Based in the Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge, the law firm of Codilis and Associates, PC, works with a variety of clients in the mortgage lending sector. The firm’s partners and associates additionally contribute to charitable organizations that focus on the welfare of children and families worldwide. Among the nonprofits that has received support from Codilis is World Vision, Inc., which puts a global face on the fight against poverty.

For more than six decades, World Vision has worked with a Christian focus to offer help to communities in the developing world in critical need of support. The group’s mission remains to serve as an example of unconditional love and generosity, without regard to the faith traditions of those it serves.

Founder Bob Pierce was an evangelist who dedicated his life to a crusade against poverty after a youthful trip through Asia in the 1940s showed him its effects close up. In the 1970s, World Vision would offer assistance to Vietnamese war refugees. In the 1980s, it put boots on the ground in Ethiopia to help mitigate the problems associated with widespread famine. During the following decade, the group reached out to people with AIDS at a time when some faith-based organizations chose to turn them away.

And after the 2004 tsunami that ravaged Southeast Asia, with a death toll most authorities put in the hundreds of thousands, World Vision was there to help. 

Today, World Vision is active in some 100 countries to assist about 4 million children.