“There is so much need in Nicaragua that choosing a child becomes a real dilemma. Often we see children that don’t live near the center, struggling to be registered. Or families that want to register their children because of the situations in which they live, which are not necessarily economic needs. Or parents that think their children must be assisted just because they are church members … How to say no?”

– Mirna Alguera, Compassion Nicaragua Partnership Facilitator.

Our Program Field Manual, which guides how we operate the Child Sponsorship Program, addresses how we choose the children who can be registered in the program.

“Compassion desires to work with the neediest and most vulnerable children that it can reach . . . Therefore, it is vital to have a means by which to assess the relative poverty and vulnerability of different children in the community.”

When church staff members interview parents or caregivers in order to assess the poverty of the family and the child’s ability to benefit from the program, the staff members follow this criteria:

• Is the child between the ages of 3 and 9?
• How low is the family’s income and assets?
• Does the child suffer from chronic illness and/or malnutrition?
• Is the child able to attend school or progress in school?
• Does the child have a physical or mental impairment?
• Is the child an orphan? Has the child been abandoned or is the child being/at risk of being exploited?
• Does the child have good access to the church? Generally, a child is considered to have “good access” when he or she lives within a 30-minute walk from the church.
• Is there evidence that the child is likely to be non-transient and stable within the community?
• Was the child part of our Child Survival Program (CSP)? Preference is given to CSP graduates who meet the other needs-based criteria.

These guidelines help ensure that a long-term relationship can be developed with each child registered in the program, which is key in the holistic development process.

Angela is the mother of two boys and twin girls. All of them are the right age to be registered; however, she could only register three of them.

“As a mother, I felt bad because one of them could not be registered, but I had to accept that three of them would be registered and then find ways to provide for the other one.”

“Parents decide which of their children will be registered. I would like to register all the children but we have to accept reality (policies).” — Arelys, a secretary at Mimados de Jesus Student Center

Families usually say that although they have more children in the family, registering at least some is a great help for them. It’s a blessing from God they will not reject.

In Angela’s case, she and her husband have explained their decision to their little daughter who isn’t registered, and they have the other three share with her the gifts received from their sponsors to ease the fact that she’s not registered.

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

Pastor Joel grew up on the remote island of Siquijor in the Philippines, which has long been known for magic and witchcraft, but Compassion in the Philippines only began partnering with churches in Siquijor this year.

Although Compassion reached the Philippines in the 1970s, we finally landed in the isolated island after 30 years!

In 2004, we began regularly updating our strategy map to identify the poorest and neediest provinces in the country with the fewest number of evangelical churches, and the list included Siquijor.

And now Joel, who has turned away from his island’s belief in witchcraft,  is pastor of the Siquijor Celebration Christian Fellowship, one of our newest church partners in the remote island province.

He has been pastor here for 15 years and vividly remembers the years when it was so difficult to share the gospel. But today, the church has led to the Lord at least 15 individuals who used to be part of the occult practices.

“There are now 32 evangelical churches in the island, and witchcraft has greatly lessened its control. We used to be known as an island of sorcery but not anymore, thanks to the gospel. And now that Compassion is here, we are excited to create more impact.”

Only a few months into the partnership, the Siquijor Celebration Christian Fellowship has seen an increase in church attendance.

“We have 100 new Bible studies for the 100 new families of our 100 registered children.” The church leaders are meeting in the homes of all the new families to hold small Bible studies.”

And Cyrene is one of the 100 Siquijorian children to be registered. She is full of potential, just as the pastor was when he was little.

Cyrene tops her grade one class with a score of 100 percent in all her tests. Many of her classmates are two years older than her because they did not have the money to go to school earlier.

“I want to be a teacher,” bubbly Cyrene says. When asked why, she insists, “I just want to be a teacher.”

Like Pastor Joel, Cyrene’s parents did not finish high school. In fact, 90 percent of the adult population here doesn’t. Rogelio, Cyrene’s father, says,

“We were so poor when I was young. I was like Cyrene before, getting good grades and all. I was also at the top of my elementary classes. I had high hopes because until high school I had good grades, so I wanted to go to college.”

