Melissa Joan Hart Serves Families in Zambia With World Vision
By Movieguide® Staff
Actress Melissa Joan Hart recently returned to Zambia with her husband and their three children to check in on their sponsored children they support through World Vision .
As a World Vision ambassador, Hart works alongside the relief organization to provide clean water, livestock, and many other needs to families in rural Zambia.
“We were so excited to come back to Zambia and see not only the girls we sponsor, but how the area has developed and the work that World Vision’s done in the area,” Hart said in a recent interview. “We were thrilled just coming here, and we couldn’t wait. It was just as wonderful as we expected it to be.”
“I think being an ambassador is so great. It gives us the opportunity to come out and meet the people that are being helped by World Vision and really kind of report back home that the work is being done and and not only is the work being done, it is so complex and it is so involved,” she said. “It is so sustainable and these people are being helped in amazing ways, from their health, to their education, to helping with any kind of food instability. It is just amazing the programs that are put in place and how they’re implemented and how deep they go and how much they help these communities.”
“We have seen it firsthand and we can attest to the fact that World Vision is doing amazing things,” Hart added.
Hart first visited Zambia in 2019. Since then, the GODS NOT DEAD 2 actress said the work of World Vision has brought about a noticeable difference for various communities in Zambia.
“This is our second trip to Zambia and we’ve just seen such a difference between four years ago and now, with the families that have been helped, with the sponsors that have come in and stepped up for some of these children,” Hart said. “To see that they’re now going to school, that they now have clean clothes, that they now have a house and a bed and clean water really close by so they can go get water when they want to cook or clean, it’s just amazing.”
“The family, their whole demeanor has changed,” she added. “They just are so proud now of what they’ve accomplished, of what they’ve been able to accomplish.”
One of the many issues World Vision works to remedy for rural communities in Africa is their lack of access to clean water. Hart said that her family was able to donate enough money to build a well last year; a well that they got to see in use during their visit.
“Last year we were able to provide the funds to donate a well and now we were able to see that well in progress and it was so great because the mom, Edna, was going around even cleaning it up,” she said. “She’s like, ‘I have to keep the well clean.’ And she knows that sanitation is so important because World Vision taught her that sanitation is so important and that’s why they got the Boho or well. Now they have clean water to cook and clean and just take care of their family.”
Hart and her family see their faith, and prayer, as an integral part of their service to the people in Zambia.
“I think this is so important for our boys to see the work that World Vision does, to see that there are other parts of the world that are struggling, other parts of the world that are able to be developed and enriched and that that we can do so much good with our time, our energy, our money, to be able to help out people in need so far away,” she said. “I think it’s crucial to show our kids good charitable works.”
“I think we’re called to it and we just want them to learn, not only what gifts they have that they can share, but also to keep people in prayer, to be able to just know that as they grow they can be a shining light on other people and that it’s so important,” she added. “Our faith is a big part of what we do and why we want to help. We’re called to that.”
Hart noted that even if you are not called to move your life across an ocean to do mission work, every Christian has a responsibility to serve in missions.
“I think as Christians we’re called to mission work and to just charitable works and just helping our neighbors and our fellow man,” she said. “I think that finding the right program is a big part of it too. Finding a program you can get excited about, something like World Vision, where you see the work that they’re doing and you believe in it and you know what’s going on and you want to go back and spread the word.”
