John Amodeo Photography - Compassion International

Signing the guestbook draws lots of attention

Mouse over the pictures to learn their story!

Sponsor a child today through Compassion's Christian child sponsorship ministry. Search for a child by country, age, region and gender. You can even search for an orphaned child, special needs child, a child living in an HIV affected area or a child that has been waiting for a sponsor for over a year. In addition, you can search for children who have the same birthday as you - or perhaps the same birthday as your child, grandchild, niece or nephew.

The children of Compassion in a project in southern Uganda. I wanted to bring about five kids home with me.

Children are the future. In the next 50 years, the world's population will mushroom to 10 billion. Eight out of ten people will be living in developing countries. Out of every 20 babies born, 19 will be born into impoverished homes. Compassion International is an evangelical Christian child development ministry dedicated to addressing the needs of children around the world, including those in the United States. More than a relief program, Compassion focuses on the real-life needs of children-spiritual, physical, economic, and social.

Compassion has a number of distinctive characteristics that, put together, set us apart from almost every other relief and development agency. Compassion's ministry is:

Christ-Centered-Without coercion, we teach the life-changing gospel to every child in a culturally-relevant way.
Child-Focused-Our ministry directly engages each child as a complete person.
Church-Based-We choose to partner with the church as a local group of believers who can teach, train, and mentor children. This is done in partnership with parents and the community.
Committed to Integrity-We commit to excellence and integrity to best benefit the children we serve. We commit to help children, families, and churches create relevant child development activities. We commit to the highest professional and biblical principles.

This boy was thrilled with the helicopter style toy I brought him. After watching him undergo eye surgery under the open sky, I had to leave him with a memory of our time together. His guardian (pictured) discovered him after he wandered for days in a marketplace during the Rwandan conflict. No one knows what happened to his family.

Compassion teams up with local churches and church-related projects in viable communities to implement its programs. Project staff workers are trained members of the community, and become acquainted "one-to-one" with the children and their families. This enables Compassion programs to provide directed and specific assistance to children as needed. Because projects tend to be quite small, averaging about 150 children, the local staff become personally acquainted with each sponsored child and his or her unique needs. Sponsorship support for all of the children in a project is combined and managed to provide a wide range of developmental activities and opportunities.

What specific benefits will the child I sponsor receive?

The child you sponsor through Compassion will receive opportunities and services that most of the world's poorest children simply cannot receive, including the following:

The opportunity to receive an education.
In some cases, this means providing the cost of school fees, clothing, and supplies. In other cases, it means providing tutoring, help with homework, encouragement, and, if necessary, participation in a literacy program outside of formal education. Your Compassion sponsorship will allow one special child to stay in school longer if formal schooling is an option, and get the most out of his or her education in every case.

The opportunity to be healthy.
The health of the child you sponsor will be monitored, and care will be provided as needed. Children are instructed about hygiene and how to maintain personal health. Further, according to their need, many Compassion children receive supplementary food.

The opportunity to develop self-confidence and social skills.
The child you support will be part of a church-based program where Christian adults offer love, guidance, personal attention, guided recreation, and safety.

The opportunity to hear the Gospel and learn about Jesus.
Most important, your Compassion sponsorship provides the child you sponsor with regular Bible training and encouragement through a local church committed to Christ and the children in its community.

You can't change the entire world, but you can change the entire world in the life of one child.

Communication Is A Two-Way Street

We encourage you to send your sponsored child a personal or family photograph and a short letter of introduction. Compassion's field staff will translate your letter and deliver it to the child you support. Sponsored children typically keep their sponsors' photos and letters in their homes as treasured possessions. You may write to the child you sponsor as often as you like. Whether you write once or several times each year, your sponsored child will benefit from knowing that someone in addition to his or her family really cares. Your words of encouragement will make a big difference to your child. Correspondence between sponsors and the children they support is truly developmental. The more you write the child you sponsor, the more he or she will reap the benefits of your relationship. Your child will write to you three times a year. A teacher or staff person will help children who have yet to learn how to read and write. Letter writing is developmental for children as it improves their basic literacy, their self-awareness, and their ability to put thoughts and feelings into words. As you share your own family and personal concerns with the child you support, you'll probably discover that he or she is consistently praying for you. As your exchange of letters with the child you sponsor grows over the years, you can build a scrapbook of letters and photos from your child. It will be a constant reminder of the relationship you've developed with the child you're helping and of how you've contributed to his or her growth.

Accountability

Compassion regularly conducts audits to make sure that funds are properly received, tracked, and managed. Every financial process---from local field projects to the home office in Colorado Springs---is regularly audited.

But it's not enough to ensure that funds are reaching your child's local project and being spent on planned activities. Like you, we want to be sure that real development is taking place in the life of every sponsored child. Compassion works hard to monitor and evaluate each local project in terms of program effectiveness and long-term impact---right down to the individual child. Any time we see an irregularity, we take immediate and appropriate action.

Through the years, Compassion has consistently averaged more than 80 percent of total expenditures being used for program activities, with less than 20 percent being used for fundraising and administration.

During the past five years, the actual program percentage has been 83.1. We use conservative accounting methods that do not inflate our effectiveness in this regard. That's why Compassion gets the very highest ratings from independent agencies that look into the financial management of nonprofit organizations.

Smart Money magazine, published by The Wall Street Journal, rates Compassion as "one of the top ten charitable organizations in the entire country" based on trustworthiness and overall efficiency (see the December 1997 issue).
The American Institute of Philanthropy gives Compassion an "A" rating (its highest rating). We are the only organization of our kind to receive this rating!
Money magazine consistently rates Compassion as one of the best organizations in terms of financial efficiency and integrity.
Many Christian leaders, artists, speakers, and authors sponsor children and enthusiastically endorse Compassion.

Four boys welcome me to their village in central Tanzania.

Need More Information About Compassion International And How You Can Change The World In The Life Of One Child?

Please e-mail me and request a video about Compassion International. If you would like to begin your sponsorship right away, let me know if you prefer to sponsor a boy or a girl from Central America/Caribbean, South America, Africa, or Asia. Compassion works in over 22 countries as well as the United States. Sponsorship is $32 per month. I will send you the photo and brief story about your child. There is no obligation, and you may sponsor a child for as long as you like.