“At its very core, poverty is a mindset that goes far beyond the tragic circumstances. It is the cruel, destructive message that gets whispered into the ears of millions by the enemy Satan himself: ‘Give up! You don’t matter. Nobody cares about you. Look around you: Things are terrible. Always have been, always will be. Think back. Your grandfather was a failure. Your parents couldn’t protect or take care of you. Now it’s your turn. You, too, will fail. So just give up!’” — Wess Stafford

The internal condition of poverty is one of disempowerment, fatalism, hopelessness and lack of initiative. The person in this condition will often be a victim of his circumstances rather than an agent of positive change in his community.

That person’s extremely low self-view will translate into a low regard for others and likely into damaged relationships. Damaged relationships then reciprocate and reinforce the message of worthlessness.

The belief that “it won’t get any better” may undermine initiative. It may not matter how many opportunities are created, because the effort of striving, risking and capitalizing on those opportunities requires a belief in the possibility of a better future.

The majority of individuals in that state are incapable of transformational development. To sum it up in one word, they lack hope, and hope is a major engine of growth and wellness.

The marred identity includes a self-view of powerlessness, of being victim to circumstance, of not only low self-esteem but also a projection of low value on others in the community.

When one sees poverty as having its root in human identity [self-concept], then it profoundly impacts the strategies chosen for development.

When one defines poverty primarily as an internal condition resulting from external devaluing messages, it holds significant implications for poverty-fighting strategies. One must ask:

• How and when did the internal condition become entrenched?
• How can “the lie” be exposed and the person freed from its oppression?
• Can we prevent it from being heard or being believed?

It also becomes clear that when the lie is deeply entrenched in adults it is difficult to reverse. However, intervening early in childhood offers the best opportunity to reverse or prevent the lie from gaining traction in the identity-shaping stages of human development.

There are pivotal moments in human development, defining moments, that shape long-term self view and identity. Those pivotal moments must be won by truth and not by “the lie.”

• The lie speaks in abuse; the truth must protect.
• The lie speaks by ignoring; the truth must listen.
• The lie criticizes; the truth must praise.
• The voice of truth must carry throughout the early and most vulnerable stage of human development to break the power of the lie.

The statement “poverty is a lie” is not meant to deny the reality of poverty. Poverty is absolutely real. Nor is the statement meant to imply that overcoming poverty is as simple as a change of mind. And the statement certainly does not mean to blame the victim in the sense that they were the person who chose to believe the lie.

Rather, the concept conveys the idea that we are surrounded by false messages about who we are — about our nature, power and value. These messages mask the truth of our identity:

We are people made in the image of God, granted unique talents by God and capable of receiving the Holy Spirit. We are dearly loved by God.

All of us believe “the lie” to some degree, but for the poor it is debilitating.

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And then we shared our belief that “references in Scripture to the poor or to poverty should be taken to mean economic poverty,” which is something that we believe can be eliminated in a generation (The Poor Will Not Always Be With You).

Today, Scott Todd, our Senior Ministry Advisor, continues to explain what forms our definition of poverty so you have the basis for our holistic approach to ministry.

Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.

This description of poverty includes lack of access to social services, “fear for the future,” “powerlessness” and “lack of representation.” This description shows a broadening of the World Bank’s understanding of poverty, but it does not replace or contradict its own $1.25 per day standard for extreme poverty.

The World Bank has also developed indicators to assess non-income dimensions of poverty. These indicators include education, health, access to social services, vulnerability, social exclusion, and access to social capital.

During the mid to late 1990s, Robert Chambers, research associate at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, and others questioned the definitions of poverty and asked who should determine those definitions. The argument was that the poor themselves should define poverty.

How Do the Poor Describe Poverty?

