Think about it for a second. A birthday may be the most special day in a little kid’s life. Yet nearly 9 million kids a year never make it to their fifth birthday.

Our Child Survival Program helps fight the infant mortality problem plaguing these vulnerable children.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

UPDATED Oct. 16

Make a donation to Compassion International through our Facebook Cause.

The 2009 America’s Giving Challenge has begun, and through the Giving Challenge, the Case Foundation will give away a total of $170,000 in daily and overall prizes to non-profits over the next month.

America’s Giving Challenge offers Compassion a great opportunity to demonstrate the worthiness of using social media in pursuit of our mission, and it offers you a chance to make a significant difference on behalf of that mission:

In response to the Great Commission, Compassion International exists as an advocate for children, to release them from their spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enable them to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults.

America’s Giving Challenge – How Does It Work?

• The Giving Challenge runs from Oct. 7 at 3 p.m. ET to Nov. 6, 2009 at 3 p.m. ET.
• Each day the Case Foundation will award a prize to the cause that has the most individual donors* on that day, not the most money raised.
• $1,000 each day to the cause with the most unique donations that day.
• $500 each day to the cause with the second most unique donations that day.
• At the end of the Giving Challenge, the Case Foundation will award prizes to the causes that have the most individual donors throughout the entire Giving Challenge.
• $50,000 to the cause with the highest number of unique daily donations over the 30 days.
• $25,000 to the cause with the second highest number of unique daily donations over the 30 days.
• $10,000 each to the next five causes with the highest number of unique daily donations over the 30 days.
• Donations must be made to a cause using the Causes application on Facebook, but anyone can donate – even someone without a Facebook account.
• The minimum donation is $10.

America’s Giving Challenge – How You Can Support Compassion International

1. Make a donation to Compassion International through our Facebook Cause.
• Donating $10 once a day over five days has a greater impact in the contest than donating $50 on one day.
2. Tell your family and friends about America’s Giving Challenge, and ask them to donate to Compassion International through our Facebook Cause; the URL is http://www.causes.com/compassion.
   • Use all the technology and communication methods you have at your disposal (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, text, phone, e-mail, word of mouth, etc.)
3. Add the Compassion and America’s Giving Challenge application to your Facebook profile.

Because success is measured by the total number of individual donors, the key is to motivate as many people as possible to donate once, have them get as many people as possible to donate once, and then have those people get as many people as possible to continue the cycle.

We anticipate the competition during America’s Giving Challenge to be extremely tough, so getting out of the gates quickly will also be important. Mobilize early before other organizations have a chance to get up to speed.

As we get more information, ideas and tools that could assist you, we’ll definitely share it all with you.

Thank you for supporting our mission to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name and for supporting our mission during America’s Giving Challenge. Any prizes we win will be used for the benefit of our Child Survival Program.

Please use this post as your forum for questions and to let others know what you’re doing (e.g., what’s working and what’s not). We’ll post updates here as well.

*Multiple donations to the our Cause by the same person in the same day won’t be counted in the total number of unique donors, but contributions by the same person on different days will be counted. A day runs from 3 p.m. ET to 3 p.m ET.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Holistic child development has four aspects: physical, socio-emotional, economic and spiritual, and there are different issues that we have to grapple with when applying our child development model to the child survival and child sponsorship programs.

This is what holistic child development looks like in eastern India.

Holistic Child Development for Child Survival

For the physical aspect, the problems that we have to tackle are:

• maternal and infant mortality
• miscarriage
• malnutrition
• lack of knowledge about immunization
• lack of prenatal medical checkups
• late breastfeeding
• no birth spacing
• diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis, and gestational diabetes (mother)

In order to address the needs outlined above, special health awareness programs are conducted in the program to teach mothers about ways to protect their children and themselves.

The mothers learn to fight diarrhea through administration of Oral Rehydration Therapy, and they learn about breastfeeding techniques, family planning, the need for immunizations, and precautions against common preventable diseases.

