The property now housing the Simonette Child Development Center used to be a “peristil,” or Voodoo temple, where a well-known Voodoo priest named Sore ruled for several decades.

Sore was such a famous Voodoo priest that people from different regions in the country came to see him every day for different reasons. Pastor Monas had to face fierce opposition from Sore when he was called by God to start his ministry there 21 years ago.

Just a few months after Pastor Monas began his ministry in that area, Sore, the Voodoo priest, gave his life to Jesus. Many of his followers also turned over their lives to Christ. Before he passed away, Sore dedicated the property to the Lord for the local church and different ministries, including the school.

Currently, Simonette Christian Church is the first partner to benefit from the ministry’s reconstruction program after the 2010 earthquake that destroyed the inadequate school infrastructure that existed.

Pastor Monas shares,

“I give thanks to God that among the 44 projects that were destroyed by the earthquake, Simonette is the first one that benefits from the reconstruction. I have been facing big challenges in my ministry here during the last 21 years, but I can now testify that our partnership with Compassion (10 years) has opened the door to long-term development for our community.”

Before Pastor Monas’ ministries started in Simonette, none of the children in that area had the chance to reach the seventh grade. The reason for that was the location of existing schools. It took some children three hours to walk to the nearest town for school.

The Simonette school has made a great difference in the community as it allows more than 300 children, 280 of them sponsored, to benefit from the best education.

“Before I started my ministry in Simonette, the whole community was under the domination of Satan. As a result, many children died before reaching grade six. Because of the gospel, the devil has now no power over the children and their parents.”

Parents and children were brokenhearted when the earthquake destroyed the only school in the community. This new construction with 12 classrooms and other infrastructure brings hope again, as it will allow more children to benefit from a better education.

Ricardy is an orphan who became sponsored at 5 years old. Now, at age 15, he is in grade nine and has big dreams for the future because of our ministry’s help. Ricardy tells us,

“I like Compassion very much because were it not for its assistance, I would never been able to go to school since I have no mother and no father.

“I like my school because it is near my house. During recess time, I go to my house, eat a little something, and come back to class. If it was far away from my home, my grandmother would not be able to find transportation money to send me.

“After the earthquake, we were gathering under a tent for class. Right now I am proud of my school because it is the most beautiful school in the whole community.”

Pastor Monas is proud to see that his vision is being accomplished through the years. The reputation of the church is increasing every day because of the quality of our program. The academic performance of sponsored children is higher than the national average.

In the latest statistics, our students ranked an average of 74% in the grade 12 final exams compared with the 50% country average, and 86.11% in grade 13 final exams compared with the 86% country average.

Pastor Monas ultimate’s goal is to see that all of the children from his community have the chance to attend school and become accomplished adults. He also would like to see the whole Simonette population turn their lives to Jesus before he passes away.

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

I love superheroes. Not sure why, but since I was a kid I’ve been enthralled by Superman, Spiderman, Batman and the like. I have a collection of old comic books, action figures (don’t call them dolls!) and other superhero related knick-knacks in my office and at home.

But as I’ve grown older, I’ve learned that not all heroes wear capes. Nor do they fly through the air, spin webs, leap tall buildings or race trains. Heroes look like you and me. And our super power isn’t some phenomenal feat of strength. It’s compassion.

It’s caring enough about our fellow human beings that we are willing to do whatever it takes to end suffering.

On Jan. 12, 2010, the earth violently shook in Haiti. It destroyed cities, claimed lives, and separated families. We watched the harrowing images on our televisions. We read about it in the newspapers and listened to the story unfold on radio programs.

And, like heroes, we responded.

Money. Prayers. Mission trips. Donated goods. We saw needs and met them.

Sometimes, heroes rise up from the rubble. Our staff in Haiti and volunteers spent tireless hours caring for and reaching out to victims — even as they, themselves, lost so much in the quake.

They tracked down sponsored children and their families. They provided shelter, clean water, medicines and food. Our church partners became safe havens for families whose homes were destroyed.

One of the heroes in Haiti is a former sponsored child. His name is Sony Fleurancier.

Sony was not only a sponsored child; he was also a Leadership Development Program student who received a degree in Civil Engineering. Now, he’s using those skills to help Compassion rebuild schools in Haiti. The quake wiped out much of the nation’s infrastructure, including its schools.

