A Big-picture Perspective
Becky is going through a difficult time right now. Her husband has survived cancer twice, but the doctors have found another spot on his lung. Scared that the cancer has returned, she described her feelings to me.
“I remember walking around the office and thinking ‘Does anyone know that my world has collapsed today? Does anyone even care?’”
Continue Reading ›How Young Is Too Young to Sponsor a Child?
Compassion has sponsorship booths at hundreds of events across the country, throughout the year. Some of those booths are at events specifically for teens. Working in the contact center, I sometimes speak with parents whose teen sponsored a child at one of these events.
The parents are often concerned that their teen will not be able to see the commitment to fruition. Sometimes the parents are upset that we would even allow their teen to sign up to be a sponsor.
Continue Reading ›
How to Make Your Financial Contributions Go Further
When you set up a regularly occurring and automatic direct payment plan (e.g., Automated Clearing House (ACH), bill pay or credit/debit card), you save us at least $1 on each transaction. It’s a significant amount when you consider that many of the children’s families we serve survive on less than $1 a day.
Is Compassion a Trustworthy Organization? Are You Being Duped?
Accountability. This word has so much meaning. In this fast paced and cynical world, many people have lost trust in nonprofits. It’s actually very sad, but I understand why.
How many times have you heard about the misuse of funds hindering an organization’s effectiveness, or greed compromising decision-making and values? Regrettably, I think we all have heard it too many times.
How Long Does My Child Sponsorship Last?
Although age is a determining factor in a child’s completion, we do not finalize a completion just for that reason. Our completion guidelines include consideration of our goals for each individual child and the goals each child has personally set.
Does a Child Have to Be a Christian to Enroll in Our Sponsorship Program?
Children are welcomed into our programs regardless of their faith. Although, we are unapologetically Christian and every child development center is connected to a Christian church or ministry.
That’s one of the things that makes us distinct. We’re church based.
While we provide the children and their families the opportunity to see living faith in action, hear the Gospel and be discipled in the ways of Christ, neither they nor their families are under any compulsion to become Christians.
What Should I Do if My Sponsored Child Contacts Me Via Facebook?
If you are contacted by your sponsored child outside of Compassion’s portals (e.g., by phone, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), please don’t respond, even to say “I’m sorry but I can’t talk with you in this manner.” And please let us know about the contact.
Tell Us How We’re Doing
Everyone in our contact center wants to provide the best service possible to you, at all times. But at this time, we don’t have a way to measure how we are doing with this.
Please consider this blog post an open forum to let us know about your experiences calling and e-mailing Compassion, good and bad! Whatever you have to say, we want to hear about it.
Always Picked Last (Extreme Poverty Style)
Imagine a world where you grow up with a mommy and a daddy and live in a nice warm house with your family.
You have your own bed, and sleep each night with a full belly. You go to school, and in the afternoon you go to sports practice on a green grassy lawn that is safely guarded from speeding cars and other dangers.
Imagine a world where your toys are bought from Wal-Mart, and you get a new Christmas, Easter and birthday outfit every year.
That’s not very hard to imagine … is it? Most of us grew up in that setting — or one very similar.
The situation that is hard to truly grasp is living in the circumstances the children in our sponsorship program live in.
We’ve seen the pictures; some of us have had the chance to see poverty firsthand. The reality the children in our sponsorship program live in is mostly the opposite of ours.
While some children are blessed with both parents still living, many live with other family members or older siblings. They eat one meal a day *maybe*, and play with toys that they find in the trash dumps outside their wood-walled, tin-roofed, one-room shanty.
So imagine how it brightens a child’s day when he or she goes to the child development center and receives a letter from you — the sponsor.
Now imagine a child who doesn’t have a sponsor. When all the children receive letters at the center, one never comes for this child.
This child, Carlos from Colombia, was registered into the sponsorship program in April, 2008, and has never — I repeat NEVER — had a sponsor.
What questions do you think run through his head when he attends the center during letter-writing and receiving time? What would run through your mind?
“Wait!” You say. “Doesn’t the sponsorship program still provide Carlos everything he needs? He is registered, after all.”
Let me see if I can explain. (more…)