A survey conducted in Niger in 2002 by the Office of the Prime Minister asked the poor of that country to describe poverty. Their answers provided the following:

• Dependence was mentioned by 40 percent of the respondents, with some noting that a poor person always had to “seek out others” or to “work for somebody else.”
• Marginalization was noted by 37 percent, who defined a poor person as one who was “alone,” had “no support,” did “not feel involved in anything,” or was “never consulted.”
• Scarcity was included in the poverty definitions of 36 percent, who used statements such as having “nothing to eat,” a “lack of means to meet clothing and financial needs,” a “lack of food, livestock and money,” and “having nothing to sell.”
• Restrictions on rights and freedoms were associated with poverty by 26 percent of the respondents, who stated that “a poor person is someone who does not have the right to speak out” or “someone who will never win a case or litigation against someone else.”
• Incapacity was mentioned in connection with poverty by 21 percent, including the incapacity to make decision, to feed or clothe oneself, or to act on one’s own initiative.

Only 36 percent of the poor in this survey described poverty in terms of material lack [scarcity]. Here, the poor described the experience of poverty primarily in terms of suffering relationships and lack of belonging, dignity and freedom. Similar descriptions were found in a major World Bank study published in 2000, Voices of the poor: Can anyone hear us?

The poor describe poverty in terms of suffering relationships. Relationships are central to a person’s belonging, identity, affirmation and other socio-emotional needs.

The relational fabric of a person is his or her means for navigating social norms, accessing resources and mobilizing the skills of others toward common goals. “Whom you know” matters a great deal in any context, including that of a poor man [or woman] navigating his way out of poverty.

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Then over the next several weeks we’ll publish a series of posts to help clearly establish what our definition and understanding of the problem is and explain to you the basis of our holistic approach to ministry.

You might expect that such a fundamental and heavily studied concept as poverty would have a universal definition; however, such is not the case.

Common definitions, such as those from Merriam-Webste’s Online Dictionary, define poverty as “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.”

Professional and academic descriptions of poverty often include non-income aspects such as health, security/vulnerability, self-respect/identity, justice, access to services, political voice, freedom, social connectedness and so on.

Unfortunately, the absence of a clear definition is a serious problem for organizations whose missions are to eradicate poverty or, in Compassion’s case, to release children from poverty.

- Scott Todd, Senior Ministry Advisor, Compassion International

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Our holistic child development model is central to our mission of releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name. And the curriculum standards we have put in place in all of our programs are key to achieving this goal.

In recent years, we developed a global curriculum to help develop children holistically — physically, spiritually, cognitively and socio-emotionally. It is designed to be nonacademic, similar to an after-school enrichment program. For example, instead of learning math, children learn how to apply mathematical skills.

Another example is that in many of the countries where we work, children are taught to stay quiet and to not share their opinions. Instead of just telling them what to do, we work through our curriculum to empower children to have their own voice when they leave our sponsorship program.

“We want them to own their own development,” says Mary Ann Springer, who led the curriculum design. “As an example, we train the children how to eat well so they can make good decisions on their own.”

The new curriculum is both age-appropriate and contextualized to fit the needs of the children. For example, in our Child Sponsorship Program the lesson plans are aimed at age groups of: 3-5, 6-8, 9-11, 12-14, 15-18 and 19 and above.

For the 3- to 5-year-olds, a physical lesson might be learning about basic hygiene, such as brushing your teeth. The spiritual lesson might be learning a Bible story. A socio-emotional lesson might include learning how to treat others. A cognitive lesson might teach about the five different senses.

Global curriculum standards ensure quality programming in our child development centers by giving the tutors easy-to-use and effective material to teach the children. Another important benefit is having measurable “outcomes” and “indicators.”

“Every lesson plan and activity points to a specific outcome and indicator,” says Springer. “The goal is for every student to graduate having achieved the four outcomes, each with three indicators, for the lesson plan.”

For example, one outcome of physical development is that a child “chooses good health practices and is physically healthy.” The three indicators associated with this outcome are that the child:

1. demonstrates an appropriate understanding of his or her physical body
2. experiences reduced incidence of illness, nutritional deficiencies and physical impediments
3. takes responsibility for wise life choices about health and sexuality

The new curriculum standards also provide for focused, detailed lesson plans. This allows the tutors to have a clear path to obtain the desired objectives. It greatly helps the teachers prepare the classroom programs. With less time devoted to preparing lesson plans and with better tools, they are able to give individualized attention to each child.

