God is working through the church in Burundi to help widows and orphans survive great emotional and economic hardship.

“My husband abandoned me and our two children,” one woman in Burundi shared with a World Challenge partner. “He’s a ‘pastor’ and now on his third wife.”

In a culture that traditionally views Christianity as a cult, one church’s work to overcome this has taken the form of food packages.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is wrestling with freedom from the Russian Orthodox Church—which has often been an accessory to Russian political leaders—and trying to transfer its authority to a new archbishop.

One widow remembers her harrowing childhood being taken captive by Uganda’s LRA and then barely surviving a tragic accident in a refugee camp.

How many of you remember the Kony2012 video?

It was a call to action, a cry for us to stop the human rights violations and atrocities that the Lord’s Resistance Army was inflicting on central Africa. In a few days, the video garnered millions of views.

“In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth. For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will say, “Blessed be Egypt, my people…” (Isaiah 19:24-25 NLT).

My name is Samira. I live in a village in Egypt. I am 29 years old, a Christian, a mother of 3 beautiful children. I am a widow.

One woman’s miraculous encounter with God planted a sturdy faith in her that would withstand terrible persecution and loss.

Jahnavi’s neighbors brought her to a church that is World Challenge’s partner because she was demon possessed. Her family had ignored the issue, simply ascribing her strange behavior to a spiritual affliction from one of their thousands of gods.

One woman in Kenya finds support through the church and starts helping others who have also experienced loss and rejection.

World Challenge has been dedicated for many years to helping widows, particularly those who are vulnerable to exploitation, cultural stigma or poverty.

World Challenge partners in Albania help one Roma woman with a disability find a new home after she was the victim of a crime.

The Roma community in Europe is often classified as the most economically depressed.

In the middle of fear and hunger, a team in Kenya are working to help children, preserve the future generation and show them God’s faithful compassion.

The Horn of Africa is teetering on the verge of famine, brought on by severe drought which is now leaving people to watch their crops fail and cattle die.

World Challenge partners in the Emerald Isle reach out to one mother weighted down by a cancer prognosis and deep worries for her children.

Can people still be deeply caught in poverty if they live in a wealthy, Western nation?

Most would say, “Yes, of course” because we’ve all seen someone beside the road with a cardboard sign who is clearly homeless.

World Challenge partners help widows in Latin America receive back their sight. 

Rosa feels along the brick wall of her kitchen. Only the size of a living room in many Americans’ houses, her home is simple and clean. At least, she hopes it’s clean. She’s swept like always, bumping the broom between the table and chairs’ legs.

Something clatters cross the floor, and she pauses, trying to squint through grainy gloom at whatever’s fallen.