Clean hands. Clean Hearts.
Access to clean water is a daily struggle for the most vulnerable in Cambodia, and for many families, toothbrushing and hygiene just aren’t a priority.
That’s why World Without Sickness was first developed — to give children practical, life-saving information about staying healthy, while also introducing them to the hope of Jesus.
Local schools welcomed the program, eager to help kids live healthier lives. And the results? Transformational.
Eight-year-old Tak lives with her grandmother while her parents work on a rubber farm. When a World Without Sickness program came to her school — with singing, stories, and a message about Jesus — she was captivated. “I took the book home and asked my parents to read it to me,” she says.
Soon after, Tak visited a local church and learned more. “The part that touches me the most is that Jesus heals and cleanses people,” she says. “When He told the blind man to wash and be healed, he was healed!”
Tak prayed with her teacher to receive Jesus as her Savior. “I feel really happy and safe with Him. I will tell others that Jesus has power to heal and cleanse.”
FAST FACTS: CHILDHOOD DISEASE, MORTALITY, AND THE ROLE OF SANITATION & HYGIENE
- Improving water, sanitation, and hygiene can reduce childhood all-cause mortality by 17% and diarrheal-related mortality by 45%.
- Maintaining oral hygiene prevents children from the pain of cavities, which can lead to problems with eating, speaking, and learning.
- Many childhood diseases, especially those related to poor sanitation, are transmitted via the mouth. Brushing reduces the bacterial load, lowering the risk of oral and systemic infections.
Through World Without Sickness, children learn to stay healthy — and discover Jesus, who makes hearts clean too — spreading hope and hygiene to their families.
How Haruto found hope in the darkness
Haruto stared at his screen, the glow illuminating tears he refused to let fall. Another day of feeling invisible at school, another night alone with his thoughts.
“I want to die! I want to disappear right now …” he typed into the O&Dan platform — a OneHope Japan online outreach with a name that’s a pun on the Japanese words “your cheerleaders.”
Haruto didn’t really expect anyone to understand. In Japan’s high-pressure society, he had never considered faith as an answer to his isolation.
To his surprise, an online missionary responded, sharing Isaiah 43:4: “You are precious and honored in my sight, and I love you.” The missionary explained how this verse had transformed their own life during similar struggles.
Haruto didn’t reply immediately. For two days, he contemplated the words — then, though skeptical, Haruto hit the “Decision” button, mostly hoping to continue the conversation with someone who seemed to care. What began as a desperate cry for help led to ongoing discussions about purpose and identity.
“I want to try believing in God,” Haruto eventually messaged back.
Through the digital community of O&Dan, Haruto discovered something he couldn’t find in his carefully compartmentalized social circles — a relationship with Jesus Christ and the hope that comes from being truly known and deeply loved.
“I want to try believing in God.”
From broken to beautiful: how God’s Word transformed Enid’s life
At 17, Enid carried wounds that no teenager should bear. Years of sexual abuse had left her angry, bitter, and questioning everything she’d been taught about God. Why would a loving God allow such suffering? Her straight-A grades and obedient spirit had earned her nothing but pain.
“What kind of God is this who has forgotten me and my family?” she asked herself. Her faith crumbling, her hope extinguished.
But God wasn’t finished with Enid’s story.
After a powerful encounter with the Lord at a church retreat, Enid returned home still struggling with doubt. Then a friend handed her something that would change everything: the Book of Hope. Reading the back cover, her heart leaped — the words described her exact feelings: “It’s never good enough. The future is so depressing. What’s the point?”
“This is me!” she exclaimed. “It’s telling my story!”
That night, Enid opened God’s Word for the first time in her heart language (she’s from Puerto Rico originally). She discovered Jesus speaking directly to her brokenness through Scripture passages carefully chosen for hurting young people.
When she read John 14:1 — “Trust in God. Trust also in Me” — followed by Christ’s promise to return for her, everything changed.
“He’s going to come back for me. He’s going to rescue me from this. And He really
cares,” she realized.
The Book of Hope became her road map to healing. Through its pages, Jesus met Enid in her pain and began transforming her life. The angry, wounded teenager became a woman on fire for God, finding purpose in her pain.
Today, Enid works as a OneHope global distribution ambassador, using the very materials that saved her life to reach other broken young people.
Your investment in God’s Word for children and youth doesn’t just distribute books — it transforms destinies, one life at a time.
You showed her she is Unstoppable
Brenda had been in church all her life and even made a decision to follow Jesus when she was a young child. But this didn’t prepare her for the tragic moment she lost her mother …
Outwardly Brenda knew she was fortunate because her auntie could take her in and she was able to stay in her hometown in Malawi and attend her regular school — but inwardly she felt desperately lonely, had no hope, and didn’t really understand who she was anymore.
