The residents of the Arat Kilo area in Ethiopia depended on the minimum wages they earned working as daily laborers, housemaids and petty traders to support their large families. So the news of an organization registering children to support them was miraculous.

Mothers rushed to the compound of the church with their curious-eyed little children. People who passed by the church took a moment to learn about the large crowd in the compound. Some ran back home to get their children while the others went on with their business.

Though the degree of poverty varied and each family’s story was different, these people had one thing in common that day — they had hope. Hope that God heard their plea for help; hope that this would be the beginning of a brighter future for their children; and hope that the children they held in their arms would be sponsored.

How It Began

Hailemariam

Hailemariam’s mother was going through a divorce when she took her son to the church where registration was taking place. In addition to the pain of the divorce, the responsibility of providing for six children was a nightmare for her.

“I clearly remember the day my mother took me for registration. We were living in poverty at that time. My mother struggled to feed us. She was only able to buy bread for us and most of the time we only had one meal a day. Therefore, my mother considered the opportunity as an answer to her prayers.”

Fekadu

Fekadu, an 8-year-old boy, was passing by the church when he saw a crowd of people with children. He went inside and asked why they were there.

“Most of my friends in the village were being supported by an organization near our village. Therefore, when I heard about the registration at the church I just wanted to be part of it so that I can also be supported like my friends.”

Unfortunately, the woman who was doing the screening called Fekadu aside and told him to go home because there were children who lived in conditions worse than his.

However, Fekadu went to another person and was registered. After some time, the child development center asked Fekadu to bring his parents to the center to finish some paperwork – but that was impossible for Fekadu, who hadn’t told his parents what he had done.

“My father was a very conservative Orthodox Christian. I knew better than to tell him I went to the church compound and got myself registered to be supported by Protestants. That would have been the end of me, so I brought a neighbor to finish the paperwork.”

Hannan

Hannan was raised by her mother, who supported her and four of her siblings by selling second-hand clothing.

“Our daily life was so unpredictable. Our having food for the day entirely depended on my mother selling clothes. If she was lucky enough to sell a lot of clothing, then we would have food that evening. If not, there would be no food at all. Our life was very stressful and it was especially difficult for my mother.”

Hannan used to go to the church to attend Sunday school with her friends who were registered in the child sponsorship program. She loved the Bible studies and spending time with her friends at the church.

When Hannan’s mother heard about the church registering 20 additional children, she brought her little girl to the compound.

“Everybody at the church knew me, and when an opportunity came for registering additional children, my mother and I were the first to arrive at the church. But there were more than 300 people for the 20 openings. After a long process, God made it possible for me to join the program.”

Nebeyu

Nebeyu grew up with his grandfather and his uncle. His parents separated before he was born and he lost his mother when he was 5 years old.

With no regular income, the family was living in poverty. When people from the local administration came to their village, Nebeyu became one of the first children to be registered.

Henock

Henock went to the county a few days before the official registration day with his stepmother. At that time, they were among the many village residents who were living in desperate conditions.

His father worked in a government office and his salary was barely enough to cover basic expenses like food and clothing.

Unfortunately, Henock’s grandparents’ former status became an obstacle and they were told he didn’t qualify for the registration.

“We went back home heartbroken. My stepmother was especially sad because she believed that my joining the program was my only hope to live a better life. It was a miracle when we were called after a few hours to go to the county to get registered because they couldn’t fill the quota for registered children.

“We got there as fast as we could and that is how I joined Compassion.”

Where Are They Now?

Even though different circumstances brought them to the child development center, all five children talk about the significant role that Compassion has played in their lives. The love and commitment of both the development center staff and the Sunday school teachers made each child feel wanted.

The staff’s encouragement, motivation and follow-up played a huge part in helping the children believe in themselves.

Hailemariam

Hailemariam was in second grade when he joined the program. His first day at the center, when people hugged him and showed him that they care, was what made him consider the center a second home.