For the socio-emotional aspect, women:

• are looked down upon by society
• have no voice in the community
• suffer from low self-esteem and dignity
• lack knowledge
• are not allowed to leave home when pregnant

To address these issues, mothers are given opportunities to voice their opinions freely. They are given leadership roles to help them come up in life, and they are given scientific explanations to help break their superstitious mindsets about different things in life.

Mothers are taken on field trips and exposed to places they have never been to in order to give them a feel of the world outside their communities. Mothers are taught about social manners and etiquette. They are taught to be humble, patient and forgiving.

Economically,

• jobs are not readily available
• there is limited knowledge of income generation
• mothers are illiterate, which stifles opportunity

To address the problems outlined above, we offer income-generating programs for the mothers and self-help groups that enable them to become economically self-supporting.

To help with motor development, children are given educational toys like building blocks to play with and visual charts to learn from.

In the spiritual realm, the problems we address are:

• superstitious beliefs
• idol worship and animism
• ignorance about the gift of salvation and the existence of the true living God

To address the lack of spirituality in the life of mothers, they are taught about creation and the history of biblical truth through stories outlined in the Bible.

Mothers are also taught about the special place that God has bestowed on women and motherhood, besides teaching them about the free gift of salvation that is available to all.

They’re taught to pray, and over a period of time they discover the power of prayer in their lives. They’re also taught about the light of God as opposed to animism, superstition and idol worship.

Holistic Child Development in Child Sponsorship

Physically, the problems that we have to tackle are misuse and abuse of children and forced labor.

We conduct various awareness trainings for our children to teach them about healthy and unhealthy touch, and we teach them about various forms of abuse — which could be internal as well as external.

For the socio-emotional aspect of child development, the issues we address are that children:

• suffer from inferiority complexes
• feel pressured to express themselves
• lack opportunities for schooling or drop out of school
• have low self-esteem and self worth
• experience a sense of shame, guilt and fear

We help children to be on par with other children by providing a platform for them to demonstrate their innate capabilities despite social pressures. We create opportunities for children through various activities to overcome their fears guilt and shame and to be accepted by their peers.

We provide education for many children up to high school, enabling them to move from illiteracy to becoming literate and possibly try for jobs, if they don’t pursue further studies.

We also create an atmosphere for them to feel socially accepted in communities that are filled with various caste/religion prejudices.

Economically, the problems that we have to tackle are that children:

• lack opportunities and are bound in poverty because of it
• lack the most basic needs of life

We are addressing the economic problems that pull our children down by providing them opportunities to think, providing them needs beyond food, clothing and shelter, and helping parents dream of a future that they have been denied.

Spiritually, the concerns that we have to tackle are that children don’t know the real God, don’t know the gift of salvation and don’t get an opportunity to sing.

Through our child development centers we are providing opportunities for them to learn about God in a community besotted with thousands and thousands of gods.

We provide a platform for the children to sing, pray and preach; thereby sowing seeds of faith and growth. We equip them to become who God wants them to be.

Children going from a belief in thousands of gods to belief in ONLY ONE GOD is the biggest contribution of the child sponsorship program.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

The Child Survival Program in a tiny village in India may not be vastly different from hundreds of other Compassion centers around the world, but to this community it is a powerful, unique and tangible demonstration of God’s provision and an essential lifeline for mothers and their children.

Villagers speak the Bhil language, which has no written form. They are classified as tribals by the government. They remain close-knit and marry only within their community. They worship animistic spirits and believe sickness represents the spirits’ anger toward the people. Major illnesses are ignored by the family, and the sick family member is left to die without any medical help. But many ailments are simply the result of insufficient food and malnutrition.

The village is a primitive agricultural community with no clean water, no sanitation, no electricity, no streets, no medical facilities and no modern transportation. Abuse of arrack, their home-made alcohol, is commonplace. Understanding and practicing hygiene is absent from local customs. To discourage theft, a family’s animals are brought indoors at night to share the living quarters, contributing to a dangerous health environment for the entire family.

