Hello everyone. My name is Rick Carter, and I work for Compassion in Asia as part of the communications team.

My team is responsible for bringing you the stories that talk about our child development centers in Asia, such as A Day in the Life of a Child Development Center Worker or A New Beginning for Eric, as well as hosting the sponsor tours that visit those same centers. So the fine line between educating the western world about the plight of the poor and exploiting the poor by profiting from their misery is something I have to consider everyday.

Stories like this one, which talk about the reaction of slum residents to Slumdog Millionaire, remind me how important it is for us to be sure that we are maintaining the dignity of our children, their families and their communities as we share their needs with you.

Rather than “shock and awe,” our hope is that our stories and your visits to our child development centers bring you “reality and relationship.” Sometimes the reality is shocking. Our children come from the poorest of poor situations. That is their reality. To get past the shock, we emphasize relationship.

With Compassion tours and visits, we try our best to avoid the “zoo experience” – just looking. We spend time at the child development centers doing activities and interacting with the children to help develop deep relationships.

Getting to know your child through the letters you exchange is so important to understanding his or her reality, but also in seeing them beyond their environment – Compassion-assisted children have hopes and dreams for the future.

I just wrote “Compassion-assisted children” because I realized I have been calling them “our children.” And that’s the key! That’s the way to stay on the right side of that fine line – between education and exploitation.

I know I speak for all of us in Compassion Asia when I say these are our kids and we will treat them as such.

I’ve lived in China for over 15 years. Very little I see in the slums shocks me. But I do still experience awe, and the awe is in how our church partners and you, as sponsors, are helping to lift children out of poverty. Thank you for what you do.

Gezahegne is director of Mekanisa Addis Kidan Child Development Center, one of the oldest child development centers in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. When asked to initially volunteer his time as the center accountant in 1991, he said, “For this kingdom work, I will do it.”

The idea for the center began in 1989 through the initiative of Gezahegne and other church leaders who discussed various options to evangelize in the community. After these many discussions, Gezahegne says, “We agreed that Compassion would be the best method.”

At the time, Compassion required only three people to start a child development center – an accountant, a social worker, and a director. Gezahegne’s accounting experience prompted the church elders to invite him to that position.

After Gezahegne’s initial work as the center accountant, he was approached again by the church elders to become the center director.

As Gezahegne reflects on the impact of his program, he says,

“When I was a child, my friends and I had no direction or guidance growing up. Here at Compassion we fight to protect the children from negative influences, and we give them support to continue their education.”

This academic support for the children comes in the form of tutorial classes and money for school fees and materials, including clothing. However, the program also provides for their physical and spiritual needs as well; Compassion gives grains and other food stuffs, hygienic materials, and provides summer and Vacation Bible School and Bible studies for the children.

The child development center is located in one of the poorest communities in Addis Ababa, near the city dump where many beggars reside, pilfering through the garbage to get food. (more…)

Here at Compassion, I get to sit by a really cool guy named Sathy. Sathyaseelan Pannirselvam, that is. (One of my proudest moments was when I found out my last name is longer than his.)

Sathy is a native of Chennai, India, and has worked for Compassion for 10 years. He worked for Compassion India for seven years of those years as a Sponsor Donor Associate in South India, and as the Program Communication Manager in East India.

Then three years ago, he, his lovely wife and son uprooted from India to work in Colorado Springs as our International Sponsor Donor Service Field Specialist. (Job titles here at Compassion are a mouthful, huh?)

Translation: He now works to train our field countries on processes for letters and case studies (those summaries of your sponsored child in the Child Packet). He also works to identify efficient processes for these … Quite a job if you know how many letters and case studies we process!    

So Sathy has a unique perspective to offer us — he’s lived in India and visited Compassion’s child development centers there (and Compassion-assisted centers throughout Asia, in fact), and he’s lived and worked here, on the other side of things. He also knows more about all those letters than most people you’ll meet. An interesting brain to pick.

Leave your questions to Sathy as comments, and I’ll pick 10 of them for him to answer for us.

“Magi, get going else you will be late for your classes,” Magline’s mother calls out from outside the courtyard, where she is washing dishes.

Magline is deeply engrossed reading the sponsor letter she has just received from the student center.

Magline, a bright young girl from Park Circus Child Development Center, is an example of what a sponsor’s love and affection can help achieve in children who never get to paint a future for themselves because of poverty.

Magline comes from a poor family. She has been through many ups and down since childhood.

