If we want to build a future where women and girls everywhere can thrive, creating safe environments and economic opportunities must be part of the solution. Around the world, inequality for women and girls and extreme poverty are deeply intertwined — limiting access to education, income, and basic resources. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, women and girls spend nearly 200 million hours every day collecting water instead of going to school or earning income. These barriers don’t just impact individuals; they slow progress for entire communities.
That is why World Vision is tackling the root causes of extreme poverty and developing programs that provide access to clean water, health care, education, economic opportunity, and disaster relief. With 75 years of experience and a global footprint, World Vision partners with communities to create sustainable pathways out of extreme poverty, including empowering women and girls to help drive long-term transformation.
As International Women’s Day approaches, many companies look for meaningful ways to honor women and girls while aligning employee engagement, social impact, and business values. For organizations with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) focused on women, faith, or social impact, this moment presents an opportunity to move beyond awareness and invest in lasting change. Partnering with a trusted nonprofit like World Vision allows companies to engage their workforce while advancing measurable outcomes for women and girls worldwide.
Program: Beyond Access
World Vision believes ending extreme poverty is within reach, but only if women and girls are truly empowered. When half the population is held back, progress stalls for families and entire communities. World Vision’s Beyond Access program is built on this conviction. Intentional sequencing of behavior change, access to water and improved sanitation, and economic empowerment dismantles the barriers limiting women from reaching their full potential.
Beyond Access equips families with the essentials to break free from extreme poverty:
- Girls can attend school, women gain time to pursue economic opportunities, families experience better health, and communities thrive with new opportunities.
- Parents earn a stable income and can meet their family’s basic needs like food and health care, children stay in school, and households build resilience for the future.
Harmful practices like violence against women and girls are replaced with hope, dignity, and opportunity. This empowers women and girls, strengthens family relationships, and creates a culture of respect and possibility within the community.
By 2030, the Beyond Access program will empower 360,000 people across 12 countries to break the cycle of extreme poverty.
Women move from hopelessness, dependency, and having the burden of daily water collection to living with time and freedom to pursue income-generating work. Transformation is accelerated when women’s human, spiritual, and economic potential are unlocked, strengthening communities.
World Vision can engage your workforce to teach them about this program and more through kit-building activities, virtual reality experiences, lunch and learn presentations, and volunteering opportunities. Reach out today to learn how they can create a custom International Women’s Day engagement for your workforce.
Explore the Impact
Lucrecia Xiloj, a mother of nine from San Bartolo Aguas Calientes, faced barriers including limited access to education, harmful social norms, and a lack of economic opportunity that kept her family in extreme poverty. Her dream of owning a business once felt out of reach.
That began to change through World Vision’s Beyond Access program, which brings together behavior change training, access to clean water and sanitation, and economic empowerment interventions that collectively address the root causes of extreme poverty.
Through Beyond Access’ Biblical Empowered Worldview training, Lucrecia gained confidence, purpose, and a renewed understanding of her faith. She began to see herself as capable and called to pursue her dreams.
Through World Vision’s Economic Empowerment interventions, including savings group participation, business training, and a small loan, Lucrecia launched a banana business. What began as door-to-door sales grew into supplying local markets, creating steady income for her family.
As Lucrecia and her husband participated in World Vision’s behavior change trainings, household dynamics began to shift. Her husband, once skeptical, came to support her leadership and now works alongside her. Today, Lucrecia makes key household decisions and reinvests profits to meet her family’s needs and keep her children in school. As she shares, “Now I make important decisions in my home, my husband supports me, and I will continue to attend my group’s workshops to keep learning.”
Beyond economic opportunity, Lucrecia also benefited from improved sanitation and hygiene practices through Beyond Access, helping create healthier conditions for her family and community. Her story reflects the power of Beyond Access’ intentionally sequenced approach. When behavior change, access to clean water and sanitation, and economic empowerment come together, barriers fall and opportunity multiplies.
When women like Lucrecia thrive, families prosper, communities strengthen, and futures transform.
Need help?
Global Impact can help your company connect with World Vision and create a custom event tailored to your workforce for International Women’s Day and beyond. From hosting speakers to sharing free resources with your ERGs, we’ll help you foster a culture of compassion, awareness, and impact. Let us help you inspire greater giving and foster a culture of social responsibility within your organization. Reach out today to get started!