#GivingTuesday 2014: A Baby’s First Steps

Today is #GivingTuesday. It’s about creating a new tradition during the holiday season. We have traditions of giving thanks. And traditions of giving gifts. Now we have a tradition of giving back. If you want to promote generosity, we’d love for you to join with us in raising $25,000 to build a Child Survival Program (CSP) in Gujarat in western India.

In India, child survival is one of the most fundamental issues when it comes to addressing poverty. Nearly 1 million children there will never reach their first birthday, missing out on their first steps. This program will give expectant moms, new moms and newborn babies the opportunity to become healthy moms and healthy children. By partnering with a local church in Gujarat to build this program, we are committing to invest in these families’ lives when they are at their most vulnerable and give babies a chance at their first steps.

How Can You Help?

1. Learn more about the CSP and donate today. With your help, we know we can raise the $25,000 needed for this project!

2. Tell your communities. Share on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ or Pinterest how you’re giving back using the hashtags #ChildSurvival and #GivingTuesday.

Don’t know what to share? Here are some ideas. Feel free to use any or all of these ideas, tweets and posts!

#Unselfie

After donating, take an #Unselfie (unselfish “selfie”) with #ChildSurvival and post it on your favorite social networks. Share why you’ve chosen to be part of #GivingTuesday and invite your communities to join you. Be sure to include compassion.com/firststeps. See options for facts about India and information about the CSP church community below.

In addition to sharing your story of giving, here are other ways you can help spread the word.

Tweets

• 20% of the world’s child deaths are in India. It doesn’t have to be that way. #ChildSurvival #GivingTuesday compassion.com/firststeps
• “Babies are such a nice way to start people.”- Don Herold. Help a #ChildSurvival Program in India! #GivingTuesday compassion.com/firststeps
• 1.83 million children in India won’t make age 5 this year. We can change that! #ChildSurvival #GivingTuesday compassion.com/firststeps
• Give babies in India a chance at their first steps by helping build a #ChildSurvival Program! #GivingTuesday compassion.com/firststeps
• Today, for 2,082 children in India, there will be no tomorrow. Help #ChildSurvival on #GivingTuesday! compassion.com/firststeps

Add this image to your tweets.

Facebook, Instagram or Google+ Posts

• Nearly 1 in every 3 newborn deaths in the world occurs in India. #ChildSurvival begins in the womb with proper medical care and education for expecting mothers. It’s #GivingTuesday. Let’s help rescue a baby and mother in poverty by funding a Compassion Child Survival Program in Gujarat, India: compassion.com/firststeps
• For #GivingTuesday, help open a Compassion Child Survival Program in a small community in Gujarat, India. In this community, where most mothers are teenagers and few have the resources to provide for their children, this program will mean the difference between #ChildSurvival and death for babies in poverty. Here’s where to donate today: compassion.com/firststeps

Add this image to your post.

Facts about the community in Gujarat where the CSP will be opened:

• The average age of a first-time mother is just 18.
• More than 70 percent of mothers give birth in their homes.
• Less than 30 percent of mothers have access to a hospital or trained birthing attendant.
• Children here are often born malnourished.
• Issues in this community include child marriages, child abuse, alcoholism and child labor.

Share this powerful story from yesterday’s blog post on World Aids Day about a mother with HIV in India whose life was changed when she enrolled in the Child Survival Program at a church in her community.

Together, we can change the future for these mothers and babies in Gujurat! Follow the hashtags on Twitter and Instagram with us and engage with others like yourself who are making a difference today. And we’d love to see your unselfies too! Leave a comment below on how you gave today and post a link to your unselfie!