Yet in this desperate corner of India, God is moving through the Child Survival Program. Program workers take the village women to a nearby hospital for regular prenatal and postnatal medical checkups. Most pregnant women in the project are anemic and underweight, so the program additionally provides iron tablets, tonics and calcium tablets, and pays the medical expenses.

Hepshiben Parmar, the Child Survival Program coordinator, elaborates on their duties.

“Twice in a month we monitor the growth of fetus as well as the development of children. I am a qualified nurse and Mrs. Swetha, our Implementer, a qualified nurse trained to check the fetal heartbeat. If we find any variation from the normal level, immediately we take the mother to the hospital for further treatment. In spite of this, some miscarriages have taken place because pregnant women are forced to do heavy work in the fields.”

Demonstrating the powerful love of God by serving the village families is the heart of the Child Survival Program’s mission.

“We pray before food distribution. When we go on a house visit we pray for the respective child. We teach them the importance of the true God and knowing God personally. We teach them how the love of God leads us to help others.

“The Child Survival Program deals with the most difficult and sensitive issues in this tribal area where many social evils are still rampant. In a community where giving birth to a girl child is considered a bane and where child care is negligent and taken for granted, the Child Survival Program’s role is laudable and paving a way for healthy living and a prosperous community.”

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

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.

Facts About Child Survival

• About half of all deaths of children younger than 5 are caused by malnutrition.
• Brain development starts five weeks after conception and is most affected by nutrition between mid-gestation and 2 years of age.
• Four million babies die each year in their first month of life. Half of these babies die in the first 24 hours of life.

Our Child Survival Program strives to reduce the troubling mortality statistics.

Child Survival Program Mission

The mission of our Child Survival Program is:

To rescue infants at risk of dying by providing nutritional information to the pregnant mothers, assisting in the birth, and providing prenatal and postnatal health care and nutrition assistance.

Since infant mortality is extremely high in the developing world, our first priority in promoting effective child development is to ensure that children survive the early years when they are most vulnerable to disease and malnutrition. That means educating the mother or primary caregiver, before and after her child is born, about providing critical care during the earliest years.

Our Child Survival Program provides:

• prenatal care and infant survival training for mothers and caregivers, as well as spiritual guidance and education, such as literacy and income-generation training
• ongoing health screenings and immunizations for the children
• child development training for mother’s of children under 4

We have adopted a strategy (GOBI-FFF), developed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, to ensure that we address all the issues affecting immediate child survival and children through the first years of life.

GOBI-FFF is an acronym for:

• growth monitoring
• oral rehydration therapy
• breast-feeding
• immunization
• female literacy
• food supplements
• family spacing

Child Survival vs. Child Mortality

The underlying and structural causes of child mortality include:

• poorly resourced, unresponsive and culturally inappropriate health and nutrition services
• lack of food
• inadequate feeding practices
• lack of hygiene and safe water or sanitation
• female illiteracy
• early pregnancy

Basic health interventions such as breast-feeding, immunization, insecticide-treated mosquito nets and vitamin A supplements are highly successful in lowering a child’s risk of death. And according to the World Bank, immunization and vitamin A supplementation are two of the most cost-effective health interventions available today.

Child Survival Program: How It Works

Our local church partners carry out this ministry and contextualize the program to each situation individually and culturally. The church provides the critical interventions such as nutritious food and medical assistance.

Ultimately, success is based on building open and trusting relationships with the mothers and caregivers, so our church partners invite the mothers and caregivers to get involved in a loving, supportive community. The mothers and caregivers learn how to create a safe home environment and provide the essential developmental opportunities needed to raise happy, healthy children with bright futures.

The families also receive spiritual discipling so they can develop a dynamic lifelong relationship with Christ. Children are stronger, caregivers are more confident, and families and communities benefit from their newly discovered physical, emotional and spiritual strength.

The Child Survival Program is a one-to-one home-based program in which Survival Specialists from the church visit homes and educate mothers in the child’s own environment. There, the actual needs of the baby, mother, family and community will be known, seen and met accordingly.

