This photo was taken in Burkina Faso by scfish7 at one of our child development centers. He uploaded it to our Flickr group a while back.

Got a caption for it?

“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

Upload your photos of children in poverty to our Flickr group.

1985 was the year that Eastenders first appeared on our televisions, Live Aid rocked the world, and Cristiano Ronaldo was born.

But for 50 Filipino children it was the year they were registered into God’s Special Gift Student Centre, run in partnership with Abkasa Baptist Church in Bacolod City, the Philippines.

More than two decades on, some of those students reflect on how their registration in the Compassion child development centre transformed their lives.

• Click on the image below to view a slideshow of the students’ reflections.

Download the entire Compassion UK magazine, October 2008 (pdf) containing this feature.

In 1994 I was 16.

I was in the midst of my self-absorbed teenage years – a time in my life when nothing seemed as important as what kind of clothes I was wearing, and my daily mood was dictated by whether my current crush had said “Hi” to me in the hallway between classes that day. I was the center of my attention.

I distinctly remember the moment that God took my focus off of me.

Throughout my childhood, my mom subscribed to Time Magazine. There were always a few copies lying somewhere near the couch and occasionally I would pick one up and casually leaf through it.

One day, in May, I picked up a magazine with this cover …

I proceeded to read the article, both fascinated and horrified by the words I was reading. As I looked at the gruesome pictures, God did a major work on my heart.

My focus suddenly shifted from myself to those living through the nightmare happening in Rwanda. I was at once both distraught about what was happening in Rwanda and heartbroken for my own self-centered worldview. My world – my concerns, my interests, my dreams, my prayers – suddenly seemed so trivial in comparison.

That was the first time I remember thinking about people outside of the world I knew. I didn’t realize that God was using that moment to plant seeds in my heart – seeds that would eventually bear fruit in my choice of career, where I give my money, and how I live my life.

Fifteen years later I still haven’t forgotten that day or those images.

Elie Weisel, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, said: “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”

Even though the genocide happened 15 years ago, we must never allow ourselves to fall into indifference. The images can still have a profound impact on many lives.

Pictures tell stories in ways that words never can. So here is the story, 15 years later…

How did the genocide affect your life? Did it alter your view of God? Did it change your perspective on injustice? Have you explained to your children what happened?

Photos and slideshow by Chuck Bigger, one of God’s biggest blessings to Compassion.

If you have difficulty viewing the slideshow in this post, you can also check it out in Flickr.

Upload your photos to our Flickr group. Show us how you see poverty.

Luz is going to the farmers market today. She is taking her 3-year-old daughter, Vanesa, with her, to search for food. Thousands of mothers for many years have come here daily to find food for their families.

• Join Luz and Vanesa as they look for food by clicking on the image below to a view a slideshow of their search.
• Select “Show Info” in the upper right hand corner of the slideshow to read each photo’s caption.

Upload your photos to our Flickr group. Show us how you see poverty.

joanlyndapuckett provided us with our latest blog banner.

She took the photo while in the Dominican Republic for the Global Advocates Conference.

Hope you like it as much as we do.

Keep submitting photos to our Flickr group. We may choose one of your photos next.

We said we’d do it again. And we’re doing it. It’s time for a new blog banner.

Join our Flickr group and upload your photos of children in poverty. We’re looking to choose one to use as our new blog banner.

Here’s some of the good stuff people have already shared with us.

drewfrancis1 took this photo. Click on it and you can see his whole photostream.

fromthebalcony1 took this photo. Click on it, and you can see the whole photostream.

topaaz took this photo. Click on it, and you can see all of her photostream.

carolina_assuncao took this photo. Click on it, and you can see Carolina’s entire photostream.

Hope you don’t mind that we have Flickr on the brain this week.

If you want to let your Twitter followers know about this, here’s a ready-made tweet for you to use.

• Click the link above - “ready-made tweet”
• Log into Twitter.
• Send the tweet you see already written for you.

Or you could also tweet something on your own … like this copy:

• Compassion is updating the photo in their blog banner. Upload your photos to Flickr for consideration. http://digbig.com/4ydhj

Children in poverty … through the eyes of Eric Chapman, one of our friends in Flickr.

If you have difficulty viewing the slide show here, you can also check it out in Eric’s photostream.

Upload your photos to our Flickr group. Show us how you see children in poverty.