A St. Joseph resident is working to give children around the world the best Christmas.

Hannah Jurgensen’s desire to help children in need around the world began in college and grew when she traveled on two different group mission trips to Africa.

Jurgensen now volunteers as a World Vision Child Ambassador. She first got involved with World Vision by helping develop a team for the Kansas City Marathon in 2016. The team not only ran in the half marathon, but helped raise money to help provide clean water for children in Africa.

Now, as a Child Ambassador, Jurgensen helps match children in Third World countries with sponsors.

“Child sponsorship, what it does, is it helps to provide education, food, clean water, necessary items for life that we don’t understand here in America for children in Third World countries,” Jurgensen said.

With a sponsor’s $39 a month donation, World Vision can provide clean water and more.

“They really work together to improve the living situation for the community through child sponsorships,” Jurgensen said. “Eventually the village or the community will graduate from the program, so World Vision works to help them be self-sustaining.”

Jurgensen said she has a special goal this holiday season, through a project called The Best Christmas Gift.

“My goal is to match 10 children with sponsors,” Jurgensen said. “So what that means for me is… I want to be able to give these children the best Christmas that they can have and for them it’s child sponsorship. It’s the availability of clean water, it’s the opportunity to go to school.”

Jurgensen said she encourages sponsoring a child for Christmas to get into the mindset of giving.

“It’s a great family thing, to be able to (say) for this Christmas we’re going to sponsor this child and to be able to teach your kids what it means to give and teach them there are kids on the other side of the world, it’s not just here… children all over the world don’t get Christmas gifts every year,” Jurgensen said. “Not only is it just a good way to explain that to your children and instill that in them, but they get to have a relationship with them as well. They’ll write them letters… they’ll receive letters from these children and it just creates a bond between these children and the children on the other side of the world.”

For more information on World Vision and child sponsorship, click here.