As you know, our program takes place in church-based schools. Without them, most of our sponsored children would not be able to receive an education at all. By the end of this year, we hope to have six new schools built, with a long-term plan to construct 30 schools in all.

And yes, because of Sony’s expertise and that of others, those buildings will be built to international seismic standards, providing safe facilities for children while meeting the needs of our church partners.

Sony is a hero. No cape. No flying. Just answering the call. Meeting the need. And while he’s not leaping tall buildings, he’s definitely helping us build stronger ones to keep our kids safe.

Here’s to the heroes who are helping rebuild a devastated country. Rebuilding an entire country. Now that does sound superhero-ish, doesn’t it?

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

As early as 5 a.m., Martin Antwi is already working on his vegetable farm. He works until the harsh mid-day sun does not allow him to work any longer.

Later in the afternoon, Martin returns to his land to weed, plow and water all the plants until dusk. He works hard on his farm and is rewarded with a good harvest.

But despite his hard work and a good harvest, Martin had been unable to provide adequately for his family. With nearly every harvest he would lose all of his profit to the market money lenders from whom he buys his seeds and equipment.

Because vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, and lettuce mature within approximately two months, poor farmers make arrangements with market women who buy and sell the crops. The farmers prepare their land and, at planting time, they go to the market to look for prospective buyers to lend them money to buy seeds and other necessities.

Once the crops are harvested, they are taken to the market woman who lended money to the farmer. She determines how much to pay for it. She retrieves her loan plus interest from the amount she offers to pay the farmer. After all this is done, the farmer is left with virtually no money to take home.

“We work so hard but at the end of the day it is someone who loans you the money who gets everything and we go back home with nothing.”

That has been the cycle of life for this 45-year-old father of four. Martin and his family live in Pokuase, about an hour’s drive south of Accra off the main road.

The 12,000 people who live here are mostly vegetable farmers and keepers of free-range livestock, which accounts for the numerous domestic animals such as goats, chickens and dogs that roam the streets.

The residents are also petty traders who sell in stalls located throughout the community. It is possible to find almost anything one might need in these stalls. Some of the people have recently taken to cracking stones to earn a living.

Martin could not provide properly for his family. Three of his children were not in school. Even the oldest child who was enrolled in school was out of class most of the time because Martin was unable to pay the fees.

But two of Martin’s four children, Emmanuel and Sandra, are registered at the Compassion-assisted Church of Pentecost Child Development Center. It is very important for every child in the program to also attend school, so Emmanuel and Sandra were enrolled in school at the same time.

Emmanuel is a very serious 13-year-old who rarely smiles. He and his younger sister, Sandra, are in grade two at school — a situation he does not like.

“Because Sandra is in the same class with me she does not respect me as her older brother. She talks to me as if I am her age mate but I am 4 years older than her. Sometimes I want to hit her but my parents would not like it so I don’t. But I get angry.”

But Emmanuel enjoys and appreciates the child development center, where he and Sandra receive nutritrious supplemental food, medical checkups, tutoring and social nurture, school books and school fees, and Bible teaching. And there, Emmanual was also placed in the Highly Vulnerable Children’s program.

The center’s health social worker tells us,

“When we registered Sandra and Emmanuel, they were very sickly looking. We knew that they needed special care. So when the Highly Vulnerable Children program was introduced they were the first two names on the list.

“But the two of them could not benefit because the number was restricted to only six children. Emmanuel was chosen over Sandra because his condition was worse.”

Compassion’s Highly Vulnerable Children (HVC) program provides services or assistance for children in especially critical situations — conditions which may threaten their lives or prevent them from growing and developing in the way God wants them to.

HVC provided Emmanuel with nutritional supplements and nutritional food items such as beans, eggs and milk. The program also offered income-generation training for Emmanuel’s father, Martin, to help him provide for his family’s other needs. Once Martin received the training, HVC gave him a small-business grant of GHc100.00 (equivalent to about $61) which he invested into his vegetable farming.

Now Martin no longer needs the market women money lenders; he is able to keep his profit and better provide for his family.

Martin shares,

“I am now enjoying my work. Since the ministry gave us that hundred Ghana cedis, which was a far bigger amount than I was getting from the money lenders, I have control over how much I want to sell my farm produce for.”

No longer do Martin’s children need to be pulled from school for lack of fee money. With the help of Compassion’s child development and HVC programs, Martin’s four children are all now attending school.

