Thomas Swaroop, Child Advocacy Director for South Asia, shares about the inspiration he received from a young girl who has an opportunity to shine for Jesus.

For the past two weeks we’ve published a series of poverty questions for you to consider. We appreciate everyone who submitted comments to the posts, and we extend our congratulations to Judy Tremblay and her enormous brain for answering the most poverty questions correctly and becoming the proud new owner of a brand, spankin’ new magnet.

Yep! A magnet. Can we get get a “Woot! Woot!” for Judy?

Now, without further ado, here is your answer key. (more…)

• Achieve universal primary education
• Ensure environmental stability
• Provide worldwide access to safe water
• Develop a global partnership for development

“Compassion Haiti is a reference and a light house for the Haitian population.” — Guilbaud Saint-Cyr, country director for Compassion Haiti

During the 40 years of our ministry in Haiti, thousands of young people have committed themselves to Christ. Many of those young men and women have won their parents and many other people from their communities to Christ by their commitments and Christian attitudes.

Compassion started its ministry in Haiti in 1968. At that time, we worked directly through the missionaries established in the country while maintaining no country office or local staff. But through the years, our structure has changed as more and more children have been registered in our programs.

Compassion Haiti has grown through the years in all levels.

• From 25 employees in the 1990s, it has now reached 69 staff.
• God has blessed the ministry with a new building adjacent to the old one. That new rented building accommodates program implementation. The office has rooms for more years of fast growth.
• In order to better serve the projects and partners, Compassion Haiti has hired 12 field-based partnership facilitators from fiscal year 2007 up to now. The presence of the partnership facilitators in the field contributes a great deal to child development center growth and empowerment improvement.

Compassion trains and equips local evangelical church partners to administer a broad range of child development activities from child survival to child sponsorship and leadership development.

Our Leadership Development Program (LDP), launched during the past 12 years, is having incredible effects on the Haitian society.

• 72 percent of our graduates are employed in key administrative positions both in the public and private sectors, in comparison to the country-level employment statistics of 20 percent

Among those is Abel, a former LDP student, who grew up in a slum but doesn’t live in one anymore. Abel is 27 years old and a university graduate in business management. Among the five children in his family, Abel is the only who has a university degree. The encounter of Abel with Compassion has changed his and his family life for ever.

“Like many other young men, I would probably be a gang member if it were not for the Compassion program in the community. People treat me with much respect, and they are also proud of me. I want to take advantage of that opportunity to make an impact in the community.”

The level of education provided by Compassion has made a great difference in the academic performance in the whole country:

The table below shows a comparison between national and sponsored children success rate in state exams.

The children whose lives are being transformed through this ministry will become the future leaders of Haiti to, in turn, transform our country.

The 40 years of Compassion in Haiti have been a success — but not without challenges.

“My greatest satisfaction is the fact that Compassion has given me the opportunity to see some of my dreams accomplished. I can see the outcomes of my initiatives in the lives of children, communities and churches as I am surrounded by qualified and committed staff to bring about the changes.” – Guilbaud Saint-Cyr, country director for Compassion Haiti

Perspectives for the 10 years to come

Guilbaud intends to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Compassion in 2018 with some major accomplishments:

• increasing our development programs from 227 to 300
• facilitating the growth of our Leadership Development Program from 80 students to 200
• bringing total staff to 100
• 100 percent of our children will be vaccinated
• 50 percent of our child development programs will have access to potable water

We recently gave you the opportunity ask our president, Wess, any questions you like. We’re publishing his transcribed answers one day at a time. Well, today is like yesterday; it’s special. You get two answers.

Read all the posts in the series.

• I noticed you hold a doctorate. I haven’t heard much about that — what did you get it in, and why? Does it help you at Compassion? (Chuck)

My doctorate is from Michigan State University and it is in non-formal education. That is how the poor learn … not in the classroom, not getting credentials, but through practical, functional, hands-on learning. I determined after my time in Haiti that I was not going to work among the poor until I formally studied how the poor learn: How do they take in new information? How do they adapt innovations? How do they change behavior?

My advice is: Don’t get a doctorate just for the credentials. If you’re going to get a doctorate, or even a master’s degree, you ought to ask yourself What is it that am I really passionate about learning in order to use it to change the world? A degree is just icing on the cake. Do not do it for the building up of credentials, as many, many people do.

I am Dr. Stafford, but everybody at Compassion calls me “Wess.” All across Asia I’m “Papa Wess,” which I love. (I think that’s better even than Dr. Wess.) The reason I rarely use my title is, first of all, I didn’t get it for that kind of credentialing reason. But also, I’ve discovered that being introduced as “Doctor so-and-so” builds walls, not bridges.

I use my credentials (being “Dr. Stafford”) if I am dealing with a developing nation and need to get into their department of education or to the president of the country. Wherever I need the title to advance the cause of Compassion, I use it. But I don’t use it around here. I don’t use it among our staff, because my experience is that it doesn’t add anything.

Use the information that that degree gives you, but don’t carry the degree around as some badge.

• What type of master’s program would you recommend for those who want to impact poverty and children in poverty? (Ian Durias)

Whatever your bachelor’s degree was in, if that has gripped your heart, pursue that. Working among the poor now requires all skill sets.

My master’s degree turned out to serve me quite well because it was in communications — it was in broadcasting. Almost anything you do among the poor is either speaking to the poor, which requires a lot of cross-cultural sensitivity, or speaking on behalf of the poor, which requires a lot of communication skills. You can’t miss in education, and I don’t think you can miss in communication.

But if God gifted you in math, study math. Get really, really good at it because as the world gets more and more complex, and the ability to travel gets easier and easier, every skill set, I think, is needed out there to help the poor. Don’t feel like you have to get a degree in social science or early childhood development to be relevant to the poor — you don’t.

Go for the learning and take the degree as icing on the cake. And then don’t use it as a club, use it as a bridge.