But then you sent the Unstoppable program to her school, through the Student Christian Organization of Malawi. Many African nations have a strong tradition of organizations such as this or Scripture Union in the schools.
“We were introduced to this program and took time to weekly go through the lessons and indeed my life has greatly changed for the better,” Brenda says today.
“After going through the program, I can confidently say that I am fearfully and wonderfully made by God, and I am His child. I have also learned that it is only hope which is found in Christ that heals.”
Brenda still has her struggles, but now her faith in Jesus gives her tremendous hope for the future!
“I am confident that I am not alone, God is my father, and He provides suitable people to help us during hard times,” she says. “I really thank you for such a program that is helping girls like me.”
You can’t unsee it
By OneHope President Rob Hoskins
Remember the benches touting the axiom, “See! You just proved bench advertising works”?
Whenever I read one of those pesky bench ads, it irritated me that I couldn’t unread those
words and that I had been tricked into falling prey to the advertiser’s “clever” marketing scheme.
Just the other day I had a similar experience as I was sifting through statistics from UNICEF. Like the bench, I couldn’t unread the words, and I still can’t stop thinking about them …
- In 2023, 4.8 million children under 5 years of age died—of those 2.3 million were newborns.
- That’s about 13,100 children under the age of 5 dying every day in 2023.
- The main causes of these deaths were infectious diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria, as well as preterm birth and complications during childbirth.
- Most childhood deaths are preventable with access to quality health care, proper nutrition, vaccinations, and clean water.
It seems that many of the under-5s who die each year — possibly the majority — could be saved by standard health care we in the West take for granted … which reflects on another sad statistic: Far and away more childhood deaths per capita happen in Africa than anywhere else in the world, although Southern and Central Asia are not far behind.2
Now we’ve both read the bench, and we can’t unsee those numbers or the fact that most child deaths are preventable. So now what do we do?
While the statistics about global poverty, preventable disease, and child vulnerability are sobering, we are not without hope — and we are not without impact.
Through resources like World Without Sickness, we’re equipping churches in hard-hit communities with tools that do more than share Scripture — they offer practical, life-saving knowledge about hygiene, health, and the God who cares deeply for every child’s body and soul.
It may not make headlines, but it is making a difference.
Thank you for standing with us as we help children and families experience the love of Jesus —and discover the hope of a better, healthier future.
NATION BY NATION
LIBERIA
Grace is enrolled in our Unstoppable program and found tremendous meaning in the chapter titled “When Hope Heals You.” She suffers from frequent illness, so this topic caught her attention. Today she says, “Sickness is not my position, because I have a friend called Jesus who can heal.”
PERU
“Before I didn’t believe in God,” says 10-year-old Josué. “When they gave me the Superbook booklet at church and taught us about God, I was very shocked. … I have now accepted Jesus as the Lord of my life. I want Him to transform me and help me follow His commandments.”
RESTRICTED ACCESS
a nation where Christians are less than 3%, 12-year-old Sachin encountered Jesus through videos you helped provide. Once disobedient and dishonest, he’s now respectful, engaged in school, and sharing Jesus with friends. “I’m overjoyed by the changes Jesus has brought into my life,” he says.
Still sharing God’s Word at 90
Most of the stories we share in this space are about young people whose lives have been changed by the Word of God you provided for them. But today, we want to introduce you to someone whose heart for children is just as bold — though she’s nearly a century old.
Dona Aida was baptized the day before her 90th birthday. A new believer full of joy and conviction, she took every opportunity to grow in her faith. After attending a OneHope workshop in Puerto Rico called Global Youth Culture and another on teaching Scripture to children, she immediately saw how she could be part of reaching the next generation.
Though her own life hasn’t been easy — she walked through a painful divorce and cared for a terminally ill husband — Dona Aida now pours out the comfort and hope of God’s Word to the young people around her.
One of her favorite tools? The World Without Sickness Scripture book. Designed especially for young people in vulnerable communities, it pairs the Gospel with essential health and hygiene tips that many children simply don’t learn otherwise.
With passion and purpose, Dona Aida has handed out hundreds of these books to children in her neighborhood. She’s even visited schools, met with social workers, and connected school staff to our national team so children can see Scripture-based films too.
She reminds us that the harvest is still great — and that there’s no age limit on serving the Lord. Thank you for giving children access to God’s Word. Whether you’re young or old, like Dona Aida, you’re part of the story He’s still writing in young lives all over the world.
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