HIV and AIDS prevention, advocacy, or care.
• Community members and target populations are taking steps to increase voluntary testing, particularly among pregnant mothers.
• Rates of mother-to-child transmission of HIV decrease.

Zimbabwe was one of the countries hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic. In response, World Vision implemented the Channels of Hope model in 2010, facilitating community conversations to reduce stigma and increase timely access to services.

In 2015, the Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain at the University of Groningen; the Knowledge Centre for Religion and Development in Utrecht; and World Vision undertook a study to explore the program’s effectiveness in Zimbabwe. The study found that in communities where World Vision implemented Channels of Hope:

• Community knowledge about HIV increased
• Stigmatization of people living with HIV was reduced
• Access to services and medication among pregnant women, mothers, and newborns improved

Interviewees identified pastors and churches as essential catalysts for these changes.

World Vision also completed a multi-country, longitudinal operational research study in Uganda and Zambia on the use of Channels of Hope for HIV and AIDS programming in long-term area programs. The study found that:

• The percentage of faith leaders believing HIV was a punishment from God decreased from 86% to 58%
• Individuals in areas where World Vision implemented Channels of Hope were 12% more likely to access voluntary counseling and testing for HIV in comparison to the baseline
• Individuals were 2.5 times more likely to participate in a support group for people affected by HIV following the intervention

Channels of Hope Restore is an innovative approach to exploring cultural and religious beliefs, norms, and values that impact relationships in families and communities. The methodology challenges participants to see men and women as created by God as equals and to treat each other accordingly. This new understanding empowers both women and men to celebrate who they are, moves people toward healthier relationships, and helps reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG).

Faith leaders’ interpretation and application of religious texts shape relationships between men and women. In some cases, religious texts are used to justify cultural practices that marginalize women, limiting their involvement in processes crucial to their own development and that of their families and communities. Other prejudices grant more power and privilege to males at the expense of females, leading to unequal access to and control over family and community resources, as well as gender-based violence (GBV). This power imbalance harms the well-being of women and girls and limits the development potential of entire communities.

As faith leaders explore their attitudes and perspectives, they also engage with other individuals and organizations at work in the community. They learn unique ways that the faith community can address underlying norms that drive behavior, take actions that strengthen community systems and structures, and contribute in meaningful ways to address violence in the community.

When faith leaders promote principles of equality and shared access to family and community resources, they foster stronger, more harmonious relationships within families, faith groups, and communities.

Key outcomes:

• Faith communities actively engage in actions that prevent violence against women and girls and contribute to advocacy or care efforts.
• Faith leaders promote a healthy faith perspective on gender, framing faith-based responses to gender injustice.
• Faith, community, and youth leaders serve as role models, influencing positive changes in attitudes, values, and norms around gender relationships.
• Both women and men experience improved participation, access to, and control over resources.

In Mali, where female genital mutilation (FGM) is widespread, World Vision implemented Channels of Hope Restore, in partnership with Islamic Relief Worldwide, to empower faith communities in the Koulikoro region to take action against FGM and other forms of GBV. At the start of the project, 85% of households practiced FGM, and 70% thought that the practice should be maintained. World Vision and Islamic Relief trained 42 religious and community leaders who later taught 400 additional religious leaders and established faith action networks to address GBV and child protection in their communities. The project evaluation completed in 2020 found that, following the intervention, acceptance of FGM fell from 70% to 58%.

This video shows how we worked to address GBV through Channels of Hope in the Solomon Islands:

Channels of Hope for Child Protection addresses children’s rights, promotes positive discipline, strives to prevent other forms of violence against children, and fosters a wider enabling environment to strengthen both formal and nonformal child protection systems.

The Channels of Hope for Child Protection methodology is packaged into a facilitative and interactive workshop, grounded in guiding principles from the participants’ faith tradition(s) and religious texts. The methodology aims to create a safe space for faith leaders and faith communities from various denominations or religions to learn, share, and debate challenging issues related to violence against children. It seeks to address the root causes and deepest convictions that maintain harmful attitudes, norms, and values. The goal is to motivate and equip faith communities to respond in meaningful ways to prevent violence against children. Responses include restoring the lives of child survivors, addressing sociocultural norms and attitudes that drive violence, promoting peace and overcoming violence, and striving for authentic justice that brings healing and reconciliation.

Key outcomes:

• Increased meaningful engagement and competence of the faith community to address various forms of violence against children and sociocultural norms that make children vulnerable
• Increased policy advocacy to support justice for children
• Increased safety of children in religious institutions
• Improved social cohesion in communities

In 2016, World Vision launched Faith Community Contribution to Ending Violence Against Children, a five-year research collaboration with Queen Margaret University and Columbia University, to gather evidence on Channels of Hope for Child Protection interventions. This mixed-method study examined faith leaders’ child protection practices, attitudes toward child rights, and views on physical punishment in Senegal, Uganda, and Guatemala. Child protection practices — specifically listening to children and reporting abuse — were strongest among faith leaders in Uganda, although they also most favored the use of physical punishment. Overall, findings documented how faith leaders play an important role in promoting children’s well-being in their communities. Building on this contribution, however, requires sensitivity to important contextual differences.