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

Nine-year-old Jessa lives in a tiny, dark hovel situated within a crowded squatter community in metro Manila. Jessa’s home, unlike the typical homes in most squatter communities, is a concrete house.

While this shelter could keep the family safe during typhoons, on other days of the year it is very hot and humid inside their one-room house.

Jessa wakes up at 4 a.m. Monday through Friday. It is still dark at this time of day, but inside the family’s bedroom it is dark at every time of the day. They do not have a window.

During the rainy season, sleeping in their cramped bedroom is cozy, but on most days of the year, it is hot and humid. Jessa, her father, Jesus, her mother, Naty, and sister, Joyce Ann, sleep together on a tattered double-size mattress inside a 6’ x 6’ room.

The family sleeps cross-wise on the mattress with their feet touching the floor.

At 4:30 a.m. Jessa smells the freshly steamed rice “Nanay” (her mother, Naty) is cooking below; not “downstairs” but “below” since they do not have a staircase. The family bedroom is on a sort of mezzanine-type floor.

Jessa gingerly steps down onto the kitchen sink and to a wooden plank before she touches the linoleum- covered concrete floor. She tries not to startle her uncle who is sleeping on a wooden mat in the living room.

Jessa takes a quick breakfast – a plate of steamed white rice and locally canned meatloaf – and a quick morning bath.

It is so humid in the Philippines during both the dry and wet seasons that Filipinos cannot truly start their day without taking a quick shower. Jessa doesn’t have a shower. She scoops water from a pail using a plastic dipper inside their dimly lit bathroom. On cooler days during the winter, Naty heats a kettle of water for her daughters.

The Philippines does not have what many people would consider winter. It never gets that cold. There are only two seasons here – dry, when it can still get really sticky, and wet, when typhoons, cyclones, floods and flood-related diseases arrive.

Jessa’s family doesn’t really have a living room. It is just a dark, tiny living space with her uncle’s wooden bed that doubles as a couch when the family watches TV. Uncle owns the second-hand TV but it does not connect to any of the local channels; they use it only to watch DVD movies. Jessa’s uncle sells cheap, pirated DVDs.

At 5:30 a.m. Jessa is ready to walk to school. The Bayanihan Elementary School is only a few meters away. Jessa’s favorite subject is math, but she doesn’t enjoy science. Today she is competing in a journalism contest in which she already won the first round.

But Jessa doesn’t want to be a journalist or mathematician when she grows up; she hopes to be a nurse. She tells us,

“I want to be a nurse someday so that I can help other people.”

School goes until noon, then Jessa returns home for lunch. The house is better lit at this time of day, but the living room is still mostly in shadows. Jessa’s uncle has left to sell more of his DVDs.

Jessa helps herself to lunch. Her mother and little sister, Joyce Ann, join her. They are having leftover cold rice and canned meatloaf. Jessa’s father, Jesus, is working as a tricycle-taxi driver, riding through the crowded back alleys of Baler community where they live.

The tricycle-taxi, the most common form of transport in back alleys and minor Philippine roads, is a 100-cc motorcycle with a lavishly designed metal sidecar. It normally rides three passengers but can carry six when necessary. Basic fare is P8.00 (US $.19). Jessa’s father earns an average of P150 (US $3.57) a day.

After finishing her school assignments, Jessa spends the rest of the afternoon playing outside. Naty allows her to watch local TV at their neighbors’ house for an hour.

Jessa and her little sister come home at 6:30 p.m. — just before its gets dark outside (and darker inside their home) and before their neighbors start drinking bottles and bottles of beer and getting boisterous and violent.

Nearly all male adults in this crowded community spend their evenings hanging out and getting drunk; Jessa’s father is one of the few exceptions.

Almost all female adults hang out all day gossiping and gambling, except for Jessa’s mother and a few others.

For dinner, the entire family eats cold rice and canned meatloaf – more leftovers. By 9 p.m. the entire family is back in their tiny mezzanine bedroom.

This is Jessa’s typical day. But her routine changes dramatically on Saturdays, when she goes to her nearby Compassion-assisted child development center to play with friends, sing and dance, listen to Bible stories, memorize verses, learn, and eat nutritious meals and snacks.

“I really enjoy going to the student center because I learn many things; I also get school tutorials, and I also enjoy memorizing verses.”

