Pierce wanted to help this precious soul, so he gave Ms Tena all that he had which was just five dollars. Ms Tena used it to buy food and clothes for Baiyu and send her to school. She asked Pierce to send the same amount each month after returning home so that she could continue to look after Baiyu.
This encounter marked the turning point in Pierce’s life. In 1950, he founded World Vision, with the aim of helping poverty-stricken children around the world. That five dollars set the prototype of the Child Sponsorship Programme. The first Child Sponsorship Programme began a few years later in response to the needs of hundreds of thousands of orphans at the end of the Korean War in 1953. It was later extended to other Asian countries, and places such as Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Today, monthly contributions from child sponsors enable World Vision to provide impoverished children and their communities with access to clean water, nutritious food, healthcare, education, and economic opportunities, enabling them to become self-reliant. World Vision is a living tribute to Pierce’s work.
In 1962, Typhoon Wanda hit Hong Kong severely. World Vision distributed relief supplies in Hong Kong, and later set up its first field office in the territory. With the economic recovery in Hong Kong, World Vision Hong Kong turned itself into a fundraising office in 1982, supporting the relief and development work of World Vision offices worldwide. Today, the people of Hong Kong is sponsoring over 200,000 children living in poverty, helping to fund World Vision Hong Kong’s international long-term Area Development Programmes. World Vision Hong Kong also promotes public education, raising public awareness about global issues such as poverty, hunger, health and child rights.