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Child Survival Program
Child Sponsorship Program
Compassion’s three core ministries — the Child Survival Program, Child Sponsorship Program and Leadership Development Program — exist in order to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. We serve more than 1.2 million babies, children and students in 25 countries, and we work hard to ensure that the money our partners invest in them is used responsibly and with integrity. Since poverty is a complex problem, there are many crucial activities and initiatives that affect and improve the lives of sponsored children and beneficiaries that cannot be met by program support alone. While there are numerous benefits for those supported by our programs, external circumstances can play a significant role in preventing a child from reaching his or her potential. For example, a child with a congenital heart defect may require surgery that greatly exceeds the financial support provided by his sponsor. Additional funds provide what sponsorship cannot and allow the child to complete the program and truly be released from poverty in Jesus’ name. By responding with Compassion, you can provide funds that address such critical needs.
Most of us can’t imagine what it would be like to live without the basic necessities of life. But children living in poverty don’t have to imagine:
Leadership Development Program
• • • •
no clean water no medical care no education no safe place to sleep
They live with these issues — and dozens more — every single day. We want to meet those needs. To see children not worried about when their next meal is coming, or whether the roof will hold up through the next storm, or if they’ll be able to stay in school. We want to see the gospel shine forth as our church partners identify and address unique needs. To see hearts transformed as God works through the actions of His people. To see Jesus’ love in action. And we want you to be a part of it. A million kids have a million needs. Help us meet them.
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health response
stability response
• Medical • Health & Hunger • Malaria • HIV/AIDS
• Disaster Relief • Infrastructure • Water • Income Generation
education response
child protection response
• Nonformal Education • Curriculum • Education • Parental Education
• Family-based & Foster Care • Legal Aid • Residential Care & Group Homes
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The battle against poverty is not one that can be fought alone. At Compassion International, we have a network of allies who help us attack poverty, one child at a time. Our church partners ensure that our programs are helping the most vulnerable families in their communities. Compassion staff members encourage children and caregivers to break the cycle of poverty. But often, critical needs arise — needs that are beyond the scope of our core programs. And that’s when we need partners like you. Partners of Compassion are individuals, churches, businesses and others who are committed to helping with critical and emergency needs — at any time, for any child. The needs covered by Partners of Compassion are highly unpredictable. Nobody can know when a disaster will strike or when a child will be struck by a medical emergency. By becoming a partner, you will ensure that the funds for these needs are always accessible. These interventions include: • • • • • • •
clean water, toilets and hygiene immediate care for orphans disaster relief education and training programs for caregivers emergency medical care nutritional support HIV and AIDS response, including education, prevention and treatment • immunizations and malaria prevention • vocational training and nonformal education
HEALTH RESPONSE
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Treatment and Training for Healthy Children
• Medical • Health & Hunger • Malaria • HIV/AIDS The common cold. The flu. Chickenpox. For most kids, these illnesses and a host of others are easily treatable, and they’re back on their feet in a flash. But for children in developing countries, where minor illnesses are compounded by serious health threats such as HIV and AIDS, malnutrition and unsanitary living conditions, a simple cold can turn into a life-ordeath battle.
HEALTH RESPONSE
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Cancer. Heart disease. Traumatic injuries. All devastating on their own. But when a child in poverty needs major medical care, the options are few. Parents can’t afford to pay medical expenses, and doctors refuse to treat the child. So every day, thousands of children die unnecessarily. When beneficiaries of Compassion’s core programs or their family members need surgery or medical treatment, the costs often exceed the funds available. In these instances, Compassion provides babies, children, students and caregivers, as well as some family members, with medical support. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO MAJOR MEDICAL NEEDS? Compassion’s holistic program provides for medical needs on several fronts, including: • surgery • treatable injuries or illness • provision of food and nutritional support for malnourished children • vision needs, including corrective lenses • hearing loss, including hearing aids • prosthetic limbs • mobility assistance, such as wheelchairs • trauma counseling in the cases of abuse, violent death or other traumatic events • special dental needs • funeral expenses
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was 8 weeks old, surgeons removed both of her eyes. Her recovery was slow and painful, and her family fell deeper into debt. “I was so glad my daughter was alive, but I wondered what kind of life she would have,” says Lourdes, Ammy’s mother. “I worried that the cancer would come back. I woke up every day thinking that she might be dead.” In the midst of Lourdes’ depression, she found Compassion’s El Shaddai Child Survival Program, offered through a church in their community. And when she saw how the Compassion staff looked into her daughter’s face with no disgust or fear, she believed that maybe they could help Ammy.