Poverty, however, won and he stopped schooling when he reached the third year of high school.

“My father was a fisherman/farmer and our family subsisted with whatever little amount he could earn. He couldn’t even send me to a free public school because I didn’t have food to eat in the morning or uniform to wear.”

But with Cyrene’s sponsorship, her parents have found hope.

If not for Compassion, Cyrene would most probably end up as many of the locals here – uneducated and unemployable.

Her bouncy personality and intellectual potential would not be harnessed to the fullest. Soon she would have to stop schooling because Rogelio does not have a steady job to support her.

Both Rogelio and Merlyn are focused on their daughter’s education and future, not necessarily thinking of how historically significant it is. Little Cyrene represents a milestone in the our ministry in the Philippines:

She is the 50,000 child to be registered in the Philippines program.

Compassion Philippines has seen its programs go through several transformations over the past 30 years. And now that we have reached out to Siquijor and other similarly far-flung, hard-to-reach provinces, we look forward to registering the next 50,000 children into our programs.

Now, unlike Pastor Joel, Rogelio and Merlyn, Cyrene has a different hope for life. With her sponsorship*, she has been given a chance to follow in the footsteps of thousands of successful Compassion alumni who have gone through our programs through the years; the chance to follow in the footsteps of:

• Sarah Jane, a former sponsored child who is now a medical doctor
• Jonathan, a former sponsored child who is now an accounts manager in New York
• Bobby, a former sponsored child who is now a successful international businessman
• Erla, a former sponsored child who is now a missionary to China
• Keewani, a former sponsored child who is now a sponsor herself.

Cyrene is next in line. 

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

“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

Then recently, I received the following e-mail.

“I read the blog about the children who are registered who are able to sing and enjoy meals while the unregistered ones just stare at them, wishing they were one of them. I have a hard time imagining what this is like.

“Is it like there is a ‘Century Fence,’ so to speak, that separates these two groups, where the unregistered look in and feel sad as they watch the sponsored eat hot meals and be carefree?

“Does this make them feel more unloved?

“Is it appropriate to send a picture or have one on this Web site so I can see what you are talking about? I have a hard time understanding this and maybe a picture would help.”

What are your thoughts? What do the children on the outside looking in feel?

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

My husband and I sponsor a 10-year-old girl in Burkina Faso named Evelyne. Evelyne has five siblings, none of whom are in the child sponsorship program.

Compassion’s policy is that a maximum of three children from the same family can be registered in the sponsorship program. However, some countries limit the number of children registered from one family to one or two. And when a country first opens its sponsorship program, it is common for only one child per family to be allowed in the program due to capacity limitations.

That may seem harsh, but it’s quite strategic from a Kingdom perspective. Compassion’s desire is to reach as many families as possible in the communities where a child development center has opened.

Compassion works through local indigenous churches in 25 developing countries, and these are poor churches. It’s one child development center to one church – no exceptions.

When a church partner opens a child development center, there may be room for only 200 children. And the reality is, there are more children than spots available (“the harvest is plenty, but the workers are few,” so to speak).

By registering one to three children per family, our church partners are canvassing a larger area of the community, thus having a greater opportunity to share the gospel with more families. In reality, child registration limitations help more people in the long run.

So, back to Evelyne.

Evelyne has an older sister named Elise, whom I first started noticing in the photos that accompanied Evelyne’s letters.

Whenever my husband and I would send a family or child gift, we would receive a photo of Evelyne (in the blue denim skirt) and her entire family. I love these photos because they show how the family uses our gifts. They purchase food and clothing primarily, and Evelyne’s entire family gets in on God’s love.

In one of the photos, I noticed Elise (in the pink skirt). The expression of her eyes and the smile on her face spoke to me.

“You care for my sister Evelyne because you are her sponsor, but I would like to get to know you too.”

Elise reached out and grabbed my heart from that photo.

I realize that God wants me to look at my sponsorship of Evelyne from a whole new perspective. My goal now is to win Evelyne’s entire family to Christ.

Now, when I write to Evelyne, I always include Elise by asking about Elise and letting Evelyne know that I pray for her entire family. I also ask Evelyne to share my letters with Elise and the rest of the family.

