What is it?
Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program works to break the generational cycle of poverty through a long-term, whole-child approach to development.
The Child Sponsorship Program allows a sponsor to invest in the life of a child (aged 3-22 years) through a $38 monthly commitment that provides that child with physical, social, spiritual and economic care and training.
In this one-to-one relationship, sponsors are encouraged to write letters to their children, filling their minds and spirits with love, support and hope so that they can be further encouraged to defeat poverty and pursue their dreams.
Compassion has grown exponentially over the last two decades. In 1993, approximately 180,000 children were sponsored through Compassion in more than 2,000 child development centers and 21 countries.
Today, more than 1.7 million children are sponsored through Compassion in more than 6,900 church partner sites and 26 countries worldwide.
The Child Sponsorship Program is at the core of Compassion’s holistic child development model and is delivered at child development centers, which are administered by thousands of indigenous church partners. The program provides individualized attention to each child and focuses on four areas of child development:
Does Compassion Child Sponsorship Really Work?
In 2008, Dr. Bruce Wydick, a professor of economics and international studies at the University of San Francisco, along with two colleagues, conducted research on Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program to determine its impact on the adult life outcomes of formerly sponsored children against those of children who were not part of the program.
Their research found that Compassion sponsored children:
- Stayed in school 1 to 1.5 years longer than their non-sponsored peers
- Were 27-40 percent more likely to finish secondary education and 50-80 percent more likely to complete a university education
- Were 14-18 percent more likely to have salaried employment and roughly 35 percent more likely to secure white-collar employment
- Were 30-75 percent more likely to become community leaders, 40-70 percent more likely to become church leaders, and 63 percent more likely to become a teacher1