Her father was an alcoholic and did not have a job when Magline was brought to be enrolled at age 5. He would beat up Magline’s mother to get money from her to meet his thirst for wine.

But in the midst of all that, Magline’s mother was steadfast in her faith in God and kept praying for her husband’s change of heart. She toiled hard, working as a maid servant to bring up her children.

It was about the same time that Magline’s sponsorship also started, but she was far too young to understand the love and concern her sponsor had for her.

“I had no dreams for the future because I hardly understood what sponsorship meant for me,” says Magline. (more…)

Letters from sponsors come in to the Ghana office through the Global Ministry Center (GMC) in Colorado Springs. They come in mainly by DHL, but a few letters also come in through e-mail.

When these letters are received they are sorted out and entered into the computer system to track that they were received. They are then distributed into pigeon hole mailboxes created for every church partner at the country office.

The next step is for the child development workers from the child development centers to come to the country office to collect the letters, get them to the children, make sure that the letters are replied to and then bring the replies to the country office in good time to be sent to the sponsors.

Compassion Ghana started its Child Sponsorship Program barely three years ago. The majority of the children who were registered into the program were not in school. They only got the opportunity to go to school once they were enrolled into Compassion.

As such, even though some of our children are 12 years old, you find them yet in kindergarten or in the first grade. The best children in these grades can say the alphabet and read two- or three-letter words.

So in Ghana, just a few of our children are able to read and write their own letters. It is therefore the responsibility of the child development workers at the centers, and when possible, some volunteers who help at the centers, to read letters to the children and reply to these letters.

Nana Kojo Sekyi-Arthur is the social worker at the Mount Zion Methodist Church Child Development Center. He has been with the center since it started almost three years ago. Nana Kogo, just like all the other child development workers, visits the country office once every week, if there is no emergency.

Each time he visits, he checks the center’s pigeon hole for any mail or other materials placed there by the office. If there happens to be any correspondence from sponsors to children, Nana Kojo collects them and brings them back to his office. As soon as he gets there, he makes photo copies of all the letters. The original is given to the child to take home, and the copied one is kept on file for reference purposes.

In the community where Nana Kojo works, the people are mostly fisher folks with very little or no formal education at all. They are unable to assist their children with responding to sponsor letters.

For unscheduled letters, which are not too many, when Nana Kojo collects the letters from the country office he makes sure to read all of them before meeting the children again.

The next time the children come to the center the letters are distributed. The older children who can read and write are encouraged to read their own letters and try to write replies to them. There are a number of volunteers who help.

Georgina and Enoch are volunteers who give a lot of assistance with the letters. They correct the older children’s letters. They also read through to see if the sponsor has asked any questions and whether they have been answered. If everything is done well, Nana Kojo copies all the letters into an exercise book.

Every child has an exercise book specially set aside for letters. Each letter the child writes to his sponsor is copied into these exercise books. When writing the next letter, the previous ones are read again so as not to keep repeating the same things over and over again. The children then copy their letters onto the appropriate sheets designed for letter writing by the country office.

The next letters to be written belong to the children who cannot read or write. For this group, Nana Kojo likes to work on the letters personally. He reads the letter to the child. If there is some information the sponsor asks that Nana Kojo cannot provide and the child cannot help with, Nana Kojo goes to the child’s house or invites the parents to the office to help in providing the information needed to complete the letter. (more…)

The following letter was written by Ruzamba Niyomwungeli, a 24 year old graduate of Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program. It was written in Kinyarwanda and translated into English at the Compassion Rwanda country office.

“Life has meaning when someone touches it at tender age. Someone stood out and shaped my life. I believe in life of fullness. Thank you my sponsor where ever you are.”
- Ruzamba Niyomwungeli

I really do not know what I would be looking like if Compassion had not touched my life when I was at the age of four – sick, starved, almost naked and frustrated with no hope. Thanks God.

God has been on my side since I was a child up to today. I really extend my sincere gratitude to my loved sponsor who stood by my side up to now, and I do promise that I will never disappoint him or God, who has been witnessing my daily life. Thank you my sponsor.

Presently, I am a mature adult, and above all it’s through your hands I grew up to become an adult with a mission to change my family, my community, my country and the world at large. My dear sponsor what can I give you and what can I say if it had not been your incomparable love you extended to me and my family. I believe in the next day, that I always count as a day of grace and new hope.

