More than 9 million children around the world are enrolled in some sort of child sponsorship program. And more than $3.2 billion go into these sponsorship programs every year. Which must mean that child sponsorship works, right?

That’s the exact question Dr. Bruce Wydick, professor for the Department of Economics at the University of San Francisco, asked … and he was surprised to learn that almost no in-depth research into international child sponsorship had been conducted:

“Given the number of individuals involved in child sponsorship relationships and the billions of dollars committed to them, it is surprising that almost no research exists that evaluates the impact of these programs.”

But that has changed now. The results of Dr. Wydick’s extensive research will be published in the April 2013 issue of the prestigious Journal of Political Economy, a leading economics journal. And the results are quite exciting.

To wrap it all up in a pretty bow, the results of the research show:

“. . . that children who participated in Compassion’s holistic child development through sponsorship program stayed in school longer, were more likely to have salaried or white-collar employment and were more likely to be leaders in their communities and churches than their peers who did not participate in the program.”

What Was the Study?

In 2008, Dr. Wydick, along with two colleagues, set out to explore the effectiveness of international child sponsorship. They envisioned a comparative look at several child sponsorship organizations, but we were the only organization that agreed to participate.

We did so because our mission statement is “Releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name.”

Not temporarily relieving children from poverty.

And not helping children survive inside of poverty.

It’s releasing.

We had to raise our hand.

Because we were the only organization to accept the invitation, Wydick’s research team changed its original vision of comparing sponsorship programs. They decided to focus on researching adult life outcomes of our formerly sponsored children against the outcomes of those who were not part of our programs.

Is there a difference between adults who grew up in poverty and went through our program and adults who did not?

How Was the Study Conducted?

The research focused on six nations where we provided child sponsorship between 1980 and 1992.

That time period was chosen because children enrolled in our sponsorship program during that time frame would be adults when the research was conducted between 2008 and 2010.

The research studied the adult life outcomes of 10,144 individuals, including:

• 1,860 formerly sponsored children
• 3,704 unsponsored siblings
• 2,136 families in the same communities but who had no family members enrolled in Compassion’s program
• 2,444 individuals from similar nearby villages that didn’t offer Compassion programs

The Findings

EDUCATION
The research found that children formerly sponsored through Compassion stayed in school longer than their non-sponsored peers.

• Formerly sponsored children stayed in school 1 to 1.5 years longer than their non-sponsored peers. (In Uganda, the numbers were much higher — 2.4 years.) An extra year of schooling could have long-lasting impact on a child’s future employment possibilities as an adult.
• Formerly sponsored children were 27 to 40 percent more likely to finish secondary education than those who were not enrolled in the Child Sponsorship Program.
• Formerly sponsored children were 50 to 80 percent more likely to complete a university education than non-sponsored children.

When asked which component of Compassion’s program was most beneficial, the most common answer given by formerly sponsored children was “educational support” (38.5 percent). The second-most common response related to “spiritual or character development” (29.4 percent).

Dr. Wydick refers to Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program as “the great equalizer” in that it levels the playing field for children seeking an education in the developing world. In countries where there is a greater need or where children face greater obstacles to achieving an education, Compassion tends to have a greater impact.

EMPLOYMENT
The research found that, as adults, children formerly sponsored through Compassion were more likely to attain salaried/white-collar jobs than their non-sponsored peers.

• As adults, formerly sponsored Compassion children were 14 to 18 percent more likely to attain salaried employment than their non-sponsored peers.
• As adults, formerly sponsored Compassion children were roughly 35 percent more likely to secure white-collar employment than their non-sponsored peers.

LEADERSHIP
The research found that, as adults, children formerly sponsored through Compassion were more likely to become leaders in their communities and churches.

• As adults, formerly sponsored Compassion children were 30 to 75 percent more likely to become community leaders than their non-sponsored peers.
• As adults, formerly sponsored Compassion children were 40 to 70 percent more likely to become church leaders than their non-sponsored peers.

A Note on Comparisons

To be clear, this study does not present a comparison of our program to other sponsorship organizations. Nor does it make any claims that our program is better than any other child sponsorship offering.