Sponsorship is a family affair, no matter how many children from the same family are in the program.

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

Little Mariam was still sleeping, although the roosters had already crowed several times. Laid on her mat, she was huddled under her covers; it had rained the previous day, and the weather was a bit cold in the first hours of the morning.

Though she was registered in grade two, Mariam was lounging on her mat even after 7 a.m., because she was already on holiday. Moreover, even if she was not on holiday, she could have slept until sunrise because it was Thursday morning and she would not have had a course.

During the rainy season, Mariam, like her brothers and sisters, does not have the privilege to see her father because he moves to a village located a few kilometers away from the city to cultivate there in order to nourish the family.

The mother who stays alone with the five children sells fritters to provide for the needs of the family to the best of her ability.

Abruptly, Mariam who had been sleeping quietly jumps up and rushes outside, as if something important has just occurred.

In the courtyard, Mariam’s sisters, Assanata and Zourata, are preparing to leave. They both have weekly appointments that they would not miss for anything in the world. They are registered at the Assemblies of God Central Church of Koudougou Child Development Center.

Every Thursday, Assanata and Zourata leave the house around 7:30 a.m. and come back only after 2 p.m., humming songs that are completely unknown to the other members of their Moslem family.

Mariam always awaits their return so she can taste the food that her sisters bring home, and she does not fail to learn the songs that they sing as they return.

Any letter that Assanata and Zourata receives is an occasion of rejoicing for Mariam too, who is always given part of the gifts that are sent by the sponsor of her twin sisters.

When her sisters go to the child development center Mariam stays at home with her mother and her little brother Madi. She gives a hand to her mother by bringing the millet, which is used to make fritters sold by her mother, to the mill to be made into flour.

Once back from the mill, Mariam sweeps the house, the kitchen and makes the washing up while having her eyes riveted on the way – waiting for her sisters to come home.

Sitting under the only tree of the household, Mariam is lost in dreams deeply moved by the situation of poverty in which she lives with all her family.

She imagines herself in possession of four hundred thousand CFA Francs. Then she sees herself in a large shop of the capital city where she buys clothes, shoes and above all food provisions for her family.

She also sees herself building a new house for her family to replace the small one that was built with earth in which she and all her family live cramped.

“I would certainly not fail to put in electricity,” she says to herself.

Moreover, in Burkina Faso solidarity is still an enduring value, she would find it good to give part of her “fortune” to the needy people who would come her way.

Mariam also wants to be registered at the child development center because she says to herself, “If I were sponsored, all my dreams would be carried out.”

It sometimes happens that she sits down and wonders why she isn’t registered.

Mariam’s mother does not raise questions any more, she is filled with joy to have two of her children registered to a child development center and to have a sponsor who writes and sends presents. Without this sponsorship, her children would not be able to go to school and big health issues could also arise.

Far from sowing discord and competition between the sponsored children and those who are not sponsored, as one might expect to see, this sponsorship on the contrary reinforces the African values of solidarity and sharing between Assanata, Zourata and Mariam.

At Christmas, one does not know who of the three girls is sponsored and who is not. Thanks to their spirit of sharing that, with time was sharpened by the biblical lessons received at the child development center, Assanata and Zourata joyfully share part of their biscuits and lollipops with their beloved sister Mariam and their brother.

Mariam is certainly happy to have her twin sisters registered at the child development center, and her desire to find herself there is undoubtedly related to the difference that the sponsorship made in the lives of her sisters and all the family.

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

Compassion International Tanzania (CIT) registered* its 50,000 child two months ago on Februray 16.

This historic registration ushered in a new era for us. It was a moment to put down our tools, celebrate the Lord’s favor, and thank Him for what he has done and for His faithfulness. It was a milestone for the Tanzanian ministry, an achievement worth celebrating.

Now let’s see how we reached the 50,000 child mark and also learn about how our child registration process works.

The milestone occurred in Tabora, more than 650 kilometers from Arusha, where the head office of CIT is located. But the search actually began months earlier.

Finding Church Partners

Before going into a new area, CIT conducts country mapping to determine the level of poverty in one area as compared to another. Country mapping is necessary so we can determine where the greatest ministry need is.