The program is primarily home-based so we can address the immediate needs of the baby and mother.

When you get into a community and find that most children are malnourished, the best way to get to the root cause of this problem is to visit families in the community.

During the visits, we see and learn what the children are fed and why. We observe the cultural reasons for certain practices, and come up with an action plan from a knowledgeable perspective.

In home visits, mothers learn about parenting practices, including hygiene and nutrition, using locally available foods. Only during home visits can we assess whether what we have been teaching has been put into practice.

Home visits create one-to-one relationships where mothers can open up and share their innermost fears, problems and needs.

Support a Child Survival Program

Sources:

• The State of the World’s Children 2009: Maternal and Newborn Health – UNICEF
• Better Brains for Babies – University of Georgia
• Zero to Three – National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families

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]]> http://blog.compassion.com/child-survival-101/feed/ 4 http://blog.compassion.com/child-survival-ti-chape/ http://blog.compassion.com/child-survival-ti-chape/#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:35:21 +0000 Mark Hollingsworth http://blog.compassion.com/?p=6339 My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates
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After passing by a hazy eastern tip of Cuba, our American Airlines flight banked steeply to the right and within minutes we were passing over the northern peninsula of Haiti, so recognizable due to the heavily rutted landscape.

The French had not been kind when they ravaged the once-lush western half of Hispaniola of all the mahogany trees and shipped the lumber back to Paris to make fine furniture.

More than 200 years later, the nation is still 90 percent barren, and what little good topsoil remains is eroding into the Caribbean.

We circled over the Canal du Sud strait approaching Port-au-Prince, a teeming city I had not been to in 19 years. As we touched down on the single runway “international” airport, memories began to take focus.

Child Survival – What Does Ti Chape Means?

I’ll never forget that trip. A wiry American with a unique accent was my guide. He had been living in Haiti for six years, assisting with various ministries, and eventually signing on full time with Compassion. His name was Wess Stafford.

It was on that trip that I snapped one of my all-time favorite photos: a little child of about 3 with a distended belly, wearing a ragged striped T-shirt and nothing else, proudly hoisting his torn little handmade kite on a 10-foot string made of scraps of twine and wire he had found.

The breeze was only keeping the kite about 5 feet aloft, but the boy was as gleeful as any child I had ever seen.

Wess was seated next to me in our van, and noticed my fascination with the tiny urchin.

“Ah, yes … another little Ti Chape.”

“What is a 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.”

As a very tenderhearted man, Wess could not conceal his passion, and tears began to well in his eyes. With a catch in his throat he continued:

“Sadly, for the majority of the poor here in Haiti, the infant mortality rate is as high as 50 percent for children under the age of 5.

“Often parents won’t refer to their littlest ones by their birth name until they celebrate their fifth birthday because they know all too well that many of them won’t make it that far.

“While they are still in this most vulnerable toddler stage, the children are affectionately called Ti Chape.

“I guess it is often too painful to consistently call them by their real names for fear of assigning too much hope to their prospects.

“This same phenomena happens, by different names of course, in other desperately poor cultures around the globe.”

I watched intently for a few more minutes as that toddler joyfully tried to keep his tattered toy buoyant on the air. Then we lurched forward in the traffic flow.

For the rest of our stay I pondered what that child’s chances of survival really were.

Even now, whenever I look at that tyke’s photo in my collection, it gives me great pause, and those feelings all came back to me as we drove through the packed streets of Port-au-Prince again.

On the trip’s final day, we drove out the N2 highway along the southern Massif de la Hotte peninsula, weaving past colorfully painted tap-taps (old pickups converted into buses often over-loaded down with upward of 20 people), soot-spewing diesel trucks, and U.N. troop patrol vehicles that help keep the peace in the politically unstable environment.

We were headed out to see one of our child development centers — one that had been in existence for 23 years, but had added a new program just a few years before, a program that is helping revolutionize our work: our Child Survival Program.