In fact, the researchers say it would be difficult to compare our Child Sponsorship Program to other organizations.

What Does This Mean for You?

No matter who you are – Advocate, sponsor, donor, non-sponsor — you now have independent, empirical research validating Compassion’s Christian, holistic, child-focused, one-to-one Child Sponsorship Program.

You can now confidently say, “It Works!”

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

Our Global Board of Directors announced Jim Mellado as our new President and CEO earlier today. They made the unanimous decision after a global search that began late last year when Wess shared his plans to retire after 35 years of service at Compassion, 20 as President and CEO.

Jim becomes only the fifth president in our 61-year history. He will formally take the position in September.

For 20 years, Jim served as president of the Willow Creek Association (WCA), a not-for-profit ministry dedicated to helping local churches thrive. During his tenure leading the WCA, the ministry grew significantly.

• Worldwide ministry income increased from $2 million to more than $20 million.
• Membership grew from 860 churches to over 7,000.
• Annual conference attendance jumped from approximately 10,000 to more than 180,000.

“I’ve known this remarkable man for 20 years. I’m certain that Jim will both wisely steward the ministry of Compassion and boldly lead us into new areas of kingdom impact.” ~ Wess Stafford

We are sad to be saying goodbye to our beloved Papa Wess but look forward with anticipation to where Jim leads us in service to our God and the children He loves.

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

In my travels to Haiti since the earthquake, much of the landscape has changed.

Laying the foundation for the Capitol Child Development Center in Haiti

Rubble that once filled the streets has been cleared. Many of the crumbled buildings are replaced by newer ones. The tent cities where tens of thousands of evacuees were forced to live are now gone from many of the city parks and street sides.

The interior landscapes of individual lives are changing, too.

For a number of Haitians, fear is being challenged by hope. Optimism is battling against fatalism. I even learned a new Creole phrase, “Degaje” (pronounced day-gah-jhay.) It means, “We will overcome.”

You have to understand how important that is. In the past, you rarely heard that message in Haiti. In a country devastated by poverty for decades, fatalism and hopelessness kept the phrase off their lips.

But on this trip, I heard “degaje” repeatedly — a word of hope literally rambling around the city and hovering above the wreckage.

But full disclosure demands more. Everything in Haiti is not fine.

Dig a little deeper and you discover that the tent cities in the middle of Port-au-Prince have merely moved. The government gave relief money that flowed in from around the world to Haitians in order to move somewhere else.

They took the money and simply pitched their tents or built shacks on the same type of steep hillsides that proved to be death-slopes during the earthquake. And when the rains and hurricanes come again, those hillsides are prime targets for flooding and mudslides.

Even more troubling are the construction techniques I witnessed. The same low standards that brought Haiti to its knees are being used again in an attempt to help it rise.

I saw one collapsed building that had used PVC pipe in place of rebar. No wonder it was flattened.

Even today cinderblock and concrete aren’t being reinforced with rebar. Lift a Haitian block and you’d be surprised at how lightweight it is. If you dropped it, you’d be alarmed at how easily it shatters.

The price of poverty is paid in substandard materials.

But here, at the school built through the generosity of Compassion child sponsors and donors, it’s a different story, but a story that’s been challenging to write nevertheless.

We had to tap engineers and architects from other parts of the world to design earthquake-resistant foundations, walls and roofs. We had to identify and train a supplier in Haiti to manufacture quality cinder blocks — not just cinderblocks that were inexpensive. The iron for rebar and roof trusses required a meticulous search.

And all of the materials have to undergo random inspection by the only quality-assurance testing lab in Haiti. Even during construction, project foremen live on-site to guide progress and quality.

It took time and diligence, but the result is a building that is safe and sound within a reasonable cost per structure. It can be done.

Read the entire post at huffingtonpost.com

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

I have lived in the developing world and seen the dire conditions in which millions of women give birth. In 2003, while working in Uganda near the border with Lake Albert and Congo to the west, I lived with a midwife named Florence.

