From Hunger to Hope: A Brave Girl Named Norah

Norah’s mother, a hairdresser, and her father, a soldier in the Rwandan army, worked hard to provide for their daughter. But when war and genocide tore through Rwanda in 1994, it also ripped a hole straight through Norah’s heart.

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Watch: A Compassion Storyteller’s 4 Favorite Videos

Man carrying a young boy on his shoulders

Ryan Johnson, Creative Manager for Global Marketing at Compassion, is an award-winning documentary director and humanitarian photographer who has worked in six continents and 40-plus countries, telling stories in some of the most remote and challenging environments on Earth.

Recently, we asked Ryan to choose a few favorites from films he’s worked on since joining Compassion in 2012. Watch his top picks and read why he chose each.

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Christian is wearing a navy blue shirt with gray stripes down the center. He is outside his aunt's home with his Aunt Pascasie, and his cousins, Cynthia and Mugisha. They have their arms around each other.

How a Compassion Blog Story Helped Reunite This Rwandan Family

“I was in church when I realized I had 15 missed calls,” Christian shares. “My phone had been on silent mode. When I stepped out of the service to call and find out why someone had made 15 calls in the space of seven minutes, the person on the other side of the call told me they were my uncle from my father’s side of the family.”

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Two children are in a wood canoe on a lake. There are more people unloading items from another boat in the background.

Facts About Rwanda: Land of a Thousand Hills

Rwanda is a stunning landlocked country found in East Africa. Known as the “Land of a Thousand Hills,” Rwanda boasts towering volcanos like Mount Karisimbi, where mountain gorillas live. Learn some interesting facts about Rwanda and the 99,430 Compassion-assisted children who live there.

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Grace outside her home in Uganda

This Is How Grace Lives Without Limits

Many in Grace’s community saw her disabilities as a curse and even suggested to take her life. But her mother would go to great lengths to ensure she was safe, loved and could live without limits.

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A woman, a girl and a boy sit at a long, narrow desk outdoors. The woman and girl are looking over papers, schoolwork. The boy is concentrating on his papers, homework.

Kids in Poverty Adapt to the Strange New World of School at Home

In early 2020, we documented children all over the world as they returned to school or began kindergarten for the first time. Just months later, the COVID-19 pandemic saw schools close in almost every country in the world.

As International Literacy Day approaches, we’re sharing these before and after photos of how school has changed for children around the world because of the coronavirus.

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Dr. Addisalem Gebresilassie wearing scrubs and surgical mask

From Sponsored Children to Health Care Heroes!

We’re so inspired by all the health care workers around the world who are sacrificing to save others. Meet five amazing people who grew up sponsored and are now giving back in a big way!

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A young woman in an orange shirt smiles.

Rwandan Teen Invents Prize-Winning Digital Cane for the Blind

Sponsored girl Yvette Mukamwiza is making headlines after winning a national innovation competition for designing a digital cane for the blind.

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A group of children in Honduras smile for the camera.

3 Ways the World Has Changed for Children in 30 Years

This year, Compassion joins other humanitarian and child-focused organizations around the world to celebrate a landmark: the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A convention might sound a little boring, but this historic meeting laid out the human rights that apply to all children. We have a lot to celebrate about the progress children’s rights have made in the last 30 years. We’d like to highlight three ways things have changed in the past 30 years for children.

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A boy wearing a red Santa cap holds out a small nativity set.

4 Reasons This Could Be the Best Christmas Ever

Did you know that churches around the world are already starting to prepare for Christmas? Our church partners take this opportunity to bring joy and share Jesus’ love with the children in their care very seriously. You will be inspired by these four ways that this could be the best Christmas ever for children around the world.

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Christine stands with her arms behind her head, wearing an African-style dress and looking into the distance

25 Years After Genocide in Rwanda: 3 Astonishing Stories of Forgiveness

It’s been 25 years since the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. How does a country move forward from such trauma? Though the cruelty and pain of this tragic event are unimaginable, the Rwanda of today is unrecognizable from the horror of ’94. Read the moving stories of three Compassion alumni choosing radical forgiveness instead of hate.

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Why Compassion International Doesn't Work in Unstable Conflict Zones

Why Compassion Doesn’t Work in Unstable Conflict Zones

In 1954, Everett Swanson’s relief work developed sponsorship programs which provided help for the children of post-war Korea. Those efforts have evolved into a global, program-based, holistic child development model. These days, you are less likely to find Compassion in the midst of a conflict zone but instead working at the heart of more stable communities. Here are three reasons why.

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