Ammy Palacios Ecuador
Ammy Palacios was born battling for her life. When her parents brought her to their one-room concrete home in Quito, Ecuador, the newborn’s cries never stopped. Ammy had no other way of telling her parents about the prickly pain that wrapped itself around her eyes. She could only scream, scrubbing her red eyes with her tiny fists. Her parents trudged repeatedly to medical clinics with Ammy. She weathered a barrage of doctors shining bright lights into her eyes, until finally, they learned the reason for the baby’s suffering.
Lourdes was right. Compassion’s health workers immediately arranged for Ammy to be fitted with prosthetic eyes, a surgery unheard of in poverty-stricken Quito. The Medical program covered Ammy’s bills, and a month later, Lourdes held Ammy in her arms, staring in wonder at her daughter’s blinking brown eyes. “Before the prostheses, her eyelids were sunken and her face was deformed,” says Lourdes. “But after, she was blinking and it was like she was looking at me. I know that she can’t see, but at least now people will not make fun of her.”
Retinoblastoma, malignant, metastic. Cancer. And without surgery to remove Ammy’s eyes, the cancer would spread to her brain and she would not make it to her first birthday.
Ammy is now an active young girl. Each morning, when Lourdes wakes Ammy, the child reaches up with her chubby hands and feels the lines of her mother’s face, patting her cheeks gently.
Ammy’s parents begged from friends and neighbors to help pay for surgery. When Ammy
And sometimes, her nimble fingers can feel her mother’s tears of joy.
HEALTH RESPONSE
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More than 1 billion people have no regular access to food. Even fewer have access to soap or other hygiene supplies. Children aren’t born knowing how to wash their hands or brush their teeth. But children who never learn stay sick — or die. Compassion’s health and hunger interventions aim to provide children and caregivers access to resources that address issues affecting their health, safety and physical well-being. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO ISSUES OF HEALTH AND HUNGER? Compassion’s holistic program intervenes in many ways: • G ood nutrition is a significant issue for children in poverty. Compassion provides food and nutritional supplements to malnourished children. • Large-scale feeding programs are often necessary in areas affected by famine and drought. Compassion will often provide food, water and other nutritional support in these communities. • I mmunizations dramatically reduce childhood deaths, but many parents in developing countries lack access to clinics or hospitals. Children there still battle many diseases that are no longer issues for children in our country. Compassion provides immunizations as needed to babies, children, youth and caregivers in our programs. • D ental health is important to a child’s health. This program provides dental education classes and training in oral hygiene for Compassion-assisted children.
Dorris Njau had seen dozens of children in her neighborhood blinded and even killed by the mumps. It was a disease she prayed against — but was powerless to prevent. But when Dorris and her son registered with Compassion’s Child Survival Program, she was shocked to learn that mumps and other childhood diseases could be prevented. Her son, Robert, was one of 50 infants who received the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) immunization through their Child Survival Program, and now this doting mother has one less disease to fear.
HEALTH RESPONSE
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About every 30 seconds, a child dies of malaria. That fact is even more tragic because malaria is preventable and treatable. Yet each year, more than 1 million people die from this disease. Malaria is a potentially fatal infection of the blood caused when a person is bitten by a mosquito that is infected with a certain kind of parasite called Plasmodium. Malaria can ravage a child’s body, causing fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, joint aches and pain. Left untreated, the disease can develop into cerebral malaria within as few as one to two days. When this happens, a child can slip into a coma and eventually die. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO MALARIA? Even though malaria is preventable and treatable, the disease poses great challenges for families in poverty. Many cannot afford insecticide-treated mosquito nets or medical treatment to fight the disease. Compassion’s holistic program intervenes on three fronts: • Households at risk are provided with treated mosquito nets. • Children and families are educated on malaria prevention. • Those suffering from malaria, chagas disease and dengue fever are offered treatment.
Mumu, a Compassion-assisted child in Kenya, is no stranger to malaria. Several times a year she struggled through the fever, headaches and pain of malaria. Then Mumu, along with more than 400 children in her community, received a treated mosquito bed net from Compassion. “Now I sleep comfortably,” she says. “I do my homework without even thinking about the mosquitoes. I am glad that I have a net to sleep under every night!”