Read the research overview here, or access the full study here.

Channels of Hope for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) catalyzes faith leaders and faith communities to respond to health challenges facing women and young children. Congregations work with World Vision to meaningfully engage with sustainable, community-based MNCH interventions and advocacy to change behaviors and strengthen health systems within communities.

Faith leaders and communities often lack necessary mindsets, skills, and information to engage on health issues. Rather, they can often be the drivers of wrong information, creating barriers that prohibit people from visiting clinics, receiving vaccinations, or using birth spacing methods. Their influence is essential to addressing child marriage and harmful traditional practices, treating women and girls equitably, encouraging men’s involvement in MNCH, or addressing stigma.

Channels of Hope for MNCH is designed to help actively deconstruct these religious and social barriers to health and equitable gender relations, as well as equip faith communities to respond compassionately and practically to the serious MNCH issues.

Key outcomes:

• Faith communities are engaged in actions that contribute to positive changes in the broader community that lead to healthier mothers, pregnancies, and children.
• Participants and community members practice birth spacing.
• Community members access improved pre- and postnatal care and care for children under 5.

Examples from the field:

Kenya: World Vision implemented a three-year operational research project funded by the Templeton Foundation to assess support for contraceptive use among women of reproductive age in communities where Christian and Muslim faith leaders received the Channels of Hope for MNCH and Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancies (HTSP) trainings. The study found:

• An 85% increase in knowledge (from 41% to 76%) of three or more modern contraception methods
• A 140% increase (from 5% to 12%) in the contraceptive prevalence rate among mothers with a child under 2
• A 150% increase in the likelihood of using modern contraception after participating in Channels of Hope for MNCH

The research also showed improved attitudes toward contraceptive use among Christian Protestant and Muslim faith leaders.

Burundi: In collaboration with the Collectif pour la Promotion des Association des Jeunes, Medical Teams International, Pfizer Foundation, and University of Groningen, World Vision implemented the European Union–funded RAMBA Sexual and Reproductive Health project. The project:

• Trained 991 religious leaders and their spouses on HTSP and family planning
• Established 76 congregational action teams to develop community-based SRHR action plans

By the end of the first year, 17,557 families had adopted modern family planning methods. An independent evaluation found:

• A 47% increase (from 55% to 80.7%) in faith leaders delivering messages on modern contraceptive methods to women
• An increase in women communicating with health personnel about family planning from 53.8% to 71.8%

Channels of Hope for Ebola draws on religious texts, scientific information and messages, case studies, personal experience, and interactive activities to remove religious and social barriers that result in the continued spread of Ebola. It also addresses the stigma and psychosocial and spiritual challenges that affected individuals face. The program fully equips faith leaders to promote accurate and responsible messages about Ebola and helps them to respond with compassion and care for affected people.

Faith leaders wield considerable influence over culture and the prescribing and prohibiting of actions in their communities. Unfortunately, faith leaders and communities often lack the necessary skills and information to engage in a helpful way on health issues, resulting in the spread of misinformation and promotion of religious practices that could perpetuate the spread of Ebola. Channels of Hope for Ebola enables faith leaders to become powerful messengers and agents of change, inspiring entire communities to care for and love one another and deconstruct barriers to good health in their communities.

Key outcomes:

• Faith communities are engaged in actions that contribute to Ebola prevention, advocacy, or care.
• Community members have increased knowledge about preventing and treating Ebola.
• Survivors and families are supported and accepted.

The 2014 Ebola epidemic killed more than 11,000 people and devastated communities, setting back the development of health systems. The most prominent impacts were felt in three fragile West African countries: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

The World Faiths Development Dialogue and The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University produced a case study to highlight the complex institutional roles of religious actors, the positive and negative aspects of their involvement, and how international organizations were often poorly prepared to engage with faith leaders.

The study found that World Vision played a significant and positive role early in the crisis through a multireligious consultation that sought solutions to address public health issues while respecting cultural and religious sensitivities in burial practices. By introducing protocols for safe and dignified burial practices for patients who had died from Ebola — that also recognized important religious beliefs — responders were better able to engage with communities and religious leaders. This helped encourage communities to cooperate with and report deaths to authorities, significantly curbing transmission.

The implementation of updated guidelines, alongside proper quarantining and home care supported by religious communities, were game changers in the fight against Ebola. We are proud to report that none of the 58,000 children or their immediate families who were directly supported through World Vision’s 25 area programs contracted Ebola.