The curriculum uses various methods of teaching in order to reach every child’s learning style, whether that’s hands-on, auditory or visual. Most of the lessons are participatory, including small groups, discovery and games.

Because we work in so many diverse cultures, each of our country offices has the freedom to contextualize the curriculum to their specific needs. For example, in Indonesia, one of the lessons had been designed to teach the children how to tie their shoes. However, in some of the communities in Indonesia, they wear sandals, not shoes that tie. Contextualizing helps our offices weed out culturally irrelevant content.

The variations of the curriculum range widely from country to country. Some use the standards as they are and some have made major changes. For example, in Rwanda, due to the past internal conflicts, there is an emphasis on teaching forgiveness.

“As long as there is balance within the curriculum, the countries have freedom to adjust the curriculum to their needs,” says Springer.

Our new curriculum helps children develop into whom God made them to be, and the tutors no longer feel burdened with developing daily lesson plans. They now have the time to devote to the children to encourage them to grow holistically.

As the new curriculum standards are implemented in more child development centers, we draw one step closer to using fully realizing our mission: releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

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Many sponsors have the misconception that Compassion runs schools. We do not. However, we do facilitate a holistic child development program that complements and supplements the school systems in the countries we works in.

My country’s (Kenya) education system has been heavily influenced by the British system. Students have eight years of primary school, four years of high school, and four years in an undergraduate program at a university.

It is a requirement for all Compassion-assisted children, regardless of country, to attend the normal school system while they participate in activities at their child development centers. In Kenya, the Compassion programs are most commonly conducted on Saturdays. Because public schoool runs Monday through Friday, the children are easily available for the center activities.

The purpose of our sponsorship program is to help children to become “responsible and fulfilled Christian adults.” Our Implementing Church Partners (ICPs) are encouraged to be creative in the ways they administer the program, but we also provide age-graded curriculum to help each church partner minister to their children consistently.

The age-graded curriculum is based on the outcomes we hope to see in children in the four facets of development: spiritual, physical, cognitive and socio-emotional.

The spiritual domain of the activities at child development centers includes praise and worship, testimonies from children, various presentations such as memory verses, short sermons, and prayers. The implementers ensure that children are actively involved and are exhibiting understanding of the Bible and the essence of prayer and service. During special occasions, the implementers invite outside facilitators.

Our public school system has designated days for pastoral programs. Certain teachers or the school chaplain take the students through devotion that lasts for about half an hour. Each student attends devotion, depending on his or her faith.

In our sponsorship program, the physical well-being of the children is addressed through various activities depending on the resources available at the development center. Soccer is a popular sport for boys, while volleyball and netball are popular with girls. Some church partners have swings, table tennis and board games that engage the kids during breaks.

In the physical realm, the most significant difference from the schooling system is that we provide medical intervention for the sponsored children. The health of the child is monitored on a regular basis through health screenings. Public schools tend to offer first-aid intervention, while the parent/guardian takes care of any other expenses incurred at the local health facility.

In addition, public schools rarely offer nutritional supplements to children with deficiencies. We, on the other hand, provide nutrition education as well as nutritious food during program days.

Social-emotional interaction is paramount for the well-being of every child, especially children growing up in  dangerous environments. Compassion-assisted children are given opportunities to interact in a more meaningful way than in a school. The activities provided are a fertile ground for enhancing one’s self-esteem and dignity.

Our children are encouraged to interact from a biblical perspective, and high standards of morality are advocated. The curriculum taught at the development centers lays a good foundation for self-awareness and reflection. It helps the children to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and how to best cultivate their God-given gifts.

The concept of stewardship is taught, helping them to be aware of their responsibility to the community. Vocational Bible studies, youth camps and seminars, drama clubs, and other creative arts, picnics, and inter-partner competitions offer opportunities to practice what they have learned.

Our goal of leading children along the path of economic independence compels implementers to help children complete the various stages of education. The unfortunate thing about public school systems is the difficulty of trying to update the curriculum to fit emerging trends. Much of the material is very dated and not relevant to children’s daily challenges.