HEALTH RESPONSE
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Every day, 11,000 children are infected with HIV. But this terrible pandemic does more than make children sick. It leaves them orphaned, abandoned and stigmatized. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is caused by HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, which damages the body’s defense system. People who have AIDS become weak and susceptible to disease because their bodies lose the ability to fight illnesses. HIV and AIDS are particularly aggressive on the immune systems of young people. Without treatment and care, HIV multiplies and destroys their defenses, leaving them vulnerable to pneumonia and other secondary infections. Millions of children are also left to fend for themselves when they lose their parents to AIDS. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO HIV and AIDS? Compassion’s holistic program intervenes on three fronts: • Prevention through education, including formal seminars, awareness campaigns, and peer-to-peer youth initiatives. • Treatment for those infected, including lab tests, transportation to clinics, treatment for opportunistic infections, psychological and social support, and access to and/or funding for antiretroviral therapy (ART). • Rehabilitative care such as counseling, supplemental food and domestic assistance for Compassion-assisted children who have lost a parent to AIDS. When needed, this program also provides income generation and housing assistance for those providing care for children infected with HIV. When Godfrey was 12, he became one of sub-Saharan Africa’s 12 million AIDS orphans. But the nightmare was just beginning. Just days after his mother died, he began exhibiting symptoms of HIV. Godfrey was so devastated he tried to hang himself, but the rope snapped. Social workers at his Compassion center immediately intervened. Today, through the support of Compassion’s AIDS Response, he is on ART — and defying the disease.
“In everything I did, I showed
you that by
this kind of hard work we must
help the weak, remembering
the words the Lord Jesus himself said:
‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
— Acts 20:35, NIV
EDUCATION RESPONSE
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Providing the Tools to Excel
• Nonformal Education • Curriculum • Education • Parental Education It’s easy to take education for granted, especially when it’s so accessible in economically developed countries. But for most Compassion kids, education isn’t a right — it’s a gift. Even with the access to education provided through Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program, so much more can still be done. Books, testing, supplies and workshops often require more than a child living in desperate poverty can afford.
EDUCATION RESPONSE
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Graduating from high school is no guarantee that a child will escape from poverty. While completing secondary school is a huge step forward for young adults, some will be pulled back into poverty when they discover there are no jobs for which they are qualified in their communities. Many of Compassion’s children will not be able to make it to a university. We believe it is essential for every child to have an income-generating skill. This simple tool is essential to breaking the cycle of poverty. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO NONFORMAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS? Compassion’s holistic program provides nonformal education and training on several fronts: • vocational/technical training • money management/household budgeting • job search skills • environmental awareness activities • apprentice programs • educational resources, including playgrounds, libraries, vocational centers and computer labs
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child development center in Chiapas. His own father had escaped the cycle of drug abuse by training with a carpenter in a neighboring community. Ezequiel and his brothers often helped their father in his workshop. From the time he was a young boy, Ezequiel swept up piles of sawdust in his father’s shop, but he did not enjoy the craft of building furniture. “Ever since I was a child, I wanted to carve the wood,” Ezequiel says.
Ezequiel Guzman Mexico
In the tropical community of Chiapas, Mexico, mangoes are like gold. Four months of the year, nearly every man, woman and child flock to the mango groves, working 18-hour days to harvest as many of the sweet fruit as they can. These desperately poor people can’t afford to stop working, because to rest for even a few hours means losing money. So quietly, stimulant drugs are passed from hand to hand. With the drugs, they can work longer hours. But when the mango harvest is over, hundreds of people, including children, are addicted to these drugs. The money they earned in the harvest — which was supposed to buy food and clothes for their families — is instead used to secure more drugs. It is a vicious cycle. One that 17-year-old Ezequiel Guzman was determined to break. Ezequiel is registered at a Compassion-assisted
When Ezequiel was a teenager, the center added woodcarving to its vocational training activities, which already included beading, painting, knitting, carpentry and blacksmithing. Ezequiel enrolled in the program, and for two years he carefully studied and practiced the intricate craft. His technique improved every day, and soon his father invited him to put aside his broom in the workshop and pick up his carving tools. Today, Ezequiel works alongside his father, adding beautiful carvings to the furniture his family makes. Before Ezequiel could carve, his father’s furniture was very simple and plain. But with Ezequiel’s touch, the pieces become beautiful and intricate, and they fetch higher prices. Ezequiel already has plans for the future. “I want to make a living with my carving, to one day have my own workshop in order to give my tithings to the Lord.” With Compassion’s help and through his own hard work, Ezequiel now has an important tool to break the cycle of poverty.
