$6500: Funded 8/25/2022. Completed Fall 2022

WHO/WHERE

8 Babies and their mothers at TZ452 in Tanzania Africa

WHY

Malnutrition is an underlying cause in more than a third of all deaths of children under 5 (UNICEF). These deaths can be attributed to stunting, severe wasting and restricted growth inside the womb. But most of these deaths can be prevented through proven and simple interventions. With this in mind, the Survival program incorporates several key services to preserve the physical well-being of these precious little ones:

• Therapeutic feeding services.
• Education on preparing healthy, balanced meals.
• Provision of food packs that include essential nutrition and vitamin supplements.
• Promotion of exclusive breast feeding for the first six months of life.
• Regular monitoring of each baby’s height and weight.

Additionally, a healthy birth weight is critical to a baby’s survival and malnutrition prevention. By also focusing on caregiver nutrition through prenatal care and nutritious food, newborns registered with Survival have up to a 30% better likelihood of having a normal birth weight.

The health of mothers and newborns is intricately related. Because of this, Compassion church partners provide prenatal care to give expectant moms and their babies the support they need for a safe and healthy birth. Mothers are able to attend prenatal medical appointments, when in the past they could never have considered such an expense. They also receive transportation to their local health center or hospital so they can keep those appointments. If their pregnancy has proceeded smoothly, skilled
birth attendants guide and support them through the birthing process. Mothers who develop complications are connected to advanced medical care (including surgery, if necessary). After the babies arrive, the program gifts the new moms with baskets full of hygiene supplies and newborn necessities. All of this is possible through your generous giving!

GROWING AS A CAREGIVER THROUGH THE CHILD SURVIVAL PROGRAM

TESTIMONY

Dear Friends, 

I hope you are in good health. My family and I are all healthy, and we see God fighting for us in our daily lives. I thank God for you. You have been a blessing in our church and especially to mothers like me.  When I was growing up, I didn’t know what salvation was and did not believe in God or go to church. I lived with my grandmother before I got married. Life was not very good, and we sometimes went to bed hungry. We could not afford medical treatment. I had to leave school after seventh grade because my grandmother could not pay my school fees. My grandmother encouraged me to get married, and I married someone who was also poor. When I got pregnant, we could not afford health services.

I was able to enroll in the Survival program at my husband’s church, and from there my life began to change in all aspects – spiritual, physical, emotional, economic and even social. After joining the Survival program, I began to grow spiritually. I was taught to pray and to read and live the Word of God. I decided to be saved and follow Jesus.

My economic life has changed a lot through this program as we have been empowered with various entrepreneurship trainings that have helped me to become self-sufficient. We have learned to raise various animals including chickens and goats. I have also received training in good nutrition, and we have been given baby clothes as well as food and nutritious for our family. We have the opportunity to do regular health checkups and have received education on family planning and breastfeeding. With better nutrition, my baby is progressing very well.

My future hope is to be able to have more livestock such as goats, cattle and poultry, as well as to have a large farm to provide enough food for my family. I dream to see my child succeed in education and spiritual life and to see my community prosper. I hope to continue to grow and touch others’ lives as well.

“My life has been transformed so much through this program that the community around me wants to know what God is doing in my life through this ministry.”

I am grateful to God because my life has been transformed so much through this program that the community around me wants to know what God is doing in my life through this ministry. They know only God can change a person’s life. I pray God blesses you abundantly for your gift!

Letter edited for clarity.

TESTIMONY

Dear Friends, 

I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ and hope you are in good health. I thank God for the life we have today and for your support of the Survival program in our community. Before joining this program, I did not have a good relationship with God because I grew up not being able to pray or read God’s Word. I did not have many friends or knowledge of how to develop myself in life. Physically, I grew weak because we did not have enough food in our home and could not get good medical care when we needed it. 

After I got married, I got pregnant and received the chance to join the Survival program. From then on, my life began to change in all aspects. I began to grow spiritually by being taught the Word of God, and I learned how to pray and read the Bible. I have also been taught ways to become economically self- sufficient. The center helped me to start a small business raising chickens at my home.

