As regular readers of this blog probably know, I’m an advocate for Compassion. We sponsor three children – in India, Columbia and Uganda.Compassion International works around the world to rescue children from poverty in Jesus’ name, bringing health and hope to more than 1 million children in 26 developing countries – including Haiti.And here’s what’s happening with Compassion in Haiti right now:

This graphic represents the impact of Compassion in Haiti, where people like me and you sponsor 64,000 children; the blue icons are areas where Compassion has centers. (The image is just intended to give perspective not definitively identify where all the centers are located.)Compassion works through local churches to holistically address the individual physical, economic, educational and spiritual needs of children-enabling them to thrive, not just survive. Where aid organizations like World Vision work on a larger community scale – for example, being able to immediately respond to the earthquake with supplies, digging wells, building community buildings – Compassion works child to child, pairing a child with a sponsor in a developed country. The ministry works with local churches to impact a child, their family, and their community.That’s the beauty of these organizations – they all do what they do so well.You can help Compassion several ways:1) Donate money. Funds raised in the Haiti earthquake fund will be used immediately to reequip Compassion’s local support structure and to provide for the immediate needs of Compassion-assisted children and families. That includes accounting for all 64,000 sponsored children in Haiti. Any funds raised in excess will be stewarded by Compassion for additional and future disaster relief efforts.2) Sponsor a child. While children from Haiti will not be available for sponsorship until Compassion can verify their status, you can still sponsor a child in need from another country. The thing I love about Compassion is that when you sponsor a child, you are that child’s only sponsor. Through letters, you develop a very personal relationship with the child, their family and often their friends and community, who get to know you through the child. And when the Haitian children are again available for sponsorship, sponsor a second child. Thirty-eight dollars a month might seem like a lot of money, but it’s less an a gourmet coffee a day. When you consider that what you spend on coffee in 24 hours is more than some families in these countries make in a week, you realize that sacrificing to sponsor another child isn’t really much of a sacrifice at all.3) And obviously, the most important thing you can do is pray. For the children, the Haitian people, the government, the aid workers.Here is a little more about Compassion and Haiti, from Compassion President, Wess Stafford, who has a heart for Haiti because of his own work there:To learn more about Compassion International and how you can help the relief efforts in Haiti, visit Compassion.com.

Haiti Earthquake