Child Survival – Rescuing, Nurturing and Discipling Little Ones

When we arrived in the rural town of Papette where our local church partner had become a real community center over the past two decades, it was obvious that the 1,000 residents had a deep respect for all that the church had helped them with.

My group and I were ushered into the sanctuary where 93 mothers and their infants had been patiently waiting. It was amazing how quiet and disciplined the 120 or so little ones were — we commented amongst ourselves that the same scene in America would’ve been utter pandemonium.

There was a look of gentle appreciation on the face of each young woman when we made eye contact.

A handful of the moms came forward to give testimony to what had revolutionized their lives.

Over Compassion’s 57 years of existence, we’ve always been laser-beam focused on child development for kindergarten-age kids through high school. But in the past five years we launched our Child Survival Program, which supports mothers and children all the way from their pregnancy on into infancy and through the toddler years.

One of the young mothers, Irmice, had her little 18-month-old boy draped on her shoulder, fast asleep, as she shared with the crowd.

“I serve a living, loving God. If not for Him or Compassion, I, and certainly not my baby, wouldn’t be alive today.”

She went on to explain the loving care and instruction she had received from the Child Survival Program staff, nurses and social workers who showed her how to improve prenatal health via exercise, nutrition and supplements. Then after her son was born, the encouraging practical lessons like proper breast-feeding, preventive vaccines, immunizations and other medicines continued.

On a subsequent tour through the child survival wing of the church we saw cribs, tiny chairs, baby swings, scooters, tricycles, a huge supply of learning toys and instruments, exercise mats, building blocks, and everything else you would see in a well-run education-based nursery. They even had weekly classes for social interaction/training and early literacy.

For these moms, who come from households where the average monthly income is perhaps $40 at best, this is a sanctuary for their babies in the truest sense of the word.

The Child Survival Program center Director, Rose, explained how the tots are regularly weighed, measured and examined to make sure they are within healthy parameters. There was a full pharmaceutical closet with everything a young mother could need for her child. Extensive files are kept on each mom and baby, and they’re regularly updated with information gathered from the weekly visits to the homes and the families visits to the center.

I was thoroughly impressed. And the results were obvious in the shiny eyes, gleeful giggles, and yes, even the healthy full-throat wails of some little nippers.

I saw the wall charts that are proudly displayed showing the progress of each and every infant that had come through the program … and not a single one had died.

In fact, once the 3-year-olds “graduate” from the Child Survival Program, they then become eligible for our Child Sponsorship Program, and all of them from four to five years ago were enrolled there!

Outside the center, I saw some healthy-looking kindergartners sailing their tattered kites. They were in their school uniforms, with good shoes on their feet.

I always like asking these little Haitian dynamos their names. It swells my heart every time to hear them proudly blurt out their moniker: Pierre! Camille! Sebastien! Monique! Alain! Simone! Yves!

And when I asked these mothers on to introduce their littlest ones, there wasn’t a single Ti Chape in the bunch.

Support a Child Survival Program

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Editor’s note: Mark wrote this post about a trip he took to Haiti in March 2008. He originally published it on his MySpace page and allowed us to share it with you here, in its entirety. The photos are not from his trip, although they are from child survival programs in Haiti.

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]]> http://blog.compassion.com/child-survival-ti-chape/feed/ 13 http://blog.compassion.com/mothers-day-every-day-of-the-year/ http://blog.compassion.com/mothers-day-every-day-of-the-year/#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 07:11:16 +0000 Gayle White http://blog.compassion.com/?p=5078 My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates
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What’s your mother’s name?

With Mother’s Day coming up, I’ve been reflecting on how much this question really matters. It’s not that a mother’s name is particularly important unto itself; it’s more that the name embodies a woman, a woman with a unique story, a woman who no matter what story she lives every day is deeply connected with her children (and maybe even children that she has not physically given birth to).

My mother’s name is Margaret.

I won’t tell you her middle name, because to put it mildly, it’s not her favorite. It’s beautiful though, and it reflects perfectly this remarkable woman who I have been privileged to call “Mom” my whole life.