“I started loving going to the development center because my teachers treated me with love. I remember I was dirty and not dressed very well, but in spite of that they used to hug me whenever I went to the center. Their love and care was what made me go every week.”

Hailemariam grew up learning the Bible and getting involved in church activities.

“My foundation was laid during my early years in the program. I believe the Lord used the Sunday school classes to guide me in His way.”

Apart from the spiritual nurturing, the program’s support helped him pursue his education without having to worry about the next tuition fee. Hailemariam has graduated from a well-known college with a degree in surveying and now works as a data collector for various nongovernment organizations.

“I grew up seeing their [the development center staff and Sunday school teachers'] commitment which has taught me to do the same wherever God puts me to work. In fact, I’m planning to study community development next year so that I will be able to serve others and show the same level of commitment and passion I saw in my center’s staff.”

Fekadu

Fekadu was from a conservative Orthodox family who never wanted anything to do with Protestants. The community’s general perception that the program came to make children Protestant also put pressure on him and made him doubt the intention of the program.

However, the way the Sunday school teachers treated and taught him motivated Fekadu to come every week and gradually changed his perception.

“They were very committed to each of us and they taught us with such passion that I just enjoyed my time there. I remember I was one of the first children who was baptized. Even though I don’t remember the exact day I gave my life to Jesus, I can say that it was a process.”

Fekadu now serves the Lord as a church elder. He coordinates children’s ministry and also serves in the choir.

Hannan

Hannan, a humble and soft-spoken young girl, talks about our ministry’s importance in her life.

“Everything changed in me and in our house after I joined Compassion. What I like most about Compassion is that it’s holistic. I grew up in a balanced way. I grew up learning the Bible. I grew up being motivated to pursue my education. I grew up going to places during school breaks.

“The most important thing I got through the program is that I knew Jesus and believed in Him.”

Hannan was a top student and after passing the 10th grade national exam, she studied accounting in evening classes. She now works as an accountant at Mekanisa Addis Kidan Church Student Center. A courageous and visionary woman, Hannan plans to continue her education in management and tourism and have her own business.

When asked where she would be had it not been for this ministry, she says,

“I think I would be able to reach some place that would enable me to support myself but I think the way God led me thus far is much better because I have Him in my life. Had it not been for Compassion, I am sure I would never have the satisfaction I have now. I’m where I am because of Jesus.”

Nebeyu

Nebeyu was one of the oldest boys at the child development center. Hence, the community’s negative perception toward the program highly influenced him.

Nebeyu came to the center to attend Sunday school because he had to. No matter how doubtful he was of the Bible teaching, he soon learned of the Truth.

“I had a friend who was a deacon in the Orthodox Church and one day I asked him to give me a Bible. I started comparing what I learned at the center with the Bible he gave me. I also started studying the Bible the center gave us.

“The more I studied, the more I began to see the truth. My life’s transformation was a process, and I found myself with Jesus.”

One of the brightest students in the center, Nebeyu pursued his education because he believed it was the only way out of his family’s poverty. Though he studied hard, he was unable to score a good grade on the national exam.

Seeing Nebeyu’s potential, the child development center paid for his college education and he earned a diploma in accounting.

After working in the center as an accountant Nebeyu received yet another opportunity: to study urban missions abroad. He now supports his grandfather as well as his own family, working as a manager in a local nongovernment organization.

Nebeyu recently became a father to a beautiful baby boy.

“I believe that Compassion and the church have played the greatest role in who I am today. They built my confidence and guided me all my life. Had it not been for the program, I would have ended up like my friend in the village — dropping out of school and doing odd jobs.”

Henock

A few years after registration, Henock found himself being influenced by the bad habits of his school friends. He started smoking and drinking alcohol, which affected his education. However, during the seven years he was struggling with these addictions the development center staff, as well as the Sunday school teachers, never gave up on him.

“In all of this, the center staff and people from the church still came to visit me. They would tell me about the Lord and counsel me.