Our curriculum is customized and targeted to the children in their various environments. In case the child does not continue to secondary education, vocational skills are available both at the development center and in a few institutions that can help the child become economically self- supporting. The young people learn income-generating activities, such as soap making, mat weaving, tailoring, cookery and beadwork.

Community service helps children experience the joy of giving back. The young ones in the sponsorship program are encouraged to engage in community cleanups on designated days. More often than not, they help clean the church premises for Sunday services. They also clean their own classrooms, and plant and water flowers and trees within the church compound. Older kids sometimes visit the sick and elderly in the hospital to pray for and encourage them.

Public school systems generally don’t provide for such opportunities, as the main focus is academics. The children also receive more attention at their development centers, as the teacher-student ratio in Kenya’s public schools can be as high as 1 to 80.

Compassion also offers holiday programs to the children. The usual school holidays in Kenya take place in April, August and December. The monthlong breaks separate the school terms, providing opportunities for children to rest and spend time with their families.

However, the competitiveness of the schooling system has forced many schools to conduct holiday sessions that offer specialized training. The schools then continue with the normal curriculum and children have to pay an extra admission fee, exam fee and catering fee.

During this same time, the majority of Compassion Kenya’s child development centers conduct remedial classes for their children for free. Holiday sessions at the development centers continue to supplement what takes place in school. An added advantage is the provision of textbooks and an environment in which to study.

Normally, remedial classes last about two weeks of the holiday. Part-time teachers collaborate   with the child development workers to help students, especially those in upper primary school and candidates waiting to take their exams. Over and above class work, these students are engaged in the normal Saturday program activities and are provided with nutritious meals during the day.

During normal school days, many children attend the development center in the evenings for group learning and review. With the help of part-time teachers, they review past papers to test their knowledge and become familiar with the most critical topics.

Most children we serve attend government schools; however, some of our church partners do run their own schools. These schools are not affiliated with Compassion, but are the property of the church partners. In these circumstances, we run our own program parallel to what takes place in the school. This way, the children benefit from both the school activities as well as the sponsorship program.

In these situations, most of the Compassion-assisted children usually attend the church school. It is important for the school and the sponsorship program to work together to maximize instruction.

While the school program incorporates both the Compassion-assisted and non-assisted children and focuses mainly on academics, the sponsorship program concentrates on holistic child development.

School activities are usually funded primarily through school fees paid by individual pupils through their guardians and other donors. On the contrary, our sponsorship program depends largely on donor funding and minimal contributions from parents.

In the event a child’s parent is unable to sustain a school fee payment, the child no longer benefits from the program offered by the school. But our program continues to offer services to the assisted children and their families without attaching monetary requirements to it.

While typical school systems in the developed world don’t serve children’s non-academic needs, we not only address the academic but also the socio-emotional and physical, and most important, we bring the children the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Our model focuses on the child’s here and now, as well as the future. This perspective is different from most schools. Schooling systems do a great job of engaging children and molding their way of thinking, preparing them for the “world out there,” but we prepare children to deal with their daily struggles, as well as focus on the envisioned future.

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Thirty-eight dollars a month. That’s how much it costs to sponsor a child through Compassion, which is more than the price of sponsorship at other organizations. The difference sometimes leads to questions like these.

“When I first starting sponsoring it [the sponsorship rate] was $22 a month; that was 1989, or 1990 I forget, I’m getting old. During college I stopped sponsoring for a few years and then it was I think $26 or $28 a month . . . Other organizations have stayed about $22-24 a month . . . what extra services does Compassion offer for the extra money . . . what does Compassion provide that other organizations do not supply at $22-24 month?” — Dwight“

“I am getting a bit concerned with the cost to sponsor a child. Where is the money going that isn’t going to the children? I would hate to think it is for a glossier overedited over advertising or staff bloat to make sponsors feel better.” — Nancy White

Although these two questions may seem to be asking the same thing, they’re actually not. Dwight is asking, “What does my child get each month for $38?” (i.e., how are our programs run and what do we deliver?). Nancy is asking, “Where is the money going that isn’t going to the children?” (i.e., how do we spend your money?). They’re both important questions.

