Compassion International
This weekend, people from across the globe hosted sleep-outs and concerts, posted tweets and photos, joined in runs and swims, engaged in discussions and summits all to celebrate World Malaria Day on Sunday.
Our partners at Compassion International even put together a malaria quiz. Take it now and see just how much you know about this completely preventable disease.
Throughout the week, we’ll be sharing stories of how folks celebrated World Malaria Day. We’d love to hear your tale, too—so please tell us what you did in the comments below.
Check out this blog post from singer/songwriter and Compassion International supporter Shaun Groves.
“Do you know a lot of famous people?” my nine year-old daughter asked when she read the concert poster for Help Haiti Live.
“No. No I don’t. But I know people who know people who know famous people.”
The crumbling of Port-au-Prince left approximately 20,000 Compassion International Haitian families without food, shelter, clean water and in need of counsel and medical help. I thought about strapping my guitar on and playing a small show to raise a little money for relief efforts, but then a wild idea hit me while scrolling through my address book: why not reach out to all those crew guys, managers, light techs and artists I’ve spent a few minutes with here and there over the last decade and pull off something even bigger?
With Compassion’s approval to use several of their staff, some small funds and their logo, we started making a simple ask: Will you sing to benefit Compassion International’s disaster relief fund—in only six weeks?
Lots of artists and managers turned us down—some multiple times. But Alison Krauss and Union Station, Mat Kearney, Jon Foreman, Jars of Clay, NEEDTOBREATHE, Big Kenny, Matt Wertz, Brandon Heath and Dave Barnes all said “yes.”
This past Saturday, these artists took the stage at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. They performed for a sold-out crowd in front of donated hi-def cameras and microphones—and an on-line audience watched a live stream at HelpHaitiLive.com. We even ran an on-line auction, featuring donated items from Dave Matthews Band, Miley Cyrus, Gibson guitars and more.
With over $500,000 in services and production equipment donated to the night, expenses were kept as low as possible and 100% of net proceeds from ticket sales, on-line donations and auction profits were given to Compassion’s disaster relief fund.
I’m not on Compassion’s payroll as an event organizer or donation generator. I’ve never even been a concert promoter before. But the earthquake on January 12th moved me to do whatever I could for Compassion’s families in Haiti. And all I had was a list of people who know people who know famous people.
Thank God for address books and Compassion’s trust.
-Shaun Groves, singer/songwriter
Compassion International has a new post detailing their plans to transition their relief efforts in Haiti to longer-term solutions.
Here’s an example of their plans to put children back in the classroom:
Getting the children back into school is also a key step in returning normalcy to their lives. The Haitian government has set March 1 as a possible day for schools to resume, and we are helping our church partners work toward that goal for as many of the sponsored children as possible.
We are working with Engineering Ministries International (EMI) to assess the buildings of church partners that were damaged by the earthquake. We are committed to their repair, and EMI will help us design new buildings and facilities that are earthquake safe.
Until the buildings can be repaired or built, children may meet in tents. Many of them are still afraid to go into buildings, and our priority is to give them some sense of routine and normalcy.
You can read more about Compassion International’s work in Haiti here.
Here’s a partner post from Compassion International, another entry in our World AIDS Day blog series. The post below is one of their “Stories of Hope.” Read the rest of these tales here. And don’t forget to check out their brand new AIDS website, too!
It’s early in the morning in Ethiopia, and Bekelesh and Ato sit in the front yard of the home they share with their two daughters. The house is small, with only a bed and a bench made from dry wood in its single room. A curtain hangs around the bed to provide a bit of privacy. Although the house is small, the love that fills it can’t be contained.
When Bekelesh and Ato first married, their only enemy was poverty. As the family grew, their two daughters filled their home with giggles and joy. When they enrolled their oldest daughter, Simagne, in Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program, Bekelesh and Ato felt their family would finally have a future.
“It was 12 years ago that we got married,” Ato says. “Back then … we were hale and hearty. We used to look like colorful fish swimming in the warm pond of life and love. Yes, if you have love you feel as if you have everything in this world and the world to come. We used to love each other as we still do, but HIV …,” his voice trails off. In November of 2005, during a voluntary counseling and testing campaign conducted by a local Compassion project, Bekelesh and Ato learned that they were both HIV-positive.
Although a diagnosis of AIDS is always devastating, families in poverty have no chance for medical care — making the disease even more burdensome for them. Without medical intervention, death comes quickly for AIDS victims, and often there is little time to prepare children for the devastating loss of their parents.
But thanks to the support and care they receive through Compassion’s AIDS Initiative, Bekelesh and Ato are living their life instead of contemplating their death. “Living with HIV doesn’t mean dying tomorrow and/or soon afterwards,” Ato says. “You can live a long life as long as you strictly follow the advice you receive from your counselors.”
In the poorest countries in Africa, many parents do not receive lifesaving care and treatment like Ato and Bekelesh have. Although nothing can take away the fears of a parent with a terminal disease, families in the Compassion program know that their children will be cared for even after they are gone. “Now, even if we die, our children will not be left [as poor orphans]. God, using Compassion, will continue to minister to our daughters’ needs, and they will [each] become somebody in the future.”
-Brandy Campbell, Feature Writing Specialist, Compassion International
