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~ A Fellow from Togo and a Gold Medal Olympian
There was a lot of screaming and yelling at work yesterday morning. Wednesdays are not any louder than any other day at Compassion International, usually. But just before 10:00 AM, 20 May 9009, we all heard the annoying emergency alert horn crack the air and reverberate through our offices and cubicles.
Immediately I grabbed a fistful of felt pens and spun around in my chair to locate my sketchbook. If we going to stand in the parking lot for a while, I'm bringing something to do, I thought.
We'd had two actual evacuations in the last month or two: firetrucks, flashing lights, and seven hundred plus Compassion staffers moving in an orderly, albeit chatty, fashion to a place of safety.
But yesterday's alert was about was celebration not evacuation. After the piercing sound of emergency came the soothing voice of our friend and colleague, Wess Stafford, President of Compassion International. In a nut shell, Wess said, "We knew this day was coming and after fifty-seven years of releasing children from poverty in Jesus name, it is finally here. This morning we have reached the milestone one million fully-sponsored children—simultaneously!"
Cue the screaming, cheering, clapping, teary-eyed, Compassion staffers. (Put me down for all of those reactions.) And after Wess's brief announcement, he called us to a minute of silent prayer and reflection.
Moments later a brief video announcement from Wess appeared on our employee intra-net site, The Source. (See it HERE.) The ticker on The Source that had been keeping a running tally of sponsored kids in the 25 Compassion countries of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, was already at 1,000,016 by the time I logged on to watch Wess's video. Soon our email in boxes all received the story of our one millionth child and his sponsor.
< Fellow Blewussi Kpodo (left)
of Togo, West Africa
Meet eight year old Fellow Blewussi Kpodo of Togo—Compassion's newest country (located in West Africa.) Fellow live with his dad and three siblings. Like all Compassion kids, there live in abject poverty with a total family income of about one dollar a day.
On a recent tour of of our Compassion Global Ministry Center here in Colorado Springs a sixth grade boy asked me, "One do you mean a dollar a day?"
"That's how much most of our families have to live on for a day." I repeated.
"My video games are like forty bucks and I get as new one almost every month." He said.
"That's a little more than most of these families have for a month." I explained just wanting him to get a bit of perspective.
"So, I could support a whole family?"
"You sure could. Or buy four mosquito nets on BiteBack.net to save the lives of kids in four families."
"I'm gonna do it."
More children die from Malaria in Africa than HIV/AIDS. In fact, 27,000 children a day die (somewhere in the developing world) of preventable diseases—including complications arising from lack or clean water.
Compassion's one million plus kids each have a sponsor (an individual, a family, a small business.)
< Jang Mi-Ran (left)
South Korea
As an apt coda to our fifty-seven year history Fellow's sponsor is Jang Mi-Ran, from South Korea, where Compassion began in 1952. She has been a Compassion supporter and spokesperson in her country for a long time.
Jang is also the Gold medalist in women's weight lifting at the Beijing games. There she hoisted more than 410 lbs. overhead at last Summer's Olympics.
As Wess Stafford told us in his email, "So, the strongest woman in the world is now sponsoring one of the most vulnerable children in the world!"
Our work here at Compassion is filled with the stories of folks from all over the world, every imaginable walk of life who are sponsoring more than a million Compassion kids in twenty-five countries.
Lifting a million children out of poverty, now that's heavy lifting.
I would love you to consider partnering with Compassion. You can find boys and girls of all ages in twenty-five countries that need a sponsor today by visiting Compassion.com. You can select a child by country, gender, age, even fins a child who shares your birthday. Compassion is dedicated using fully 80% of every dollar donated on the programs that directly effect and assist the children. Honestly, though, the last three years we didn't hit or goal of 80%, we did 83%. (Over achievers.) Charity Navigator, America's largest independent charity evaluator, rated Compassion in their four star category. This places Compassion in the top 1% of hundreds of charities they review for financial accountability and integrity. We have received their four star rating for the last seven years.
At right, click photo to enlarge) we are visiting a home in Tanzania (Feb.'9.) I'm the guy in the beard. It was built by a teenage boy (in brown shirt to my right) and his father (standing in far door, arms folded) The young man, now 19, is in a Compassion program and used gift funds received from his sponsor to purchase the building materials. Through the door in the background you can see the sticks and mud walls of their old home that is far more typical for these families.
There are more than a half billion children living at the $2-a-day family income level—or less. Lots to do. Have a look: Compassion.com.
~ McNair