“At first, their commitment used to irritate me. But after a while I started to get amazed because even my own father had lost hope concerning me — yet people who don’t know me that much persistently came to my house to see how I was doing.”

The moment Henock accepted Jesus as his Savior, he was freed from his addictions. He serves the Lord by singing in the choir, playing keyboard and acting in spiritual dramas. He thanks the staff for seeing the good in him during all those years.

The development center arranged for Henock to study photography and video editing. Currently he works as a part-time photographer for Compassion; he’s a freelance videographer and also edits videos.

“Were it not for Compassion, I know I wouldn’t be here today. I know I wouldn’t know Jesus. I always thank the Lord for the day I joined the program.”

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

One-to-one sponsorship helps children across the globe write off poverty and begin living a lives of hope. And it begins when someone picks up a child packet and makes the commitment to sponsor a child. That’s when our sponsorship notification process gets rolling.

The field country office initiates the process of notifying the child with the exciting news that he or she has a sponsor.

In the country office, the Program Communication Department is the first to learn that a child has been sponsored. It takes 60 days from the time the country is notified that there is a new sponsor to when the first child letters arrive in our Global Ministry Center in Colorado Springs.

In East India, for example, the Sponsor Donor Services (SDS) Associate generates the list of newly sponsored children from our Correspondence Tracking Application each Monday.

Next, the packing list for new assignments is printed for every child development center and the blank stationary for each child’s first letter is also printed out along with the bar code, the names and numbers of the child and the sponsor on it. The letters are dispatched to the centers the following day.

The centers learn about the sponsorship details from the new assignment packing list and letters they receive from the country office. They check the individual child folders of the children mentioned in the list to see if they are first-time or formerly sponsored, and they update the child sponsorship register accordingly.

The sponsorship date and the child numbers from the list are then recorded in the Correspondence Data Chart that every center maintains. The original packing list is photocopied and filed at the center in a separate folder.

The center manager then goes into individual classrooms to notify the children about their new sponsors. Once children are notified, the center staff makes it a point to explain them about the whole idea of sponsorship through informal talk. This helps them relate you better in the future.

Parents are notified about their child being sponsored either during a home visit by the social worker or during the parents’ meeting at the center.

Each child has to write a letter of introduction to his or her sponsor. A child’s first letter includes information about the child’s family, the family’s income, the community, the challenges the family faces, and a small note of thanks from the child’s family. The child development workers (CDW) collect this information from the children and their parents through informal interaction.

In each center, the child development workers help children to write letters. The manager writes down the sponsor’s name and number along with the sponsor’s country on a small piece of paper and hands it out to the tutors. The tutors help the children to memorize their sponsors’ names. The center staff assists small children who cannot frame full sentences by writing on their behalf.

Children who can’t yet write are encouraged to write the alphabet, numbers or draw in the space provided for them in the child letter. Older children write on their own in their vernacular, which is corrected for grammatical errors and translated back into English by the child development workers.

After children finish writing their letters, the check box next to the child names in the New Assignment Packing List is ticked. The center manager then checks each letter before they are returned to the country office for processing.

Once the letters arrive at the field office they are again checked for quality, content and child contribution by the SDS Associate. The letters are then sorted by sponsor country and scanned into our Correspondence Tracking Application.

A packing list is generated for each scanned set of new assignment letters and the printed copy of it is attached with the physical bunch, after which it is ready for packaging and subsequent mailing to the Colorado Springs office.

Once the letters reach the Colorado Springs office, they are routed to sponsors in the different countries where sponsors live. A child’s first letter is important as it begins the link between the child and the sponsor and sets the foundation for bonding in the future.

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

As a child, I held onto my dream despite the glaring poverty that threatened to kill it. I dreamed I would be some sort of a great leader when I grew up. My parents always reminded me that it would be important to work hard in school and trust in God in order for my dreams to come true.