Jessa’s mother shares,

“Jessa loves to study. She is intelligent, respectful, kind and diligent. She does her homework on her own.”

Naty hopes and prays that Jessa will go to college someday and achieve her dreams in life – something Naty and her husband dreamed of as they grew up but never had the chance to fulfill.

Naty grew up in the same community. She saw, felt, smelled, tasted and experienced all that her daughter is going through right now, but there is a big difference — Jessa is a sponsored child through Compassion International.

Jessa receives regular medical and dental checkups, school tutorials, spiritual discipleship, and one-on-one attention and care, as do all of the 160 children registered at the CCWI (Church of Christ Worldwide Inc.) Student Center.

Jessa’s family is also comforted to know that local Compassion staff will help take care of them if their house ever gets struck down by a strong flood or other calamity or if Jessa becomes seriously ill — tragedies that are not uncommon in Philippine squatter communities.

As her mother says,

“Jessa’s sponsorship is a big help to us. We have very little in life. She is learning many things at the student center and church. Our family is very grateful.”

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

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti caused the death of 62 sponsored children, injured 961 sponsored children, significantly damaged 69 partner churches and damaged or destroyed nearly 20,000 homes of our program beneficiaries.

After this earthquake, one of our biggest challenges was to design a short-term strategy to address the urgent needs for children to resume school activities in a country where only slightly more than half of all school-aged children attend primary school.

In Port-au-Prince, 80 percent of schools were destroyed or partially damaged – a hopeless situation for a country with an already-poor educational infrastructure.

Among Haiti’s child development centers, approximately 60 schools were severely damaged or completely destroyed. Emmanuel, director of the Dufort Child Development Center in Leogane, where the epicenter of the earthquake was located, shares,

“There was no hope when we saw everything collapsed in the earthquake, especially the school building. The Haitian government was overwhelmed by the extent of the damage and could not even provide for itself. We did not know what to do with the children whose education is the only hope.”

School education is one of the top priorities among Haitian parents and children. Parents will do all they can to send their children to school because they believe it is the best way to ensure that their children will have hope and a future.

All 68,000 children registered in Haiti’s child sponsorship program go to school.

About three months following the earthquake, we launched strategies to build temporary shelters for our church partners. As a short-term solution, we provided canopies that could be used as meeting spaces to protect children and staff from bad weather.

We also provided steel containers to house offices and help protect computers, files, supplies, furniture, and other important items.

The most-affected church partners received financial assistance to remove rubble and build temporary shelters. Through a strategy we called “Transitional School Building for Implementing Church Partners,” our partnering churches were provided with basic construction materials such as wood, nails and corrugated-metal sheets in order to erect temporary school shelters enabling more than 15,000 children to return to school.

This transitional building process lasted one month, during which 409 classrooms were built for 60 child development centers. Guilbaud, Compassion’s country director for Haiti, explains,

“It was our goal through this strategy to give, in a short span of time, a sense of normalcy to each child’s life. And the Compassion age-group activities and school education were the best ways to keep the children busy after such a tragedy.”

It was a relief to the church partners to be equipped with such facilities, and the children were excited to see the new construction. Children received school furniture to replace all that they had lost in the earthquake.

Others share their gratitude for the effort to get schools back in operation:

“Today we are back [and] operational and we are so proud to remain as an oasis in the desert for the community in order to continue to carry out child development activities.” – Pastor Menard, Leogane Child Development Center

“We love everything you have done for us after the earthquake, but the most important was to allow us to go back to school. I thank you so much.” — 11-year-old Chinica

“I did not feel well when I could not go to school after the earthquake. When I saw that the school collapsed I felt no hope until you came to provide the church with equipment to build temporary shelters for both the development center and the school. I enjoy my time at school now. And I am learning very well. I especially love the way the school is temporarily built. We know that if ever the ground shakes there is no way to be harmed by collapsed things.” –10-year-old Marie

The Dufort Child Development Center has 344 children registered in the child sponsorship program and 450 pupils attend their primary school. While the center was completely devastated, no one was killed or injured there. One child from the Dufort center, 14-year-old Judelove, was in Port-au-Prince at the time of the earthquake and, sadly, died in the quake.