She had few supplies and a decrepit scale to monitor the weight of the pregnant women who came for checkups, but she lacked nearly everything we take for granted in our own doctors’ offices. A few times, I helped her deliver babies in a small under-equipped building next to her home.

One particular evening, a woman came in to deliver her twins. Though almost 10 years ago, I can still quickly envision the unsterile, scant room and remember the nauseating smell of blood.

Fortunately, the woman survived and delivered two healthy babies, but I consider it almost a miracle after how much blood she lost in an area far from a hospital or proper health center, in a forgotten part of Uganda where tourists don’t roam.

As I left Uganda, I helped get electricity and water to Florence’s compound, but water and electricity alone won’t help Florence do her work successfully.

She needed family planning supplies to teach a variety of family planning methods. She needed pain medicine and disinfectant to sterilize the rooms properly. She needed a safe delivery kit to include a clean blade, a piece of string, soap and a piece of plastic to serve as the delivery surface.

Almost ten years later, this remote area of Uganda is still struggling to get much-needed family planning services to the communities. I wonder sometimes how many women and children have died because of the lack of family planning and health commodities.

Women around the world face obstacles that most of us can hardly begin to fathom. Lack of access to family planning leaves mothers in developing countries with no easy way to control the size of their families, and in the end, robs both the mother and her children of a better life, one that enables each to eat enough nourishing food and pursue the education that lifts communities out of poverty.

Read the entire post at IMA World Health

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

Our headquarters has not received evacuation orders as a result of the Waldo Canyon Fire. However, many of our employees have been evacuated from their homes. Some may already have lost their homes.

Please pray for everyone affected by all of the Colorado wildfires and the hundreds of firefighters and volunteers who are working on the front lines to protect us.

Because our programs are implemented through local churches in the countries we work in, we are able to continue serving the children in our programs without any disruption.

You can get the latest information about the Waldo Canyon Fire via live streamed video from our local news channels: KKTV and KRDO.

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

There are many wonderful things that we can do to help the poor. Providing clean drinking water prevents millions of deaths per year. Mosquito nets are inexpensive and have reduced malaria related deaths by 20%.

But what about child sponsorship? How does child sponsorship stack up against these and other ways to help the poor? Economics professor, Bruce Wydick reveals the answer to this question in his recent research findings.

So what are the best ways to help the poor in developing countries?

To answer this question, I polled top development economists who specialize in analyzing development programs. I asked them to rate, from 0 to 10, some of the most common poverty interventions to which ordinary people donate their money, in terms of impact and cost-effectiveness per donated dollar. …

Of all the long-term development interventions, child sponsorship received the highest rating. Sponsors typically pay $25 to $40 per month, which covers a child’s educational fees, school uniforms, tutoring, health care, and, in faith-based sponsorship organizations, spiritual mentorship. Many development economists today favor interventions like child sponsorship that remove practical constraints to education while building a child’s self-esteem, aspirations and goals. In this way, sponsorship relieves both external and internal poverty constraints.

Read the entire article in Christianity Today

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

As a new school year begins across the nation, students will once again take up their books to learn about the shameful history of the slave trade around the world.

The problem is that the slave trade is far from history. In fact, it is very much the shame of our world today.

Currently, more slaves exist than during the time of slave trade abolitionist William Wilberforce. But unlike in Wilberforce’s day, 80 percent of today’s slaves are women and girls; 50 percent are children.

Earlier this summer, the U.S. State Department came out with its Trafficking in Persons Report for 2011. The report created global concern as nations reacted to their “tier placements.” Most third world countries fell under “Tier 2,” a dubious designation reserved for nations whose governments don’t “fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA’s) minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.”

The report is no surprise to those of us who work to rid the world of extreme poverty. For instance, in the 26 developing nations where Compassion International serves, 19 were placed in the “Tier 2” category. An additional five nations where Compassion serves were on the “Tier 2 Watch List,” a group of “countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards,” according to the report. Only one of the 26 countries found itself in “Tier 1”—meaning it was fully compliant with the TVPA’s minimum standards.

Read the entire post at FoxNews.com

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

It’s all over the news, the Web and social media. The images are showing up everywhere. The statistics are unbelievable, but they’re real and that’s why we keep hearing about it.