After country mapping, we conduct a baseline survey to determine if the areas identified with a high degree of poverty have Christian churches whose mission matches ours.

This is critical because we work through the local church — it is the local church that actually implements the program and cares for the children. If there is no church, our ministry model won’t work, regardless of the degree of poverty that exists there.

We ask questions, such as:

• Does the church have classrooms to accommodate the children?
• Do they have people who can teach and work with children or who can learn to assist children?
• Are there peopleand children who can help the program continue?

This baseline survey helps us decide which areas and churches are a good fit. Of course, in all the stages we keep praying and asking God to lead us in the right path and to bring people who will be willing to sponsor children and release the resources needed.

After the baseline survey, we gather all the potential church partners for vision casting. In this gathering we share the importance of ministry to children and call on the church to awaken to the call of Jesus Christ to fulfill the Greatest Commandment.

After this, we choose the potential church partners and invite them to a partnership meeting. At this one-day meeting, it is time to pray together and for us to give relevant partnership documents to the new church partners.

If the partners agree on the conditions, they sign a partnership agreement with us. These partnership agreements give room to church partners to start preparing environments to begin the ministry. They start recruiting project workers and create a child ministry committee formed from church members.

The church has to find those able and qualified to work in the project as project coordinator, project accountant, project social worker, and project health worker.

Once all the project workers are chosen, they attend the “One-Month Child Ministry Foundation Course” that all project workers go through.

In this course, the newly recruited project workers are trained on how to implement the ministry and how to minister to each child individually.

They also learn what is expected of them and different ways and procedures of reporting and giving feedback to us. They get to know the organizational structure of CIT, the departments involved, and how each department works.

Screening and Registration

All this leads up to child screening and registration.

How screening is done: Teams are created for the screening process. A team is made up of a child ministry worker, one staff member from CIT and local church members who know the people in the community.

The teams are assigned different geographic locations around the church. Each team goes from house to house in search of children who are in need.

Where there is an age-appropriate child, the team determines the level of poverty by asking several questions and by observing the family environment. If the family agrees to let their child be registered, the child will be given an identification number and instructions about what to do on the registration day.

This screening process may take two or three days depending on several factors, such as the distance from one house to another, the time the teams take to explain to the parents or guardians about the ministry and how it works, and the number of teams. The teams continue to screen children until they have found the number of children the project can register.

After screening comes the big day.

Registration day: This is the day of celebration. A new era dawns in the life of each child.

For our historic day, rain fell heavily as the day began, but this did not hamper children and mothers from gathering at the church for registration.

Many Africans associate the fall of rain with blessing, and February 16 was a day of blessing. Children and mothers rushed to the church door to make sure they didn’t miss the registration.

On registration day, the parents hear in detail about how the ministry will be conducted and what level of commitment is expected from them to support their children. If the parents feels that they cannot meet the obligation, they still have the freedom to pull out of the process, and the chance will be given to another child.

Next, the project workers start with one child, working carefully with the parents to gather accurate information about each child to send to the sponsors.

This is technically known as a “New Case History,” written in what we call the case study form. This information is what will be processed and sent to our Global Ministry Center in Colorado Springs, then to our partner countries and finally to the new sponsors.

After the case study form is completed, the child proudly stands up for his or her picture to be taken — perhaps the first picture ever taken of the child — and an identification number is assigned.

Then the pictures and case study are reviewed to see if there is any error that needs to be rectified. After this, the parents are given instructions about when the child will attend the center. If everything is well, the child will start coming to the center the following Saturday.

The 50,000 Child

Now, after all the preparation was done the teams in Tabora set to work. There were eight teams of three or four people each. Their duty was to register 380 children, and this would bring the number of registered children to 49,999. Then, all the teams would gather together to screen number 381.

No special arrangements were made to prepare the child. Screening followed the normal process. And the special child happened to be Hamisi.

Although Hamisi is the child that marks this historic registration, he is no different from the other children screened and registered in his area and in Tabora in general.

The poverty that engulfed Hamisi’s parents had affected him at the age of 6 — he had not started school. His mother got pregnant by a man who abandoned her and Hamisi. That was before she was married to her current husband. Hamisi is still the only child by the couple.

