The child I sponsor is moving project, what does this mean?

Sponsored children can move from one Compassion project to another for a number of reasons. Families in poverty are often extremely mobile and a child may move to a new area because a parent is looking for work. Alternatively, sometimes Compassion will need to end a partnership with a church for integrity reasons or because a church no longer needs our help in ministering to children.

When a partnership with a local church ends, Compassion’s field office tries to ensure that as many children as possible are transferred to another project nearby. As Noel Pabiona, country director for the Philippines explains, every effort is made to give each child “a new Compassion home”.

This was the case for the children who were attending Charis Child Development Centre in the Philippines. After nine years of ministering to children, the partnership sadly had to come to an end. This left more than 100 children who were transferred to the nearby Kabalaka Child Development Centre. One of these children was 16-year-old Jhezzo.

Jhezzo is so grateful that she has been able to keep receiving support from the Compassion programme by moving project. She’s thrilled that although she will be given a new child number to reflect the number of her new Compassion project, she can still maintain a relationship with the same sponsor. This consistency has been so reassuring during a time of great change and transition.

“I’m happy to have my sponsor,” Jhezza explains. “She is a big help to me in many ways, including in my spiritual growth. Through sponsorship I can attend camps, special meetings, support groups and Bible studies. Having a sponsor gives opportunities to simple people like me.”

The project workers at Kabalaka Child Development Centre have made every effort to welcome Jhezzo and the other children. They even organised a special service where they sung the hymn “Welcome to the Family” and Reverend Salvador Parpa preached a message explaining ‘We are now one family’.