I’m not an expert on how other sponsorship programs are run, but what I do know is that some organizations don’t have Christ at the center of what they do. And some allow children to have multiple sponsors.

So two things that Compassion delivers is the Gospel and a one-to-one relationship with your child.

Some child sponsorship programs just focus on one or two areas of a child’s development, rather than being all-encompassing, and others organizations administer their programs on behalf of the community a child lives in, rather than focusing directly on a specific child.

Compassion delivers holistic child development that is child focused. These two posts help show what that means.

• What does holistic child development look like?
• What does my sponsored child learn at the child development center?

Additionally, some organizations receive government funding. We do not. We’re 100 percent sponsor and donor supported.

And finally, some programs are more localized and less global than our program is. We’re a global holistic child development ministry and we use a one-on-one sponsorship model that encourages you and your child to share your faith with each other. We’re Christ centered, child focused, church based and committed to integrity.

Some programs may have similarities to ours, but none are exactly the same. That’s what we deliver.

As for how we spend your money, no more than 20 percent pays for administration and fundraising. That’s our commitment to you. And for the past several years, we’ve been significantly below that 20 percent, usually two to four percentage points below.

In fiscal year 2009, approximately $31 of your $38 monthly payment paid for development center grants, program services and child advocacy (i.e., educating the Body of Christ about the biblical mandate to care for children and the poor), while a nickel shy of $7 was used for administration ($3.23) and fundraising ($3.72).

Because of how we manage your money we have received eight consecutive four-star ratings from Charity Navigator, an independent charity evaluator. Only 1 percent of charities rated by Charity Navigator have been recognized in this way.

So, what does the $31 buy your sponsored child?

The money categorized as development center grants is delivered directly to our church partners to cover the costs of implementing our sponsorship program. The basic elements of these activities include:

• regular Christian training
• learning opportunities (e.g., funding school attendance and/or regular participation in extracurricular educational activities)
• health treatment and training (e.g., regular physical exams, dental care, vaccinations, referral for advance medical care, instruction in physical and dental hygiene, exercise, nutrition and preventive health care)
• socio-emotional development (e.g., learning basic social skills, teamwork, art, drama, dance, etc.)
• materials and supplies including hygiene supplies (e.g., soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste), center supplies (e.g., paper, writing utensils, games, toys), fees or costs associated with field trips, camps, drama, art and dance activities, and snacks, food and supplemental nutrition each child may need
• individualized care and attention (e.g., school progress reports, center attendance records, health records, home visits by social workers and adult supervision while at the development center)

Program services include activities undertaken by our staff to select, train, equip and oversee the church partners implementing our program, as well as programmatic research and evaluation. They also cover the costs of staff who direct and maintain the daily activities at the child development center.

More personally, this is where the money comes from for letter translation, postage, taking photos of your child, and updating you on your child’s well-being.

You can consider program services as the funding source for maintaining our program’s integrity and all the things that connect you and your child.

That about sums it up. I hope this explanation is useful to you. If you want additional information about our financial stewardship you can visit compassion.com and charitynavigator.com, as well as call us at (800) 336-7676.

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Alex was one of the statistics – a child with a heart problem with seemingly no hope for treatment. Alex’s father recalls: 

“It started as a fever. My wife and I took my son, Alex, to the hospital, but it did not get any better. And when we took him to a bigger hospital, his symptoms baffled the doctors. They had no solution for us but to refer us to the Mulago Heart Institute where we started on a course of treatment.

“This went on for three years with no change. At that point I started to pray to God, saying if it is God’s will to take him away from us then so be it. I spoke to Alex as well and he was of the same mind. Because the doctors saw that I was poor they feared to tell me about the operation abroad because they knew I could not afford it.”