On the day of Hamisi’s registration the church was filled. The occasion was even graced by the high level government district authority. The district commissioner, who is a presidential appointee, was there to witness the registration exercise.

Children and their parents filled the church, some children sitting on the laps of their parents or guardians. They came as early as 7 a.m. because no one wanted to miss the opportunity.

Some, being Muslim, were setting their feet inside the church for the first time. Religious boundaries did not deter them, nor Christian prayers, songs, nor reading from the Bible.

That day marked a new beginning for each child. One day each week, for the rest of the time he or she will be in the program, the child will go to the center.

The child can stay in the program from age 3 up to age 22**, when it is expected he or she will have fulfilled all the core programs. A child may graduate from the program before age 22 if he or she has acquired enough skills to make him or her a fulfilled and responsible Christian adult — the ultimate vision of Compassion International.

* A registered child is different than a sponsored child in that the registered child doesn’t have a sponsor yet.

**Graduation age from the child sponsorship program differs by country.

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

From left to right: Mark Hanlon, Compassion’s senior vice president of sponsor and donor development, Jeffry and Jeffry’s grandparents

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

A registered child is different than a sponsored child in that the registered child doesn’t have a sponsor . . . yet. Once the registered child gets a sponsor, that child is a sponsored child. Makes sense, right?

The registered children are the ones whose pictures you see on the sponsor a child page at compassion.com and in the child packets at concerts and other events, such as Compassion Sunday.

The registered children are the children who are waiting to be chosen by a sponsor and who the Unsponsored Children’s Fund assists until that sponsor comes along.

The Unsponsored Children’s Fund bridges the gap between registration and sponsorship. It allows the registered child to have all the same benefits as the sponsored child.

We don’t have one million children waiting for sponsors. Jeffry is the one millionth child concurrently registered. More than 850,000 of those children already have sponsors. And since Compassion began in 1952, nearly two million children have been part of our programs.

That’s a little context for this post that Mark Hanlon, Compassion’s senior vice president of sponsor and donor development, submitted from Nicaragua yesterday.

It was like so many other Compassion child home visits I’d done before (and in my 28 years at Compassion, I’ve done a few!), but this one seemed to hold a bit of extra anticipation and excitement for me.

I happened to be in Nicaragua two weeks after we had registered our millionth child for the very first time. It turns out that this millionth child is a little 3-year-old boy in Nicaragua.

The office staff there was so excited, and they set up a home visit for me to meet little Jeffry.

It was kind of strange because Jeffry had no idea what a historic milestone he is in the history of Compassion.

In fact, when I got there with several of the Compassion Nicaragua staff and some of the center staff, he was totally overwhelmed. Too much attention by too many grown-ups all at once – and he did what many normal little 3-year olds do – he covered up his eyes with his hands (a la “see no evil”) and pretended we weren’t there!

When his grandmother (who is his caregiver since his mother now lives in the U.S. and couldn’t take him with her) tried to get him to take his hands away from his face, he ran away crying.

That was OK. We shifted our focus to the grandmother and asked her questions about the impact of having Jeffry registered in the program at the church.

She talked about the hope and a future she had for Jeffry to get through high-school and maybe even go to university.

She expressed concern over his health and the health of her husband who has diabetes.

She talked about the challenges of supporting a household of 17 adults and children in her dirt floor, cinder block structure in the heart of economically challenged Managua.

Her husband (the diabetic) and her three sons work hard as day laborers – when there is work – and they have terrible difficulty in making ends meet. She wanted better for her little grandson, Jeffry.

Then it struck me that this visit indeed was like most other visits I’d done. Parents (and grandparents) worldwide want the same thing for their children – a better future than what they have.

It didn’t matter one bit to Jeffry or his grandmother that he is Compassion’s millionth child. What did matter is that they now have some hope.

And now, I really was excited to be there! Not because I got to meet the millionth child in his home, but because I got to see something that Compassion gets to be a part of with the local church every day. Releasing a motherless child, living in extreme poverty, living with 16 other people, from poverty in Jesus’ name.

Now that’s something to get excited about!

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