I’m talking about the drought in East Africa.

East Africa is currently facing its worst drought in 60 years; high food prices and failed crops have left millions of people at risk.

Dozens of relief organizations have rushed to the scene. They’re hard at work calculating the need, raising funds and bringing in lifesaving aid.

You’ve watched as this crisis has unfolded, you’ve been praying and now you’re ready to respond.

But wait — we have some questions from the audience:

“Where is Compassion?”

“What is Compassion doing amid this crisis?”

“How can I give to Compassion concerning the drought in East Africa?”

Inserting a donation link to our disaster relief fund and asking you to give, right now, is a timely thing to do. But before you click on the link, let me explain how this crisis is affecting our programs.

Our child development centers operate in five countries near the areas affected by the drought:

• Kenya
• Ethiopia
• Rwanda
• Tanzania
• Uganda

We do not work in Somalia, the hardest-hit country. But where we do work, our local church partners are seeing higher food prices due to poor crop yields caused by the drought. And our church partners are experiencing an influx of refugees into the areas they serve.

Because we are a holistic child development organization working through the local church our program model often protects our beneficiaries against the potentially crippling impact of famine and drought.

Our Child Survival, Child Sponsorship, and Leadership Development Programs are each designed to help meet the ongoing needs of the families, children and students we serve. The programs help our beneficiaries become self-sufficient and better able to weather disasters, such as droughts.

However, when a crisis does arise, the local churches where our child development centers are located identify the immediate and specific needs of the children, families and students we serve.

The churches have access, through our programs, to critical assistance, such as disaster relief, clean water, medical assistance, etc.

Our ministry focus is on long-term development of children from their time in the womb until an age where they’re self-sufficient. While we focus on prevention and responding to the needs of our program beneficiaries, we applaud other organizations that do widespread disaster relief.

One of these organizations is the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), one of our partners in 58:.
In addition to its major drought-response projects already underway in Kenya and Ethiopia, CRWRC is expanding its aid to Somalia.

You can learn more about CRWRC, how they are responding to the drought, and ways you can help at crcna.org.

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

What do you think of our blog? Would you say that it’s one of best corporate blogs you read?

I’d like to take the opportunity, of being one of the finalists in the Social Fresh Top Corporate Blog Awards, to talk about how we can serve you better.

• How are we adding value to your relationship with your sponsored child?
• Where are we falling short?
• And what more can we do to make this blog worth your time?

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

With our Church 2 Church initiative, churches are trading short-term “love ‘em and leave ‘em” missions for long-term partnerships with each other.

When U.S. pastor Joe Wittwer visited Iglesia Elim in Armenia, El Salvador, he saw the massive needs and wanted to help. He had already formed a close bond with Elim’s husband-and-wife pastoral team, Frank and Paty Ardon.

Despite gang warfare in the neighborhood, the Ardons and their church were partnering with Compassion International to provide weekly care for more than 300 children and their families.

The burgeoning six-day-a-week ministry had forced them to add a separate building on the church grounds. But the mortgage wasn’t cheap. At $500 a month (on a total mortgage of $18,000), the church was struggling to make ends meet.

A group of women helped offset the costs by making tamales and selling them in town for 25 cents apiece, but that netted only about $140 a month. Joe Wittwer’s church, Life Center in Spokane, Washington, wanted to help their new friends in El Salvador, but they weren’t sure how.

In the past, the pattern would have been for Wittwer and his church to swoop in and start paying the monthly mortgage, or just write a check for $18,000 to get rid of the mortgage altogether.

But that kind of “help” often ended up having unintended, negative consequences. The North American partner churches, loaded with money, were cast as the saviors or experts sent to rescue the helpless “junior” partners. While this approach might solve a short-term problem, it rarely produced long-term solutions or fostered healthy relationships.

Now, a “Church to Church” initiative, developed by Compassion International and the Willow Creek Association, is attempting to help churches avoid these past pitfalls by promoting genuine cross-cultural church partnerships.

Read the entire post at LEADERSHIPjournal.net

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