Through the program, we have also received training on good nutrition, and we have been given food packages and nutritious food for our children. We have been supported with medical treatment when we have health problems, and we also receive regular checkups and education on topics such as breastfeeding and safe birth control.

Most of all, I thank God because through this program my life has grown so much. I have been able to make so many friends, and we serve together so my loneliness is completely gone. Even the community is now interested in knowing what God is doing in my life through this program. I face so many challenges in life, but with every challenge, I pray to God so that he can lead me to overcome them.

My big vision is to become a great business woman, to see my child succeed at great levels, and also to serve God to the highest standards. Thank you so much for your support, and please pray for God to give me more strength and confidence in serving him.

“Through this program my life has grown so much –My big vision is to become a great business woman, to see my child succeed at great levels, and to serve God to the highest standards.”

Caregivers are pictured here with chickens they received from the Survival program. Chickens provide manure for farming and eggs for eating and selling, providing an important means of financial support for families. Thank you for partnering with us and helping us achieve economic stability. 

While providing access to clean drinking water in partnership with Compassion International is at the heart of what we do, the COVID-19 pandemic has redirected our efforts for 2020.   Typically, Compassion International serves more than 2 million children in 25 countries however because of the pandemic and consequent cancellation of 1,200 events, approximately 70,000 children remain unsponsored (i.e. looking for a sponsor).  These children and their families live hand to mouth, and with jobs lost because of the pandemic–there is no food.  A recent study from the United Nations Children Fund and others found that pandemic-related hunger could cause 10,000 child deaths every month.  This is unacceptable. In response to this crisis, all donations to Hydrex Philanthropic this year will go to ‘FILL THE STADIUM’, an initiative where we can stand in the gap by providing food, medical care, and support for 70,000 children – a stadium’s worth.

Every $500 (one stadium seat) will provide each child with one year of:
• Food for the entire family
• Hygiene kits
• Medical care
• Child protection
• Family support
• Emergency care
• Spiritual Guidance

Rather than spending money on “stuff” this season that will soon be used up, broken, or forgotten, please consider helping to save someone’s life. It would be an unforgettable Christmas gift for a child in need. Whether you purchase a wristband for $20, a Hydrex watch for $500, or make a tax-deductible donation, every dollar counts. This pledge drive ends on December 24, 2020 at midnight.

May God bless you for your consideration and generosity.

$20,618.94 Funded 12/24/2018. Completed Fall 2019

WHO
289 underserved children, their families, caregivers, and educators.

WHERE
Compassion International Monduli Child Development Center TZ104 is located in Monduli Province, a rural region in Tanzania about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Arusha.

WHY
This remote location poses many serious challenges to the children enrolled at the center, mostly due to this lack of reliable, safe water. The quality of the public water service in this region of the country is not only poor, but the supply itself is also only available once a week and in very small quantities. This forces staff members to purchase water from local suppliers at the price of 50 000 Tanzanian Shillings ($22 USD) per month–a high cost for a community where 90 percent of people live below the international poverty line of $1.25 USD per day.

In the past, during Tanzania’s seasonal rainstorms, staff members have dug trenches around the center to contain as much water as possible. However, these trenches posed many problems. First, they could only retain water for a limited time. Second, they were uncovered and, thus, exposed to various contaminants–mostly from the livestock nearby.

Of all of these negative factors, the poor water quality is the worst because it leads to water-related health issues such as diarrhea, parasites and skin rashes among children and adults alike. These not only negatively impact the physical health of those affected, but they also hinder participation in the Compassion program, worship services, and other community events at TAG Monduli church, the church partner, which has around 700 members. Until now, this lack of a reliable source of safe water is holding these 289 children back from ultimately becoming the responsible, fulfilled adults that God created them to be.

The solution which will not only directly meet the needs of this center, but also to write a new story for the future of this community is the installation of a 141,000-liter (37,248-gallon) water catchment and storage tank onsite. After a period of research, this was identified as a better option than drilling a borehole to access groundwater due to the impossibility of drilling in the area.

