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While your sponsored child is still young, they receive the benefits of Compassion’s programmes through personalised home-based care delivered by trained specialists from their local church.
Once they’re old enough, your sponsored child will begin attending activities at their Compassion project, run at the local church. The age at which this transition happens depends on the child and where they live, typically between five and six.
Thanks to your support, children in home-based care receive:
Your sponsored child attends a Compassion project run by the local church. Project activities are usually held on Saturdays or in the week before or after school.
Children and young people may meet in the church building, or the church may have another facility designated for the Compassion project.
The time your sponsored child spends at their Compassion project will depend on the country and community they live in. A unique aspect of our programmes is that they are run in partnership with local churches and implemented by people from the local community. Each church partner has the freedom to contextualise Compassion’s programmes in ways that meet the needs of their community.
Alongside the Compassion project, your sponsored child may also attend a local school, depending on their age. Your sponsorship helps provide educational support. This can take many forms, including school uniforms or advocating for identification papers and other documents that help children access local schooling.
Helping young people set goals to realise their God-given potential.
Beginning at 13, your sponsored child will work alongside Compassion staff to identify their skills and interests through a curriculum called ‘My Plan for Tomorrow.’ Through a series of lessons, a student workbook and one-to-one mentoring sessions, young people are not only encouraged to dream, but they are also given the tools and resources to achieve their goals.
Through ‘My Plan for Tomorrow’, your sponsored child is encouraged to imagine a world where:
To help them to achieve these outcomes, every young person is encouraged to revisit their plans at least once a year to identify areas they might want to develop or change and ensure they’re getting the support they need.
In your next message, ask your sponsored child what they hope to do in the future and how you can pray for them as they work hard to achieve their goals.
Helping young people gain employable skills for the future.
Having identified their interests through ‘My Plan for Tomorrow,’ your sponsored child will have the opportunity to receive vocational and skills-based training to help them achieve their set goals.
The type of training offered will vary depending on where your sponsored child lives but will include such things as hairdressing, sewing, electrical work, welding, carpentry, plumbing, mechanics or IT support.
Juan David became a part of his local Compassion project’s workshops at the age of 16, completing training in shoe repairs after three months.
“Repairing shoes is not as easy as it looks. Sometimes, the damage to a shoe is irreversible, but I do my best to rescue pieces because my clients cannot afford to buy new shoes,” explains Juan David. “I hand-sew and glue shoes’ soles, which saves the day for most people.”
When he’s not repairing shoes, Juan cuts men’s hair as he has also completed barber training through this local church.
“I do not take for granted the opportunities that the Compassion project has granted us,” says Juan David, who dreams of owning multiple businesses so he can provide opportunities to other young people with low resources.
A young person will typically graduate from the Compassion programme between 18 and 22 years old.
When your sponsored child graduates from the Compassion programme will vary depending on the country they live in, the educational system and the cultural context. Typically, it will be between 18 and 22 years old.
In the UK, we often view 18-year-olds as adults and apply that thinking to other countries. However, children living in poverty around the world will often start school much later, experience interrupted education, need time to increase literacy skills and have limited resources compared to UK children. Allowing young people to stay in the programme until 22 gives them time to complete vocational training, apprenticeships, or their education.
Before your sponsored child graduates, they should be:
While every young person is encouraged to stay until graduation, some will leave the programme earlier due to employment opportunities, a conflict with other commitments or a positive change in the family’s circumstances meaning they are self-sufficient.
Your sponsored child’s graduation is often a bittersweet moment for you both. While you may feel sad, it’s also a cause for celebration as your young person has reached an important milestone on their journey to being released from poverty.
Did you know, Compassion partners with more than 8,500 churches around the world?
We partner with the local church exclusively because they love Jesus, know their local community and have a heart for the people they serve because they understand what life is like there.
Compassion equips every local church partner with resources, training and expertise on holistic child development, to help them best meet the needs of the children and families they serve. Because they know their communities inside out, each church is empowered to implement our child development programme to meet the specific needs of their unique context.
Compassion UK Christian Child Development, registered charity in England and Wales (1077216) and Scotland (SC045059). A company limited by guarantee, Registered in England and Wales company number 03719092. Registered address: Compassion House, Barley Way, Fleet, Hampshire, GU51 2UT.