Childhood memories are still fresh in my mind. I grew up in a neighborhood of 10′ x 10′ shelters made out of sticks, mud walls and iron sheet roofs.

My father volunteered as a church planter in the slums while my mother made and sold African attire known as ‘Kitenge’ in a small market nearby.

I watched one of my sisters die at age 3. I was only about 4 years old then.

Many children die before the age of 5 in my community. Perhaps that explains why most parents have many children — they have to take chances because they aren’t sure which ones will make it.

I am one of five siblings that survived. My eldest sister is 32 years old and I am the second oldest. I have a younger sister who is 25 and a brother who is 24. My youngest sister is 19.

Infrastructure is a great challenge in my community. There are no nearby hospitals or schools, so we remained isolated from the rest of the world.

Without medical coverage, a hospital visit in the neighboring town reaps hefty hospital bills. It is particularly hard for parents who cannot find employment.

As a result, many parents avoid taking their children to hospital for fear of being detained in hospital if they can’t afford the fees.

Only in serious cases is anyone taken to hospital and, even then, transportation is a challenge. Some of them never make it in time and die on their way.

Bitter herbs are common for most illnesses, and as a kid I dreaded saying I was sick because it was hard to stomach the bitter herbs going down my throat.

Sanitation was and still remains a great challenge in Kibera.

Residents answer the call of nature in buckets in the comfort of their small houses and pack the waste in plastic bags, which they throw out of their windows at night. This practice led to the rise of a new term — “the flying toilets of Kibera.” Curfew hours begin at 8 p.m. in Kibera, and puu-puu begins flying through the windows.

My father believed that the reason he was living in abject poverty is because he never had the privilege of completing his high school education. He resolved to give his children good educations if he could.

My family eventually moved from Kibera to Dandora, about half an hour east of the city of Nairobi.

Dandora is known for being the largest dumping site in Kenya, where crime and all sorts of evil reigns. Dad relocated the family to Dandora because the government was setting up public schools there and he wanted us to be in a neighborhood with public schools.

When we moved to Dandora, I started schooling immediately. My dad, together with five other families, founded Dandora Baptist Church.

Compassion came to my new neighborhood and started a partnership with our church, enrolling children in the child sponsorship program.

The idea of child sponsorship was a new phenomenon in my neighborhood. When the church came asking to enroll the children in the program, many parents were hesitant for a number of reasons; some thought that the church was taking advantage, trying to woo members because the church had only five families as part of its congregation.

The was also a rumor going around that the church wanted to enroll the children in devil worshiping, and this rumor saw many parents becoming skeptical even though their children were eligible for the program.

I had heard the rumor at school, and I pretended that I was not associated with the church. I still remember going home and my parents telling me that they had chosen me to be enrolled in the program since Compassion only took one child per family.

Of course you can tell I was not going to receive the news with joy. I thought my parents had decided to give me away. How unfortunate! What had I done to receive such treatment?

Then came the day of enrollment. Compassion Kenya staff had all the children lined up as their parents watched from the church pews. The registration ages were 4 to 10 years old.

There was no way to tell the ages of most kids since they had no birth certificates. This is common since some kids aren’t born in hospitals, but at home with the help of non-certified midwives.

The only way to tell the age was to have all the children line up and look at their stature. I knew I was 11 years for sure. I wanted to say that I was over age, but the look on my parents face spelled disaster if I was to divulge that.

As the Compassion staff inspected the queue, I hoped that they would pull me out. They pulled quite a number of those who looked old, but my little emaciated body denied me the chance of being pulled out of line.

I almost shouted my real age when the Compassion staff passed me. The numbers of children who passed the “age verification test” was 80, far less than the expected number, so Compassion staff decided to extend grace and enroll ages 4 to 12 years.

That was the moment I knew I was now completely netted. I could see my mother smiling broadly after the pronouncement. She had her fingers crossed all this time, and finally the kids who were enrolled into the program numbered maybe 114.

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