My husband has lost two moms to cancer. His biological mom, Kay, died when he was 14 years old, and his second mom, Viola, died almost two years ago while I was pregnant with Edison.

I didn’t get a chance to know Kay, but I’ve seen her reflected on my husband’s face. I’ve heard stories about her and I know she loved well. She left an undeniable mark on my husband and his sisters just as Viola did, just as my own mom continues to leave on me.

There are times in my life I will never forget because of who my mom is, and because of how she loves me. She is a constant creative, loving and very wise influence on my life, and I continue to learn so much from her.

Even now as I watch her take care of her mother through some incredibly difficult circumstances, she shows me another beautiful facet of Love.

It might sound weird after what you have just read . . . but, I always struggle with Mother’s Day.

How in the world do I condense what my mom meant to me, and has meant over the years, into one day? How do I respect and honor her story as a woman, her life adventure of love? Is it even possible?

In 1914, a joint resolution from Congress, signed by President Wilson, established a national holiday in the U.S. Every year on the second Sunday in May, we honor our mothers.

This sounds fabulous, doesn’t it? A special day just for mothers, a day when moms around the country get breakfast in bed, hand-designed cards, maybe even spa treatments to thank them for living their story as a woman with grace and dignity and love.

To me, as a mom of a 14-month-old and a step-mom of an 11-year-old, it sounds pretty good. But I wonder how much of this day actually takes away from all the other days of the year.

Husbands, fathers and maybe even brothers or sisters run around trying to help children find ways to express their love on this special day and it becomes more about pressure to perform on a special day rather than a daily expression of love. Is this really what mothers want?

I ask this question mostly because I read recently that Mother’s Day is the second largest gift-giving holiday in America. That’s right, only Christmas is bigger from a retail perspective. I read that in the U.S. we will spend more than $14 billion this year to tell our mothers how much they mean to us.

On one level I think about that and go yes, moms are that important. Then on another level I wonder is this really the best way to honor my mom? Or are there thousands of little ways I can honor her every day, that in the long run will help her understand better just how much God has done through her in my life?

So this Mother’s Day as you think about the women in your life, think about how to tell them every day what a difference their story is making.

You might even send these special moms a link to the following slide show and ask them to honor these women by making a donation every month to support mothers around the world who have never even heard of Mother’s Day.

By doing this, the love you have experienced through your mother and the other moms in your life multiplies exponentially around the world. You and your mom continue to be a reflection of God’s life-giving miracle every day of every year.

Blessings, and have a happy Mother’s Day every day of the year.

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]]> http://blog.compassion.com/mothers-day-every-day-of-the-year/feed/ 8 http://blog.compassion.com/child-survival-elias/ http://blog.compassion.com/child-survival-elias/#comments Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:48:49 +0000 Gayle White http://blog.compassion.com/?p=4413 My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates
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It’s hard to believe my boy, Edison, is 13 months now. He’s toddling around the house at different speeds with various amounts of control, experimenting with new and unusual crash techniques. It’s quite entertaining.



He can talk now, too. Hat, book, what and it’s impossible to forget his absolute favorites, hi, dog and ruff-ruff (of course spoken with a slight growl). I wish you could hear his little kid voice yelling all these words with abandon to anyone who will listen.

He uses his favorite words at very specific times. Whenever out and about, most anyone anywhere will hear his request for attention from strangers because of his very loud and clear hi!

But his real favorite is dog. It’s usually the first thing he says when he wakes up in the morning, and just to make sure I understand what he said, he will add a ruff-ruff for good measure.

It’s amazing to think that just a few months ago he literally couldn’t do anything.

Over the last several months, since I entered back into life after Edison’s birth, I’ve been volunteering in my church’s nursery. I typically take care of the newest babies, which is a great reminder of how far Edison has come, but even more it’s a great reminder of just how vulnerable babies are – which brings me to Carmen.

I met Carmen after a hike up a steep hill on a dirt path in the outskirts of Lima, Peru. All the while I was going up I kept wondering how far I would have to traverse to actually make it down the hill without falling.