This new tank will change all of that by providing a reliable way to safely collect and store a large amount of water, which will be used for drinking, food preparation, sanitation facilities, and equipment cleaning. Once this initiative is complete, we anticipate a reduction of water¬related health issues among enrolled children, an increase in the church attendance of the parents of enrolled children, an improvement in the health and hygiene of the families of enrolled children and an increase in the program attendance of the enrolled children.

More broadly, we hope that this initiative will not only facilitate a new culture of health within this community but that it will also provide a sense of dignity to the children and adults in the community that can so easily be lost without access to something so fundamental as safe water.

WHAT:
TOTAL PROJECT AMOUNT:  $22,199.51

HOW
PLEASE JOIN US
Thank you for your prayerful consideration of this request. Your contribution will not only help provide the gift of good health and a healthy future for Ghanaian children in need but will also serve as a tangible and powerful expression of God’s love for them.
Friends, we are grateful for your heart for “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40) -it inspires us to continue our work of releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

$26,489.00: Funded Dec 24, 2017, Completed Fall 2018

Thank you for partnering with Compassion to improve the lives of children at the Anomabo Child Development Center in Ghana. Your generous gift will provide new bathroom facilities and hygiene education that will safeguard the health of thousands of children in the coming years, taking them a crucial step further on their journey out of poverty.

Every day in the developing world, more than 800 children die because they do not have access to adequate sanitation or safe water. Thousands more fall ill, miss school and suffer needlessly. In particular, open defecation and poor handwashing habits put children at risk of waterborne illnesses such as cholera, diarrhea and bacterial meningitis. Providing access to improved sanitation facilities and hygiene education is fundamental to saving children’s lives and releasing them from poverty. Compassion’s WaSH interventions have an immediate and long-lasting impact, making children stronger, healthier and better equipped to succeed in life.

SANITATION AND POVERTY WaSH QUICK FACTS
• Globally, 2.3 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation facilities, and nearly 1 billion are forced to defecate in the open.
• 85 percent of Ghanaians lack access to adequate sanitation.
• 16 percent of rural Ghanaians do not have a reliable source of safe drinking water.
• Nearly one in four Ghanaians live below the poverty line.
• 66 is the average life expectancy for Ghanaians.

In Ghana, access to simple and basic sanitation facilities has been a challenge for many households. According to WaterAid, 23 million people don’t have access to improved sanitation in Ghana. As a result, about 4,000 children under five years die annually from poor water and sanitation. Anomabo Child Development Center, located in a fishing community in the central region of Ghana, is no exception. The registered children, workers and volunteers at this center have been forced to resort to unhygienic and unapproved methods when it comes to attending to nature’s call. The existing, dilapidated public toilets are not child-friendly and do not provide separate facilities for boys and girls, putting girls at further risk. As a result, some children are now adopting open defecation. The leadership of the church are concerned that children have picked up this unhealthy habit and know that if left unchecked, this will pollute the environment and could create fertile grounds for the spread of related diseases like cholera.

Also, although these beneficiaries have been taught the importance of proper hand washing after using the toilet and or playing on the field, the current handwashing facility provided is inadequate for the number of children. Moreover, the church is unable to provide a bigger reservoir that can store water for use by all the children during curriculum meeting days. This situation is posing as a threat to the health and safety of the children especially, as well as the workers and volunteers.

To address this urgent and critical need, the church leadership have secured land where an adequate toilet facility can be constructed. When finished, this construction project will provide children and staff members at the center with an eight-seater toilet, two shower rooms, a water tank and four handwashing sinks. Additionally, children and adults will be educated on safe hygiene and sanitation practices. With your help, leadership at the center can execute their strategy for completing this project.

Project milestones include:
• contract a construction team of artisans to complete the work
• purchase necessary materials
• oversee the construction of the facility
• conduct education on sanitation and hygiene
• continued monitoring, evaluation, and reporting

TOTAL PROJECT AMOUNT:  $28,402

PLEASE JOIN US
Thank you for your prayerful consideration of this request. Your contribution will not only help provide the gift of good health and a healthy future for Ghanaian children in need but will also serve as a tangible and powerful expression of God’s love for them.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” MATTHEW 25:40, NIV

THE CONCERN: Inadequate and unsafe drinking water at 3 Child Development Centers in Togo. