Child Sponsorship: So Much More Than Financial Aid

“When I was young, I used to see my father beating my mother. I used to see him coming home drunk. … When he left, it didn’t shock me …” — Justine, Compassion program graduate

As a child, Justine experienced the heartbreak of poverty. Abandonment by her father led to severe hunger and a home in dangerous disrepair. It also led to devastating hopelessness and pain.

Money could buy little Justine and her family food or new shelter. It could give them clean water and medical care. But money couldn’t fix the pain in her heart caused by abandonment or cure her crippling loneliness. It couldn’t promise fullness of life despite her circumstances.

But Jesus could. And he did. Through the local church’s effort to share the hope of the gospel through critical care and love, Justine began to thrive, forgive and heal. This life transformation? It’s what child sponsorship provides to millions of children around the world.

Here, you’ll learn the benefits of child sponsorship by discovering what it delivers to children in need. It’s so much more than financial aid.

What’s Here:

• Benefits of Child Sponsorship: What Children Actually Receive
  • The Gift of the Gospel
  • Consistent Care
  • A Brighter Future for Themselves & Their Communities
• Compassion Child Sponsorship: See the Transformation

Benefits of Child Sponsorship: What Children Actually Receive

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” — John 10:10, NIV

Through child sponsorship, it’s our goal for every child we serve to achieve the fullness of life promised to them in Scripture. It’s our desire to help them thrive as followers of Jesus.

But to reach this goal, children need care for the physical symptoms of poverty, like hunger, but also the spiritual symptoms of poverty, like hopelessness. They need more than financial aid — they need Jesus too.

We don’t believe in the choice between fighting physical poverty or poverty of the soul. Compassion child sponsorship helps release children from both.

How? We follow Jesus. He fed the hungry, cared for the sick and shared the good news of the gospel. We do the same by meeting each child’s right-now and long-term needs, while offering them the life-changing gift of the gospel.

The Gift of the Gospel

Poverty is dark. It’s gnawing bellies, persistent sickness, homelessness and overwhelming fear. It’s lying awake on a cold floor at night, tears streaming down your face as you think, “There’s no way this will ever get better.” It’s hopelessness.

But we know that with Jesus, even the darkest of circumstances are only temporary. With Jesus, there’s eternal hope. And that’s why we share the good news of the gospel with every child we serve.

Each child is connected to a local church in their community. Here, they hear the gospel and experience Jesus’ love for them through people who know, love and live alongside them, like pastors, teachers, nurses, neighbors and friends.

The good news of the gospel helps children see and know just how loved they are by their heavenly Father. It helps them see beyond their circumstances and into a brighter future, freeing them from the hopelessness of poverty.

And hope in Jesus? It inspires them to press on. To reach their dreams. To fight for something more for themselves, their families and their communities.

Consistent Care

Children living in poverty have real, physical needs. Many are malnourished or sick without access to medical care. Many don’t have a place to live. Many must go to work or help their families find clean water instead of going to school.

Compassion meets immediate and long-term needs by providing care tailored to each child through the local church. We continue this care consistently as children grow.

Release from poverty doesn’t happen overnight. So we don’t leave. Instead, by working through the local church, we stay, caring for each child as they leave poverty behind.

Every child we serve receives:

• Protection from abuse. At each Compassion center, we surround children with loving adults trained in child protection who keep them safe and teach them to advocate for themselves and others.
• Malnutrition monitoring. We monitor each child for malnutrition and provide immediate support when needed, such as therapeutic feeding and other interventions.
• Medical care. Children receive a yearly medical checkup and have access to quality care whenever they’re sick or hurt.
• Education. Each child receives a quality education, empowering them to reach their dreams and become thriving adults able to care for themselves and their families.
• Disaster response. Children receive emergency aid when disaster strikes, such as clean water, shelter and trauma counseling.

This right-now and long-term care, coupled with the gospel, enables children to become healthy and confident followers of Jesus, empowered to overcome poverty.

A Brighter Future for Themselves & Their Communities

With Jesus in their hearts and their physical needs met, children begin to see and fight for a future beyond poverty. As they do, they inspire others to do the same. They become multipliers in the kingdom of God, spreading hope throughout their families, communities and countries.

At Compassion, we’ve seen children overcome the hopelessness of poverty in their own lives and begin to change their communities time and time again:

• Frizky overcame the abandonment of his parents to grow a hydroponic garden and program that feeds his community.
• Maisha overcame sickness and a lack of education to become a mason, building new homes for his family and those around him.
• Emma overcame genocide to become a leader in Compassion Rwanda, ministering to children throughout the country.
• Alice overcame homelessness and disease to become a thriving teen working toward a career as a physiologist, inspiring girls around her to reach for more.

The benefits of child sponsorship can be summed up in just a word: transformation. When children are cared for physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, they’re empowered to transform their lives and the lives of those around them.

Compassion Child Sponsorship: See the Transformation

Remember Justine? Once crippled by poverty and abandonment, Justine, now 27, is a Compassion program graduate changing the lives of children around her.

After being registered in the Compassion program as a child, Justine received immediate support in the form of food, medical care and education. Most importantly, she felt the love of Jesus through those moving as his hands and feet. She found a Father who healed her pain from abandonment and gave her life to him.

“I know that God is my Father. … I never felt alone because I had that relationship with Jesus.” — Justine 

With newfound hope and a desire to heed God’s calling on her life, Justine finished school and moved on to receive a Bachelor of Business Administration. She’s now working on her postgraduate diploma in education.

As an educator, Justine works with a nonprofit organization focused on helping children living in poverty throughout Rwanda access Christ-centered education. She’s a passionate mentor and child advocate, giving children the tools they need to rise above poverty.

At the same time, she’s sharing the love of Jesus with each child, partnering with the Savior to transform their lives.

Listen and watch as Justine shares her incredible story of life transformation.

97% Have Been Released From Poverty in Jesus’ Name

Just like Justine, many children have experienced a life transformation through the hope of the gospel and the consistent care that child sponsorship provides. According to a recent survey of Compassion alumni in the Dominican Republic:

• 97% said they were released from poverty in Jesus’ name.
• 95% said the program helped them have hope in their adult life.
• 95% said the program helped them achieve their educational goals.
• 95% said the Compassion center helped them have self-confidence as adults.
• 93% said the Compassion center changed their lives.
• 92% said the program helped them provide their children with a better life.
• 90% reported serving in their communities, with 73% doing so at least weekly.

This is the power that comes from local churches and supporters around the world linking arms to share hope with the most vulnerable. And this is what child sponsorship truly provides to children in desperate need.

While becoming a sponsor gifts a child with the financial resources they need to access critical needs like food and medical care, it does so much more.

It introduces them to Jesus, which can change their lives, their communities and the world forever.