Pastor Wagnac is senior pastor and founder of the Wesleyan church partnering with the Dufort Child Development Center. He says,  

“We were concerned for the future of the church and the ministry here, but you have [proven] once more that the ministry of Compassion is a partner we can rely on even in the hardest time. You have provided assistance that is helping us to get back up today. All glory be to God!”

Center director Emmanuel adds,

“We are truly indebted to Compassion for this support that allows more than 400 children to go back to school. We realize that, even as a temporary shelter, we definitely have a better school building where children feel comfortable to learn with no fear.”

The Transitional School Building strategy is completed and now our focus is on the long-term school rebuilding effort.

Forty-four earthquake-proof school buildings will be erected throughout the west, southeast and Nippes regions of Haiti, where the earthquake caused the greatest damage. At the one-year commemoration of the earthquake, our team placed the foundation stone in the yard of the Capitol Child Development Center, where a new school building will be erected.

Located in Port-au-Prince, the Capitol Development Center is part of the Wesleyan mission, one of our partners most affected by the earthquake with eight school and church buildings completely destroyed.

The 44 church partners in the earthquake-affected areas of Haiti have worked with a team of engineers to develop custom rebuilding plans that include structures, latrines and clean-water-source solutions. Long-term solutions also include ensuring that a water, sanitation and hygiene strategy is in place at each of the 44 centers that were destroyed or severely damaged by the quake.

“The 44 earthquake-proof school buildings we aim to erect will benefit more than 20,000 children,” said engineer Yves Osias, ministry reconstruction supervisor.

Construction work for the first school began at the Simonette Child Development Center.

“The length of time for the implementation of the overall reconstruction project is three years. Each school that will be equipped with 12 classrooms requires about seven months to be built. Therefore, to meet this deadline, many construction [projects] will be held simultaneously.”

The classrooms will each accommodate approximately 45 children. In addition to the classrooms, each school will include: a cafeteria, a sanitary section, the school administration offices, and the child development center office.

Principal Joseph of the Papette Child Development Center underscores the importance of the reconstruction:

“There is no doubt that the performance of the children will be improved because of such new facilities and better learning environment. It’s an activity that will enhance development in the communities as education is the key of success for children in poor families. And you have offered us this opportunity.”

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

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.

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

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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By attending classes at his or her child development center your sponsored child receives age-appropriate instruction in four main areas:

• spiritual
• cognitive
• physical
• socio-emotional

At KE-630, Good Shepard Isinya Student Center, all the children begin their Saturday at 9 a.m. with spiritual learning. Then, at 9:35 a.m., the subject being taught changes to follow a curriculum created for one of the other learning domains.

At 10:10 a.m. the children get a break for breakfast, and when classes resume, the two remaining domains are taught. Classes end at 1 p.m. and lunch is then served.

Classes in each of the four domains are taught every Saturday, and each class is 35 minutes long.

KE-630 runs its program in a way that is very similar to what many children in the U.S. experience in elementary school. A class of 20 to 30 students is associated with one teacher who teaches lessons in each of the various subjects.

Classes are divided into age categories (e.g., 9 to 11, 12 to 14, etc.), which are like grades, and each group of children is taught an age-based curriculum for each of the four domains.

Thus, the 12 to 14 year old children we observed at the center today had one class, in the physical domain, in which they were learning what puberty is and about the different physical changes boys experience as they become men.

In one of the spiritual classes we sat in on, another group of children were learning about God’s holiness, that He is pure and holy and that there is no evil in Him.

Here’s a little of what we saw.

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Questions. Ever have any?

Ever have any about Compassion? Maybe not, but others sure do.

This is a common one that our phone center representatives hear a lot.

• Doesn’t my Compassion child attend school at Compassion’s child development center?

Fortunately for you we’re not just giving you the question, here is the answer as told to us by those very same folks on the phone.

Compassion does not provide formal schooling for the children. Many children may attend the local government school. When needed, part of the $32 for sponsorship goes towards paying for the child’s school fees such as books or uniforms.

The children do attend the Compassion child development center for a variety of activities. The Compassion development center may enhance what the child is learning in school and it focuses on the most important areas of growth while promoting life skills.

Many people think Compassion provides official schooling like a private school, but we don’t. And now ya know.

Have other questions?

We have a list of frequently asked questions you may be interested in, but if you’re not interested in traveling over to compassion.com to read them, stay tuned because we’ll be highlighting some more right here.

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