EDUCATION RESPONSE
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Curriculum is the foundation of Compassion’s core programs. Without it, there would be no lessons on how to prevent childhood diseases for mothers in the Child Survival Program. Children in the sponsorship program would not learn Bible stories. And Leadership Development Program students would not have structured mentor relationships. Compassion partner countries have access to professionally developed curriculum that provides culturally sensitive lessons in the areas of physical, social, spiritual and educational growth. The Curriculum program provides for the development, translation, contextualization and distribution of materials. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO CURRICULUM NEEDS? Curriculum must be translated and distributed in each country where Compassion works. Compassion’s holistic program provides for curriculum needs on two fronts: • Development: Partner countries work directly with Compassion to develop curriculum that is age- and culturally appropriate, and that directly applies to the goals of each of Compassion’s programs. • Implementation: Once curriculum is developed and translated, it is necessary to print and distribute the curriculum to each of Compassion’s church partners. Funding is also used to train center staff in the use of curriculum.
Holistic child care can be a foreign concept in many developing countries. When Compassion’s program first opened in Ghana, cultural norms were often in direct conflict with the idea of children’s spiritual, physical, social and emotional development. Ghana needed curriculum — a resource that could spell out ways to teach the children in Compassion’s program. Over the span of several months, the staff worked with Compassion curriculum writers to develop culturally sensitive materials, which were then tested in extensive workshops. Today that curriculum is being implemented, and more than 20,700 children are benefiting from holistic child care.
An estimated 101 million primary-school-age children worldwide don’t attend school. Most of these children are girls, and nearly 80 percent of them live in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. Education is crucial to releasing children from poverty. An educated child is equipped with the tools to fight poverty and conquer disease. School offers children a safe, supportive environment, where they can learn life skills and make friends. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO BASIC EDUCATION NEEDS? Our partner churches and the country office staff work together to identify the educational needs of children that extend beyond what our core programs can provide. For families who cannot afford to pay for these needs, education assistance is provided. Compassion’s holistic program provides educational assistance on several fronts: • primary/secondary education fees • costs of pre-university preparatory courses and entrance exams • lab and test fees
More than 10 percent of children in Nicaragua will never finish high school. Nicaraguan teens drop out of school, and with no job prospects, many are lured into drugs and gangs. Compassion Nicaragua’s church partners knew that it was time to put a stop to this trend. Through the support of the Education program, they have implemented programs for adolescents to help them stay in school, including after-school tutoring programs, workshops on how to take tests and write papers, and computer training. In all, more than 370 teens in Nicaragua have enrolled in these programs and are well on their way to finishing high school and breaking the cycle of poverty.
EDUCATION RESPONSE
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EDUCATION RESPONSE
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A parent who can’t read or write often feels inadequate as a parent. Compassion empowers caregivers of the children in our programs by providing training and activities to enable them to better care for their children. Many of the parents Compassion works with have no access to any kind of training or educational opportunities. By contributing to parental education, you will help caregivers learn skills important to child development, such as how to provide nutritional meals for their families, child abuse awareness and prevention, and even basic parenting skills. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO PARENTAL EDUCATION NEEDS? Compassion’s holistic program provides parental education and training on several fronts: • adult literacy education • seminars on domestic violence and child abuse • training for caregivers in child development, health-related topics, and basic parenting skills • other culturally appropriate trainings, including AIDS awareness and prevention
Mahindra Padhan is a married father of two living in eastern India. Mahindra and his family live with his father, an alcoholic. Mahindra has chosen not to drink, but it has been difficult for him to raise his children in not only a home tainted by alcoholism, but in a community where drinking is as much a part of daily activities as eating or sleeping. Mahindra used to be afraid to speak up to his father and neighbors about the problems that come with excessive drinking. But after attending a parent training at his children’s Compassion center, “I feel confident that I can change my children’s lives by teaching my community the dangers of alcoholism,” he says.
“Now
finish the work, so that your
eager willingness to do it may be matched by your
completion of it, according to your means.”
— 2 Corinthians 8:11, NIV
STABILITY RESPONSE
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Trading Uncertainty for STABILITY • Disaster Relief • Infrastructure • Water • Income Generation Stability is crucial to creating a sense of security in a child’s life. Without a safe home, a secure household income, or even clean drinking water, it’s almost impossible for a child to ward off the lies of poverty and lead a life of promise, purpose and hope.
