| Posted: December 12, 2018
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – December 12, 2018 – Compassion International today announced a major milestone in its 66-year history, as 2 million children have been registered into its holistic child development program. The ministry is marking the occasion across its 12 global funding offices and 25 program country offices.
Compassion partners with more than 7,000 local churches in 25 countries around the world to provide its child development curriculum—which ranges from prenatal care all the way through youth development opportunities for young adults.
“This is really a celebration of our supporters and the work our church partners are doing,” said Compassion President and CEO, Santiago “Jimmy” Mellado. “The staff and thousands of volunteers at the local church level are the ones who are providing life-changing care for these children. And our supporters around the world enable them to do so. This is a celebration of their commitment.”
As soon as a child is registered in the Compassion program, they begin receiving many critical benefits, which may include food, educational assistance (i.e. tutors, school uniforms, textbooks and supplies), medical checkups, health and hygiene education, social skill development, spiritual development and contextualized youth development opportunities, depending on need. Once a child is linked to a caring supporter, their lives are further enriched through the prayers, letters and sometimes personal visits of their sponsors.
“We are deeply thankful for and humbled by this milestone,” Mellado added, “but with a billion children still living in poverty around the world, we are committed to building capacity to serve far more. With God’s help, we are setting our sights on reaching as many children as possible, and we pray that exponentially more supporters around the globe will join us in this life-transforming work.”
About Compassion International
Founded in 1952, Compassion International is a Christian child development organization that works to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. Compassion revolutionized the fight against global poverty by working exclusively with the Church to lift children out of spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty. Compassion partners with more than 8,000 churches in 27 countries to deliver its holistic child development program to over 2.2 million babies, children and young adults. Its Child Sponsorship Program has been validated through independent, empirical research.