Stories to Connect You With Compassion & Grow Your Faith

For millions of girls around the world, menstruation brings shame, confusion and stigma. Discover how girls in Brazil, Honduras, Sri Lanka and Togo are finding education and empowerment with Compassion’s support.

Why do parents keep having children if they can’t afford to support them? Why don’t they get a different job, or work harder, if they need more money?

We put difficult but common questions like these to five brave parents of children are in Compassion’s program. In vulnerably sharing their experiences, they hope to break the stigma of and reveal the truth about living in poverty.

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.

In partnership with local churches, Compassion sponsors allow kids to dream about the future by helping to meet their physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

Hear from 10 special kids as they share their dreams.

The worldwide problems caused by COVID-19 seem nearly impossible to count, but millions in poverty share one obstacle that may eclipse all others: hunger.

If you haven’t written to your sponsored child for a while — or ever — you’re not alone. So don’t feel guilty. Read their letter and be reminded of the difference you’re making in their life; then write a few lines in return before life gets in the way. You’ll go from guilt to gratitude in minutes.

If you’re a Compassion supporter, you may have already received a letter or email reminding you to send a Christmas gift to Compassion kids this year. Why so early?

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.

Stacey opens a box and places a stack of papers, photos and cards on the dining room table of her home in a Washington, D.C., suburb.

“This,” she says with a laugh, “this is Angie!” It’s a silly birthday card with a handwritten note. Next, Stacey holds up a newspaper with the headline, “Pentagon Attack Claims Local Woman.” Angie’s obituary is clipped to the side.

Though a popular name in the Western world, Lisa is an unusual name for an Ethiopian girl. But even before his wife became pregnant, 29-year-old Sintayehu had this name picked out!

“When my wife and I decided to have a child, I told her if it is a girl, we would name her Lisa, after my sponsor,” Sintayehu says.

Since much of their home collapsed in the Aug. 14 earthquake, Sony and his family have been spending nights in the courtyard of a Compassion partner church. The church has provided tents and sleeping mats for displaced families like Sony’s.

“It’s unsafe to stay inside the house now as we are getting aftershocks on a regular basis,” says Sony, whose daughters Sandra and Samantha are in Compassion’s program at the church where they are now camping.

As a sponsor for three years and counting, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on Compassion’s mission and how it works to achieve that mission. But when I started working at Compassion as an intern this summer, I began to realize that there was still a lot I didn’t know! I have since learned several facts about Compassion’s ministry that I just wasn’t aware of before.