A Typical School Day for Brenda
In Uganda, the name “Makerere” is synonymous with Uganda’s oldest and most prestigious institute of higher learning: Makerere University. The university sits on Makerere Hill and is not only revered for its students’ academic proficiency and health education, but also for the spacious, manicured lawns and modern buildings that constitute this seat of learning.
In the slum community of Makerere Kivulu that lies in the shadow of this prominent institute, the storm drains overflow with filth and stinking water between rows of shacks made of planks and rusty iron sheets. The dilapidation of these structures is set off by the stable buildings surrounded by high stone walls that dot the area.
Many of the people in the community are unemployed, and even those who are employed are underemployed, dealing in small businesses like hawking goods, frying and roasting food like cassava, and selling vegetables like tomatoes and eggplants.
Most of them earn a maximum of about a dollar a day. In despair, many of the women look to prostitution to earn a living, and the men resort to alcohol and spend their days drunk. The youth form gangs and go about stealing and indulging in drugs.
It is this community that 13-year-old Brenda wakes up to every morning at 6 a.m. (more…)
Continue Reading ›Where Is Your Heart in the World?
The way we fight poverty is through holistic child development. The combination of children and poverty is the laser focus of our mission. We speak up for the most vulnerable.
But if your call to serve the poor extends beyond holistic child development, which it does for many people, we’d like to introduce you to our partner TEAR Fund New Zealand.
TEAR Fund stands for The Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund, and its purpose is to glorify God by extending His kingdom in ministry to the poor, oppressed and disadvantaged, and to encourage God’s people to live out the values and principles of His kingdom by sharing with those in need.
TEAR Fund New Zealand represents the compassion of Jesus. This organization partners with local Christian organizations and churches in developing countries who use local staff to work directly with the poorest people, helping the poor find their own solutions, cutting out the middleman and reducing costs.
Microenterprise, community development projects and disaster relief are TEAR Fund New Zealand’s key activities, but that’s not all this ministry does. Right now, it’s working to eradicate the Guinea worm in Côte d’Ivoire, and also has programs to fight adult illiteracy and sexual slavery, among others.
TEAR Fund New Zealand offers child sponsorship too, but does that through us. Sponsoring a child with TEAR Fund New Zealand is sponsoring a child through Compassion.
Although our friend is from New Zealand, you can still partner with this Christian aid and development agency. Visit tearfund.co.nz to learn more.
We promise they don’t write with an accent…then again, maybe they do.
Oh yeah, you may like this. TEAR Fund New Zealand’s non-sponsorship programs are conducted in places of the world we don’t currently work.
- Afghanistan
- Cambodia
- China
- Malawi
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- Niger
- Palestine
- Sudan
So if your heart is in those parts of the world, TEAR Fund New Zealand would be pleased to meet you.
Continue Reading ›Why We Should Care About Honduras
This is the byline on a recent op-ed piece in The Miami Herald:
“Edouard Lassegue is the Vice President of the Latin America and Caribbean Region at Compassion International, the world’s largest Christian child development organization.”
And this is why Edouard says we should care about what is happening in Honduras:
Poverty in Central American countries is the foundation for all other social justice issues. Honduras maintains an unemployment rate of 28 percent, and two-thirds of its citizens live below the poverty line. The instability the country is currently experiencing is not rooted in politics — it is social. It is hopelessness and destitution.
When Central American economies fail to produce opportunities and jobs — and if governments cannot protect citizens — populist demagogues promising reform but continuing the status quo are elected.
Where poverty flourishes, crime and corruption flourish. This is what we are currently witnessing in Honduras.
Ask a Moody Scholar
We trust that as regular readers of our blog, you’re familiar with Michelle, Tony and Richmond — our first three Moody scholars. So we’ll forego the explanation of who they are and get right to the point.
Each one of them is going be in Colorado Springs very soon. And they’ll actually all be here at the same time, which is a rare occurrence.
What this means to you is that we’ve grabbed a sizable block of their time so we can serve as a proxy interviewer on your behalf, kind of like we did with the Ask Wess series of blog posts. But this is going to be captured on video.
Let us know what questions you have for them as former participants in Compassion’s sponsorship program and Leadership Development Program* graduates, students at Moody Bible Institute and emerging Christian leaders, and we’ll get you some answers.
We wanted to do this whole thing live, but the tool we are looking to use isn’t cooperating — at least for now.
We’ll choose the questions we ask from what you submit today and tomorrow.
P.S. If you’re new to the blog, you can learn a little bit about Michelle, Tony and Richmond by using the tags below “read these related posts.”
*This content honors our historical Leadership Development Program. To learn more about our current youth development opportunities, click here.
My Best Day in Ministry: Fruits of Our Labor
Spiritually speaking, some of us plant seeds, some water, some are the sun, but we all get to taste the fruits of our labor sometimes.
Child Survival 101
Being a mother takes courage. Being an expectant mother in desperate poverty takes courage and so much more.
Each year more than 500,000 mothers die in childbirth or from pregnancy complications, most of which are preventable. The babies who survive while their mothers die are much more likely to die in their first year of life.
From the Outside Looking In
Back in May I published a photo and asked you to give it a caption. I also included a little context from the photographer.
“Along the wall outside the Compassion project, many children watched and waited while the other children played and sang. With hundreds and thousands of children needing the hope that Compassion brings, our hearts broke to see the ones that could not be helped. Hundreds more are waiting for their chance to be sponsored, to be given hope, to be shown the love of Christ.” — scfish7
Then recently, I received the following e-mail.
“I read the blog about the children who are registered who are able to sing and enjoy meals while the unregistered ones just stare at them, wishing they were one of them. I have a hard time imagining what this is like.
“Is it like there is a ‘Century Fence,’ so to speak, that separates these two groups, where the unregistered look in and feel sad as they watch the sponsored eat hot meals and be carefree?
“Does this make them feel more unloved?
“Is it appropriate to send a picture or have one on this Web site so I can see what you are talking about? I have a hard time understanding this and maybe a picture would help.”
What are your thoughts? What do the children on the outside looking in feel?
Jesus Laughing – Poverty Transformed
The first time I ever saw this picture of Jesus laughing, I was transfixed.
There’s life in it.
And even now, I still respond to His expressive joy. I laugh. He laughs. He knows how I feel!
This idea that Jesus knows us isn’t just a concept; it’s actually for real (Whoa!), which isn’t quite how I feel when I see a “typical” portrait of Jesus, the kind that defines the image I carry with me when I imagine or speak with Christ.
But now, after two years @compassion (Happy anniversary to me today.), I see Jesus a lot differently. And I see poverty differently.
This is poverty transformed. Do you see the similarities?
My Best Day in Ministry: Blessed are the Poor
Hope Lives author, Amber Van Schooneveld, talks about her best day of ministry with Compassion International.
Sponsor Letter Photos (Part II)
It’s been eight months since my last sponsor letter photos post, so I felt it was high time to raid our digital library again and round up another batch of photos showing sponsored children reading letters from their sponsors.
Ti Chape
It’s a Creole phrase that many parents in these poorest areas of Haiti use with their youngest kids. I’m sure you’ll hear it often over the next several days as we visit homes. It’s a term of endearment … but also a harsh reality that reminds everyone of how devastating each day can be for people living on the brink. Ti Chape means little survivor or one who has escaped death
Compassion Connection
I got this in a letter from one of my sponsored children in Bolivia – actually a correspondent child. Notice how the child is connecting us together.
BTW, I’m 6’5″. I stand out like a giant in Bolivia. Isaias is always amazed at that. LOL!
And please realize, I don’t really wear a pink dress! 🙂