Like many children whose heart conditions go untreated, Alex and his family prepared for the worst. Alex remembers:

“At first I felt like my life was going to end any time because after going to Mulago Heart Institute, they said they couldn’t handle my situation. I saw death at the next door. So I began to seek the face of the Lord. I moved close to God and at that point I asked my daddy to buy me a radio so that I could listen to men praying and lay my hands on the radio, looking at God because He is the one who has the final decision on my life.”

All Alex had was his faith. He had been taught at the child development center to believe in a God who could do the impossible.

“I was not afraid. I had confidence in God. I had heard testimonies of people healed by God who were very sick.”

Sick children at our child development centers are usually identified by our church partners during the routine health screenings. Information on children with heart defects is then forwarded to our country office. It is here that arrangements are made for the children to be taken for assessment.

For some of the children the journey ends with treatment in Uganda. But for others treatment is not enough and surgery is needed to help them.

However in Uganda, there is no access to “first world” cardiac surgery and catheterization. These cases – cases like Alex’s – are referred to India for surgery.

Yona Kapere, the Compassion Uganda health specialist, works closely with the doctors and nurses at the Uganda Heart Institute to arrange for the best doctors in India to treat and look after the children when they are so far from home. The Uganda Heart Institute always arranges for a nurse to accompany the children to and from India.

From 2005 to date, 16 children have gone to India from Uganda for open-heart surgery through our heart surgery intervention program. After surgery in India, the children return to the Uganda Heart Institute for follow-up and monthly review.

All 16 children are alive and have better health since their surgeries. The quality of their lives has improved and they are able to play and take part in the center activities without weakness and illness.

Before Alex’s heart surgery, his physical condition kept him from playing football, his favorite hobby. He also had trouble walking long distances and even waking up. Now, he is back to playing football and he says he is able to walk more than 5 km.

Alex’s future plan is to become a medical doctor or a pastor. Whether he becomes a pastor or a doctor, God has surely saved this young man for a bright future. And wherever Alex goes, he will be able to share his difficult story, which is summed up best in his own words,

“It has not been easy, but God is faithful.”

Although the support the Child Sponsorship Program provides is wide-ranging, your $38 monthly sponsorship cannot tackle all the obstacles to healthy development the children you love experience.

The program Alex benefited from was part of our Complementary Interventions activities, a key part of our holistic child development model supporting our three core programs: Child Survival, Child Sponsorship and Leadership Development.

You can learn more about our holistic child development model at compassionmodel.org.

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

The Pastors Discipleship Network (PDN) is an initiative begun by Leadership Development Program graduate and Moody Bible Institute scholar Richmond Wandera. It exists:

“to train and equip local pastors in Africa with basic study tools for accurately interpreting God’s Word through monthly seminars, accountability relationships, and the provision of study resources.”

We’re bringing PDN to your attention as an example of what we mean when we say,

“The Leadership Development Program identifies young Compassion-assisted men and women who have shown potential to become Christian leaders who can, in turn, influence their own families, churches, communities and nations.”

PDN is an example of your support bearing fruit! Even if you don’t sponsor a leadership development student, your commitment to Compassion helps create the environment for opportunities like this. That’s what holistic child development is.

You can learn all about PDN at pdnafrica.org and can stay current with Richmond’s work via the PDN Facebook page.

But the philosophy essentially boils down to this:

“When a pastor is trained, his church is also trained; when you resource the pastor, his church is also resourced … everything rises and falls on leadership … a trained pastor becomes a watchman against heresy and false teaching. Therefore, training a local pastor protects the church.”

“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” — Hosea 4:6 (NIV)

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

For the children who have accepted Christ as their Savior, the center staff conduct a discipleship class which occurs during the Bible study.

In addition to the spiritual development of the children, the center has programs to address the physical, social and economic needs of the children.

The key factor in creating a stable economic future for the children is education; education is the key.

But beyond focusing on excellence in school, the center staff help identify and develop the talents of the children, musically and artistically, so they have even greater opportunities to succeed.

The center has a cooking program, choir and music program and drama team and works with the children to develop their public speaking abilities.

Here’s a sample of what the kids are producing.

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.

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