STABILITY RESPONSE
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There is no such thing as disaster insurance when you live in poverty. Every year Compassion assists in the relief and rehabilitation that is vital for restoring families after a disaster. Whether it’s an earthquake, home fire or a flood, Compassion is there to provide both immediate and long-term assistance. When disaster strikes, Compassion in-country staff members and our church partners respond immediately to assess the situation, locate all affected children and families, and restore stability as quickly and efficiently as possible. We make sure that our child development centers are up and running quickly, and that our center staff members closely monitor the emotional and physical needs of every child. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO DISASTERS? Compassion’s holistic program provides disaster relief on two fronts: • Relief activities include provision of emergency food and water, temporary shelters, personal items, cooking utensils, trauma counseling, and spiritual support. • Rehabilitation activities include clothing and school supplies, replacing household items, and restoring livelihood items, as well as continued counseling and support in special cases, when appropriate.
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Soon Andreas’ strong arm enveloped the little boy, wresting him from the earth’s grip.
Yesaya Indonesia
Eight-year-old Yesaya doesn’t remember much about the morning of May 27, 2006. He was still asleep when the ground began to shake. He doesn’t remember when the roof of his oneroom home collapsed into a pile of rubble and dust. He didn’t see his brother, Andreas, leap through a window to escape the earthquake’s wrath. He couldn’t hear the scrape of his family’s hands against stone as they frantically dug through the debris, looking for his body. As the city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, crumbled around them, Yesaya’s father stood outside what used to be his home, pleading with God to let his little boy live. “God, help my family,” his father yelled as the child’s mother sobbed, fearful that her youngest child would not make it to see another birthday. Andreas and his parents dug side by side in a frenzied attempt to free Yesaya, his little body crushed by a fallen wall.
“It was a miracle,” says Marni, Yesaya’s mother. “Andreas had to climb through a very small hole to get to Yesaya, and the whole house was collapsing. God was with my family that day.” At the hospital, Yesaya’s family waited, numb with shock. Slowly, as word spread, they were joined by Compassion staff members from the Generasi Anak Terang Student Center, which Yesaya attended. The workers prayed with Yesaya’s family — and celebrated when they learned that Yesaya’s only injuries were a broken leg and hip. Others had already gathered at the site of Yesaya’s home, where they cleared the debris and constructed a temporary shelter. Through the support of the Disaster Relief program, they were able to outfit the family with new, soft mattresses and stock the shelves with food and supplies. Two weeks later, Yesaya left the hospital. The Disaster Relief program had helped Yesaya’s parents with his medical bills and also provided him with a wheelchair. And his story became one of healing, instead of devastation.
STABILITY RESPONSE
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Children in poverty need stability. Their parents are in constant motion, looking for work. Their homes are under constant threat, either by landlords or natural disaster. These children need something solid to stand on. Compassion’s Infrastructure program helps provide families as well as children who have been orphaned with a safe and secure home. We assist our partner churches to maintain classrooms and other facilities at the church to enable safe delivery of Compassion’s program. Compassion also helps repair homes damaged by flooding, fire and other disasters, largely through partnerships with ministries such as Habitat for Humanity. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS? Compassion’s holistic program intervenes by: • Repairing and rebuilding homes destroyed by natural disasters. • Making home repairs, specifically for orphans and highly vulnerable children, that will improve the health and safety of Compassion-assisted children. • Building additional classrooms and/or repairing existing classroom space to ensure there is adequate space for Compassion programs. • Making necessary repairs and upgrades to ensure that the areas of the church where the Compassion program meets are safe and up to building codes.
In the Fortaleza region of Brazil, drought and famine ravage the area for six months of the year. Five Compassion centers in this region serve more than 1,300 children. Each center ensures that each child receives a nutritious meal while at the church-run program each week. But kitchen facilities at these centers were cramped and inadequate. Through the Infrastructure program, Compassion has renovated the kitchens at these partner churches, ensuring that meals are prepared in sanitary, healthy conditions.
