FAQs About Compassion’s Response to the Coronavirus Outbreak

Our hearts break with the knowledge that some persons in the global Compassion family have succumbed to COVID-19. This pandemic has brought death to the doors of our frontline and supporting church partners, ministry partners, volunteers, and even our children and their loved ones. Please continue to pray for those who are impacted directly by this pandemic. Medical professionals predict the worst may be yet to come for the developing world, which is far more underprepared for testing and caring for COVID-19 patients than we have been in more developed nations. This means tracking the full impact on our ministry, the children and their families will be increasingly difficult in the weeks and months to come. We are doing our best to keep you informed of the effect this crisis is having on our ministry but always while respecting the privacy of those who serve alongside us. Thank you for your continued support and prayers.

This global pandemic has affected all of us in one way or another. Compassion staff and volunteers are doing everything they can to minimize the impact to the children in our program.

To that end, we have temporarily closed the child development centers in most of our field countries, temporarily halting group activities. Workers there are limiting personal contact to phone calls, messaging apps and home visits (when possible and safe) to deliver emergency supplies during this time of crisis.

Because we are committed to protecting each child and maintaining their privacy, we do not disclose children’s health information. However, to learn more about how COVID-19 is impacting your sponsored child’s country, you can click here.

In some cases, where visits are permitted and staff can do so without putting themselves or others in harm’s way, local church staff members are visiting homes to check on the welfare of children and their families. When/where they cannot make personal home visits, they are using cell phones, texting and messaging apps to conduct regular welfare checkups.

Compassion staff are taking every precaution to protect the children in our program. We have suspended all international travel to our national offices and our frontline church partners through at least the end of the year. This means we will not be permitting any international visitors to meet sponsored children, visit Compassion child development centers, or visit national offices.

We will be reassessing our travel policy regularly and may extend this travel suspension depending on the situation. As a regular part of our program, we also continue to teach hygiene to children in our program (and moms in our survival program), which reduces the spread of illness.

Funds typically used at the child development centers can now be redirected to children and their families for necessities, emergency supplies, and even medical care and trauma counseling, as needed.

Thank you for your heart and willingness to help. Our local church workers around the world are courageously delivering essential items to desperate children and families. You can help provide additional resources for physical and medical support by giving toward Compassion’s Disaster Relief Fund.

During the temporary closure of most of our national offices and the pausing of group activities in most of our child development centers, the delivery of letters between children and sponsors will be delayed. We encourage you to continue to write letters of encouragement and prayers to your child, but please know that it will take longer for your letters to be delivered, and your child will likely not be able to write back until centers are reopened.

When a birthday or family gift is given, Compassion’s normal process is to have a staff member consult with the family and then travel, purchase and deliver your gift. During this time, however, that process creates additional burdens and dangers for our field staff.

Because of that, we are now encouraging field staff to disburse monetary gifts to an appropriate, verified caregiver. This applies to family gifts and beneficiary gifts (including birthday and final gifts). Families may spend the gift on whatever they consider most important to meet family needs. The caregiver will be notified whether a gift has been designated as a beneficiary gift or family gift. The caregiver will decide the best use of the money, recognizing that sometimes purchasing food or paying rent is in the best interest of a child.

Thank-you letters will be delayed until children can safely return to their centers, however, photos will not be required to be fulfilled during the crisis.