My sponsor, I do love you and wish you to see God’s grace day by day. My prayers rest in the hands of God. God of mercy bless my sponsor and Compassion. By God’s love I am who I am because of what you did for my life, where my parents were unable to support me in all the aspects of life.

I cried in my neighborhood, but no one listened to me. I called to my neighbors because of hunger, but there was no boon coming to me. I was sick in my bed, but no one could render a service. But not far from God’s hands, a sponsor, a parent, came to me from the far country that is beyond the sea where my eyes could not imagine a thought. What a blessing and love. God I am too special in your eyes. Thank you God.

My sponsor stretched out both his arms to bring me back to the foundation of hope where I stand right now – with all the courage to make a difference which is positive for my life, my family and my community. God of mercy, bless my sponsor and Compassion.

My sponsor, you became the spiritual, economic and intellectual garb I wear now. You became a friend where many people were not able to welcome me.

My sponsor, I believe that God will always be with you. I really want to assure you that what you did in my life has touched thousands of lives through me; for now I am grown up and am making a positive difference in my family, community, and more especially in my church where I was blessed from.

The God of mercy who brought me to your life is the same God who gave me this real time to say that I really thank you. My sponsor, you came into my life when I could not speak write or read, but now I do write and read. What a friend I do have!

My sponsor, you are my friend, and I do credit you most of my blessings. I believe God has heard my prayers for you, as you pray for me.

Blessings to you.

Ruzamba Niyomwungeli

Have you ever wondered how your sponsored child’s letter gets to you? The long journey it takes from Tanzania or Thailand to Connecticut or California? There’s a lot more to it than you might think!

Samuel Llanes, Guatemala’s Field Communication Specialist, gives us a peek at the journey of one letter from Guatemala to a sponsor in Australia. (Did you know that Compassion International has sponsors all over the world from Australia to France to South Korea?)

Pamela, a little girl sponsored by a married couple in Australia, says, “I love writing letters to them! When I write my letter, I wish I was right there with my sponsors.”

She has received two letters in the two years she has been sponsored, and she keeps them safely at home. She knows who they are and what they do, and she prays for them before bedtime each night.

When Pamela receives a letter, it has gone through a long journey. First the letter is sent from Australia to the Compassion International field office in Guatemala. Each country Compassion works in has its own field office. The letter must then be translated into Spanish for Pamela to understand.

“Translating is such a blessing to me,” says Julia Zepeda, a pastor’s wife and translator who has been working for Compassion International Guatemala for eight years. “I have taken this as a ministry that helps children, and I know is worth it.”

The translators are given one week to complete all the translations once they’re given a group of letters. The average number of letters that must be translated a week in Guatemala is usually around 180 to 200! After translating, the letters are brought to the student centers where they are distributed to the children. Receiving a letter is a special moment for children — they know that someone out there cares about them and is praying about them.

Letter Day
“Letter day” happens every four months. Pamela, along with all the other children at her Guatemala City student center, writes a letter every four months, though her sponsors may not write her that often.

When Pamela writes her letters, she uses a notebook to write a first draft. She does not want to miss anything that her sponsors asked her in their letter. Pamela’s tutor reads her sponsors’ letter to her, and as it is read, Pamela answers all the questions they asked. If they have sent something special, like stickers, she makes sure to thank them. Then once she has decided what her letter will say, she writes out her final draft.

Letter Day is an exciting day. The student center celebrates all the children for their efforts in writing letters on Letter Day. They give prizes to celebrate every child — and sometimes they even have a clown and piñatas!

Once Pamela’s letter is written, she gets to take her letter from her sponsors home, which she gets very excited for.

On Its Way
Once Pamela’s letter and all the other letters are written, they are brought to the Guatemala field office and translated into English. The packages of translated letters are then labeled and sent to be processed at Compassion International’s Global Ministry Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The children’s letters are sent from Guatemala to Colorado once a week.

Each week, child letters arrive in large boxes in Colorado Springs from all over the world to be tracked and sent on their way.

First, the letters are sorted by where the sponsors are from. All the letters going to U.S. sponsors are grouped together, all the letters going to the United Kingdom are grouped together, and so on.

Each letter is then scanned into a database, using the barcode at the top of each child’s letter, so Compassion can track all of the letters that are sent.

Once all the letters have been recorded in the database, they are bound together according to the letter’s destination country, and shipped out every Tuesday.

So the letters that our sponsored children write to us have been through a long process, passing from one hand to another until they arrive in your mailbox in that envelope saying, “A Message From Your Sponsored Child.”