Poverty is a crushing obstacle for millions of children.
The effects of poverty are devastating: children are obstructed from good health care, prevented from gaining an education, and forced to survive in toxic living environments. Poverty stunts children's social development, and steals, kills and destroys their future:
- Nearly 10 million children each year — about 27,000 a day — die before reaching their 5th birthday, most from preventable causes.
- The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that 218 million children are engaged in dangerous, exploitative child labor.
- Thirty out of every 100 children born today will suffer from malnutrition in their first five years of life.
- More than 2 million children under age 15 are living with HIV. About 15 million children have lost one or both parents to the disease.
Compassion's Focus on Children
Compassion believes the best way to tackle the complex problem of poverty is to focus on individual children and enable them to develop their full potential in every aspect of life — economically, emotionally, socially and, most importantly, spiritually.
We accomplish this goal through our Christian holistic child development model. Our model depends on two key partnerships — the local Christian church that delivers our programs in the developing world, and committed U.S.-based churches that enable their members to aid individual children in our program. Through this partnership, one-on-one relationships grow.
Essential to our model are three core programs, complemented by intervention programs:
- The Child Survival Program, which rescues, nurtures and disciples little ones
- The Child Sponsorship Program, which develops, disciples and equips children for life
- The Leadership Development Program, which educates, trains and disciples servant leaders
- Complementary Intervention Programs, which help children overcome the obstacles of HIV/AIDS, malaria, lack of clean water, environmental disasters and more.
This holistic Christian child development model touches every aspect of a child's life, offering discipleship in the broadest sense of the word — loving children so they can reach their potential in Jesus Christ.
Partner your church with Compassion.
Call one of Compassion's Church Relations Representatives at (866) 441-7184 or e-mail Compassion with questions.