Carmen knows this path well. She climbs it often. She climbed it when she was pregnant and she climbs it now with a 5-month-old in her arms. She climbs it because it is the only way to get to her house.

Carmen is a bright and engaging woman. She warmly invites me into her house and almost bursts with enthusiasm to tell her story.

When Carmen found out she was pregnant with her third child, she was depressed and heartsick. She didn’t know how she was going to take care of another child. She tells me she was so desperate that she took a drug to abort her baby.

It didn’t work.

She soon came to learn about the Child Survival Program hosted by Nueva Jerusalem Church, and was registered.

As her pregnancy continued, her fear grew that the drug she took had affected her baby. Carmen depended on the support of the church and particularly the Survival Specialists for hope. She also took every opportunity to learn the very best ways to take care of her new baby.



Her son Elias is now 5 months old. When I met him a few weeks ago he looked to be healthy, alert and developing just as he should. Carmen’s love for her son is contagious. It seems impossible that there was a time that she was so desperate that she wanted to take his life.

Now as I pray for her I wonder  . . .  Who will Elias grow up to be? What will he do? Maybe he will grow up to be a pastor and tell many people in Peru about Jesus.

Or maybe he’ll be a leader that helps strengthen Peru’s economy. One thing I know is that God has a purpose for this little boy, and Elias now has the opportunity to discover that purpose and live it out.

Support the Child Survival Program at Nueva Jerusalem.

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]]> http://blog.compassion.com/child-survival-elias/feed/ 10 http://blog.compassion.com/infant-mortality/ http://blog.compassion.com/infant-mortality/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:50:13 +0000 Charles Ngowi http://blog.compassion.com/?p=2732 My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates
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Martha sits on the chair facing the window, arms crossed, and gives a great sigh of relief.  She looks at her big tummy and realizes that the days have advanced very quickly. Not many days are left before she visits the clinic.

Martha is six months pregnant. She is expecting that perhaps this time she will hold a baby in her hands, and be able to breast-feed it until weaning age. If this happens, the baby will be her first surviving child. Martha has had two pregnancies at an interval of three years, but neither of the children were delivered safely.

She lost her first child through labor complications because she could not reach the maternal clinic early enough to get medical attention. Her second child died a few days after birth because of lack of proper care and medical treatment.

Martha is so alert and aware at this time to do all she can to have her child survive. She cannot withstand the horrible idea of losing her third child after nine months of painful pregnancy. And she wants to be respected and not mocked in the village and in the family of her husband. She hopes the child inside her will reverse this.

This is what is happening in the lives of mothers and children living in poverty. Many expectant mothers live in constant fear and anxiety of what will happen to them and their children. They risk  losing their children or their own lives, or both, through childbirth complications.

The children face myriad obstacles before they attain the age of 5 years, and their survival is oftentimes a miracle from God.

In October 2008, Tanzania started a new program to reach mothers and infants before they are eligible for the Child Sponsorship Program.

The Child Survival Program (CSP) aims at helping children survive the turbulent years in their growth, from birth to 5 years.

The inauguration of the program was graced by Dr. Emmanuel Mbennah, Compassion Tanzania’s Country Director. Dr. Mbennah applauds the mothers who came for the historic day of inauguration. He says this program will help them and their children realize God’s purpose for bringing them to the world.

Several health indicators show that Tanzania’s child mortality rate is still high. According to UNICEF, in 2006 the infant mortality rate was 74, meaning out of 1,000 babies born, 74 die before age 1.

Out of 1,000 children born, 118 will die by age 5. This is compared to six per 1,000 who die in the U.S. before 1, and eight children out of 1,000 who die before the age of 5.

According to Compassion Tanzania’s Child Survival Specialist, Rhoda A. Shimba, death rates are high, as many children die of diseases that can be treated and prevented such as diarrhea, malaria and cholera. Health services are also very far from pregnant mothers, and where they are available they do not have enough facilities to help.

Rhoda further explains that out of 100,000 pregnant mothers, 1,000 die due to the causes of pregnancy complications.

