In many areas Compassion serves, families are facing severe food shortages. To combat this, Compassion is partnering with ECHO and local churches to combat food insecurity at its root.
ECHO is a Christian nonprofit that teaches small-scale, sustainable farming methods, empowering families to provide for themselves and their communities.
This is a growing, beautiful partnership that brings together the gifts of Compassion, ECHO and the Church.
Shriveling Crops and Vanishing Futures
“The challenge is we have already harvested last season. We've harvested, and now we're waiting for the next season. We have a shortage of food." — A mom in Tanzania
Compassion serves many families who live in remote and rural areas, and often their only income and food source is what they can grow themselves. Climate change, causing severe droughts and famines, is crippling these families’ ability to provide for themselves.
Parents work tirelessly planting and caring for crops that quickly shrivel and dry. With meager harvests, families run out of food between growing seasons. And children go hungry.
Hungry children lack the nutrients their bodies need to grow, protect against disease and even develop their brains. For little ones, chronic hunger can mean struggle for the rest of their lives.
Lasting health issues and impaired cognitive abilities can limit their opportunities to learn and build skills, making it difficult for them to provide for themselves as adults. And making it likely they’ll have to raise their own children in poverty too.
At Compassion, we believe children are created in the image of God, bearing immeasurable dignity, value and potential. So we can’t stand idly by as hunger steals their futures.
More Than Just Help for Today
Compassion serves children in many regions affected by droughts and famine. And we promise that children in our sponsorship program will get the nutrition they need to grow up healthy and strong. But this requires more than just food deliveries. We want to empower families to create their own sustainable food sources, build stable incomes and break free from poverty.
That’s why we’re partnering with ECHO.
Who Is ECHO?
ECHO is a global, faith-based nonprofit that works alongside small-scale farmers, churches and organizations to address hunger at its roots. Rather than short-term aid, ECHO focuses on long-term solutions that help families grow their own food, even in challenging environments.
ECHO began in the 1970s with early work in Haiti. Since then, they have grown into a global network serving communities in many different climates and cultures.
Through this growing network, ECHO shares knowledge, seeds, locally relevant tools and technologies, and research grounded in science and faith. ECHO tests simple, practical farming solutions in different regions. Then they share what works with others who can use those ideas in their own communities. This helps families care for their land, grow more food and build a more stable future.
Today, ECHO connects and supports a network of practitioners serving in more than 190 countries across six continents. Their work is not limited to one program or place. Instead, it is expressed through three connected areas:
Regional Impact Centers: Places where local leaders, farmers and practitioners come together for hands-on training, research and collaboration. Through workshops, demonstrations and ongoing learning, participants gain practical skills they can apply in their own communities. These centers also help develop and share farming approaches that work in similar environments.
ECHO Community: An online platform where farmers, workers and ministry leaders around the world connect, ask questions and learn from one another.
Seeds and Plant Materials: ECHO shares small packets of seeds for testing and helps communities start seed banks. This helps families grow a wider variety of crops and strengthens local food systems.
At its heart, ECHO’s work is about restoration. Rooted in the love of Christ, ECHO seeks to care for both people and creation, helping families move toward lasting food security while reflecting the hope of the gospel.
A Partnership Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” — 1 Corinthians 12:12, NIV
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul declares that Christ’s church has many parts — each with their own gifts — but one body. This partnership between Compassion and ECHO is a beautiful picture of the Body of Christ working together, with each member bringing something different and valuable for the common goal of serving those in need.
ECHO has knowledge and training they want to share. The local church has trust and presence in their communities. And Compassion has a passion for empowering local churches and years of experience partnering with them to serve their neighbors.
In practice, here’s what this looks like:
In famine-affected regions, Compassion partners with local churches to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.
These churches, who deeply understand their communities, identify needs and alert Compassion to the hunger and food insecurity families in their area are facing.
Using ECHO resources, these church partners are trained and equipped to minister to struggling families. Church and Compassion center staff establish seed banks and tree nurseries, get questions answered through the ECHO Community platform and even set up in-person ECHO trainings for their communities.
As a result, farmers are finally able to create successful farms, putting food on their tables and selling extra to provide for their families. Neighbors support each other, growing stronger together and harvesting food that nourishes the most vulnerable. Children are fed, and families hear about and experience the love of Christ.
And it can all be traced back to God — using a partnership made possible by sponsors like you.
Your sponsorship is changing lives, creating hope, bright futures and fertile soil for the gospel.
