Why Holistic Child Development?
Holistic. Body, mind, heart and spirit. It makes all the difference in the world and this infographic will show you how.
Continue Reading ›Our Brains Are Amazing
There are so many studies on the brain and so much can be confusing. But one thing is certain — our brains are amazing and what happens when we are young impacts our futures exponentially.
Continue Reading ›
Teaching Home Economics With Common Sense
Moms in our Child Survival Program typically lack the opportunity to learn basic home economics skills. Knowledge that we consider common sense is not always common for them.
How Important Is a Father’s Role in a Child’s Life?
Whether walking into a coffee shop or walking down a dirt road to a child development center, fathers can use their powerful influence to change the life of a child.
How Do We Teach the Children in Our Programs?
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. We have created 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.
Bearing Good Fruit
The ministry that Compassion does around the world is development. And, just as in farming, we do what we do for the outcomes—the fruit—not for the activities themselves. A farmer doesn’t grow trees because it’s good to grow trees; he grows trees in order to get the apples. At Compassion, we don’t busy ourselves with activities, because the activities are good, but because we want to see an outcome of our labor—good fruit.
My People Are Destroyed From Lack of Knowledge
The Pastors Discipleship Network (PDN) is an initiative begun by Leadership Development Program graduate and Moody Bible Institute scholar Richmond Wandera. It exists: “to train and equip local pastors in Africa with basic study tools for accurately interpreting God’s Word through monthly seminars, accountability relationships, and the provision of study resources.”
An Oasis of Talent in the Mire of Mathare Valley
The Saturday program at Mathare Community Outreach begins by focusing on the spiritual development of the children. It starts with devotions and worship and is followed by 30 minutes of small group Bible study.
For the children who have accepted Christ as their Savior, the center staff conduct a discipleship class which occurs during the Bible study.
In addition to the spiritual development of the children, the center has programs to address the physical, social and economic needs of the children.
The key factor in creating a stable economic future for the children is education; education is the key.
But beyond focusing on excellence in school, the center staff help identify and develop the talents of the children, musically and artistically, so they have even greater opportunities to succeed.
The center has a cooking program, choir and music program and drama team and works with the children to develop their public speaking abilities.
Here’s a sample of what the kids are producing.
Sponsored Child, Radio Evangelist
It is 6 a.m. in the community of Talanga, just 45 kilometers from Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras, and the radio program for children, “Oasis of Love,” is about to start.
One of the commentators is 12-year-old Olvin, the voice for the children in this special radio program produced by his church pastor.
The radio program is organized by the Iglesia de Dios de la Profecia and intends to spread the message of God’s love to every child, through music, Bible stories, a prayer time, and a question and answer time — an important part of the program in which Olvin has a big participation as he expresses his comments over the questions, and later prays for the children’s needs.
Eliminate Poverty: Can We Do It or Not?
On the subject of eliminating poverty, how do we reconcile the seemingly conflicting messages of John 12:8 and Deuteronomy 15:4?
Child Abuse Prevention Month
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month in the U.S., a time to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect. Our mandate as child advocates is to ensure that all children within our care and those we interact with every day enjoy a loving and safe environment.
Compassion is committed to protecting children from all forms of abuse and exploitation. Our board policy communicates this clearly by stating that:
“Concern for children is the cornerstone upon which Compassion International has been built. We are opposed to all forms of abuse and exploitation and will do everything within our power to ensure that no harm comes to any child registered in our program due to his or her involvement in the ministry of Compassion International.”
By protecting children, we are responding to Christ’s mandate to care for and protect His little ones.
Complementary Interventions With Heidi Partlow
The first thing Heidi Partlow does each morning is check her e-mail. It’s always packed. As Compassion’s complementary interventions manager, she gets all kinds of e-mails each day.
E-mails about how to submit a proposal for a complementary interventions (CIV), e-mails from marketing departments about the particulars of a CIV, e-mails about a disaster that has just occurred.
So her e-mail inbox pretty much dictates her day. After attacking the onslaught of messages each morning, she has a cup of tea at 10 o’clock.
Then she spends a lot of time running around, especially during a week where there has been a crisis, like with the recent hurricanes, getting approvals for funds to be distributed.
But she slowed down enough to give us a peek into CIV and her world. (more…)
