Did you know? The tradition of giving gifts during Christmas goes long back in history to Bethlehem, where The Wise Men brought their gifts to baby Jesus – Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Even if your picks are not such a royal mix, you might already have a list of Christmas gifts to purchase for your friends and family. Or you might be winging it, going for a last-minute hunt. How about a little tweak to your plan this year? Here is a list of some unusual gifts you can pick this year and be a blessing.

This World Humanitarian Day, we celebrate the passion and dedication of humanitarians like Shampa. 

“Being a humanitarian means working for the protection and the rights of these most vulnerable people,” says Shampa. “I want Rohingya children to know they have human rights and a right to enjoy their lives.”

When Esnart’s husband passed on, she was left to look after her children and her elderly mother. Through the Gift Catalogue, her family received five chickens that have now multiplied to 332! "I am a great example of what chickens can do," says Esnart.

Tarina* works in the brick fields to support her family. She is 12 years old. Each day, she earns 50 to 60 taka (S$0.80 to S$1) by breaking bricks. “If I stop breaking bricks, how will [my family] pay off our loans?” she says.

With the beginning of World Vision’s work in Simran’s village, families started to recognise children’s importance. “People care about us now and they know that we are the future of our country,” says Simran, smiling.

"For the next three years, I was enslaved to this family. The Chinese couple married me to their son. But I wasn't treated as a wife and this was not a marriage," says Hnin.

What started as a normal day for Khatema, 9, joyfully playing in the village with her friends quickly turned into one of the worst days of her life. Her world and her dream of becoming a teacher came crashing down when her brother interrupted their game with a message: Their father had decided to marry her off. 

As we celebrate our phase out in Uvurkhangai and hear powerful stories of transformation that has happened in the community, we asked sponsors to share their own personal sponsorship journies on social media. To make it even sweeter, we are giving sponsors who share their stories a chance to travel to Selenge, Mongolia with World Vision in 2020.

We are happy to see even more inspiring stories surfacing from this contest!

The contest closes on 30 June 2019. See how you can still participate with the details here.

In collaboration with leading market research companies, The Nielsen Company and IPSOS, we analysed over 250 programme reports covering a sample size of millions of people, and here are the results!