Speaking about pregnancy in Tanzania is taboo. People do not very often speak about it or mention it in public. I wanted to know from Rhoda how she managed to get women registered for the Child Survival Program.

“We prepared the mothers psychologically so that they could volunteer to be registered under the program.

“Advanced notice was sent to the community leaders through the implementing churches’ leadership to announce to community members that there is a new initiative that is starting to reach pregnant and breast-feeding mothers.

“This message worked well with the mothers. They had time to ask questions and get more informed. When the time for registration came it was not difficult.”

What also helped the message to be received without difficulty is the knowledge people have about Compassion Tanzania.

Rhoda says the aim of CSP is to reduce the child mortality rate, which according to the medical statistics available means 45,000 children die every year in Tanzania.

Welcoming the mothers into the Child Survival Program, Dr. Mbennah read the Word of God from 1 Samuel 2:8, which says,

“He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s; upon them he has set the world.” (NIV)

CSP aims to avert mothers and children from obvious risks so that they can attain the purpose of God for their lives. Dr. Mbennah continues,

“These risks are such as diseases and lack of food and they are caused by such things as weak economic level, poor understanding of the mother how to control her environment, culture and norms of the societies, the pains that mothers go through in their poor livelihood state and the like.”

Dr. Mbennah concluded his speech by praying for the mothers, some of whom had never been in the church setting because they came from an Islamic background.

One of the mothers explained her background and what her expectations are.

Zainabu, 26, has been married twice. She was first forced into marriage in 2001 when she was just 18 years old. Her boyfriend made her pregnant, thwarting the plan of education. She had been selected to join secondary school.

Zainabu’s parents forced the boy to marry her. At that tender age they knew very little about living as husband and wife and the responsibilities associated with it. They had very scarce resources and realized they had differences that could not allow them to live together.

They were not prepared for marriage. But their short-lived marriage left them with two children in the three years they stayed together. After divorce, Zainabu transferred to an urban setting in Arusha town to live with her uncle.

While there she met another man, Salim, who married her in 2005. They had their first child, Said, and while she was pregnant with the second child, her husband died in a accident in a Tanzanian mine in April 2008.



Now Zainabu is left with no job, no husband to provide for her child, and she is soon expecting her fourth baby. CSP has come as a big relief to her.

“If I had not got this help from Compassion it would be very difficult for me to go to the hospital, and I could not dream of that. CSP has given me hope because I know when I give birth to my child it will have a secure future.”

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Below is an excerpt from an e-mail that Paul Moede, the leadership development marketing director for Compassion U.S., sent to his family last week and also shared with his co-worker, Gayle White.

Paul is currently traveling in Uganda.

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Today we visited a child survival program deep in a rural area. Sometimes it boggles my mind to see the joy of little kids who see a bus. They run alongside the road waving and laughing. Closest I’ll ever be to a rock star. Unbelievably chaotic roads, traffic that is harrowing and market stalls that defy description. Sides of meat hanging in the sun. . . . fresh fruits and vegetables . . . and people thronging everywhere.

Thought I would tell you about a home visit today with a single mom and three children — and infant and two toddlers. The mom, Sauda, has recently been abandoned by her husband, and has no source of income at all — just a plot of garden from which to feed her family. I could tell you more, such as the day her mud and thatch hut caved in on her from the rain and she had to build a new hut by herself. About 7′ by 12′ for four people.

After we spent time with her, we left gifts for her children as well as a tub and bag of staples. Never in my life have I seen such a response to a gift — joy that she could not contain. She covered her face as she knelt before the food and started to sway back and forth. And then she erupted from the ground, raised her hands and started dancing. Now I’m not talking about subtle. I mean clap your hands, shake your booty, turn and sing at the top of your lungs dancing. And she went on for two minutes. The joy was so contagious all we could do was clap along with her and choke back the tears.

Unbelievable.

Anyway, all is well. The poverty and chaos is bleak. The infrastructure is rotting away, but the church gets things done.

Paul

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