STABILITY RESPONSE
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Inadequate access to safe water and sanitation services coupled with poor hygiene practices sicken and kill thousands of children every day. Almost half of the developing world’s population — 2.5 billion people — lacks improved sanitation facilities. Lack of improved water sources and poor hygiene practices in developing countries have serious repercussions. In rural areas, women and girls spend hours each day fetching water. And urban slums with household taps still often have contaminated water due to poorly maintained and inadequate water supply lines. Children sick with waterborne illnesses from drinking dirty water can’t attend school. Entire nations suffer because of a simple lack of clean water. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO WATER NEEDS? Compassion’s holistic program intervenes in many ways, including: • providing access to clean water • providing access to sanitation facilities • providing a hygiene education component in all water projects
Bringing water to the Birishiri Child Sponsorship Program center in Bangladesh was backbreaking work. Compassion staff had to haul buckets of water from a pond more than a mile away so the children could have water to drink and wash their hands. Even then, the water was dirty, and there was never enough. But with help from Compassion donors, a new well was built and it now provides a steady supply of fresh, clean water. “The kids can use the clean water for washing their hands, and they suffer from fewer sicknesses,” says center Director Mark Rema. “I want to thank those thoughtful donors who always think about the children, and take away their troubles.”
STABILITY RESPONSE
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Three billion people live on less than U.S. $2 per day. People who live in poverty often feel trapped in poverty. Illiterate parents raise illiterate children. In many developing countries, mothers often purchase baskets of goods to resell in the market. But with little understanding of finances or business, they make only a few cents profit. Some try to start their own businesses, but without startup funds or training, they often accumulate debt and little success. But what can they do? Even if they had access to training, feeding their families takes priority over education. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO INCOME-GENERATION NEEDS? Families of Compassion-assisted children can participate in income-generating activities as well as access micro-enterprise opportunities. Compassion’s holistic program intervenes on several fronts: • Compassion provides business and finance training opportunities for caregivers and teens. • Compassion church partners help identify caregivers who would most benefit from income-generation help. Caregivers must demonstrate the desire and diligence to follow through. • Caregivers and teens can participate in income-generating workshops such as credit management, basic business and accounting. • Compassion links beneficiaries with other micro-enterprise credit institutions. Elsipha Samuel is a 44-year-old caregiver from Tanzania. For years she bought and resold grain, but her profits were miniscule, her children were hungry, and her house was crumbling around her. Then Elsipha was chosen to participate in a goat-rearing and husbandry program at the Compassion center her child attends. She learned how to raise and care for goats, and how to sell goat’s milk products to turn a profit. She now makes enough money to provide for her family’s basic needs.
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look
after orphans and widows in their distress
and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” — James 1:27, NIV
CHILD PROTECTION RESPONSE
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Protecting highly Vulnerable CHildren
• Family-based & Foster Care • Legal Aid • Residential Care & Group Homes
CHILD LABOR. HUMAN TRAFFICKING. EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE. Children who have been orphaned by HIV and AIDS, war and disasters, and children who are disabled or have special needs are at risk of being forced into some of the most deplorable circumstances of our world. Compassion church partners work diligently to identify those children who need special attention and protection beyond what our core programs can offer. Losing one or both parents is devastating for any child, but for children living in extreme poverty, such a loss leaves them at their most vulnerable — without protection, love or hope. What does compassion do to respond to the needs of highly Vulnerable children? • emergency care and support for newly orphaned babies, children and students • legal support in the case of human rights violations • family-based or foster care and a nurturing home environment • food and nutritional supplements • trauma counseling and psychological or social support • skills training and income-generating projects for children, older orphans and caregivers
CHILD PROTECTION RESPONSE
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Compassion church partners work diligently to identify children who need special attention and protection beyond what our core programs can offer. WHAT DOES COMPASSION DO TO RESPOND TO CHILD PROTECTION NEEDS? Compassion’s holistic program provides for a Child Protection Response on several fronts:
• FAMILY-BASED AND Foster Care: When a child loses one or both parents, there is a small window of time in which that child can be rescued. Many move to life on the streets, earning money any way they can. Others are lost to gangs. Some even die. Compassion works with our partner churches to intervene immediately, arranging for placement of children with extended family members or foster care. We also provide training for new caregivers, a support system for the family, and necessary items like bedding and clothing for the children. • Legal Aid: Children in poverty often fall victim to incredible injustices. Many developing countries have overextended, sometimes corrupt judicial systems. We hear stories of girls raped by neighbors, teenagers falsely accused of murder, and parents who can’t afford lawyers. We refuse to let even one child in our program “slip through the cracks.” We ensure that legal aid is provided when necessary for children and caregivers registered in each of our programs.
• RESIDENTIAL CARE AND GROUP HOMES: For many orphaned or abandoned children, there is no stability. No family members able to accept another mouth to feed. No neighbors who can clothe or educate another child. As a last resort, Compassion will work through the local church partner to designate facilities with house parents who provide a home-like setting for children who are without family care.
H ealth and poverty statistics from UNICEF.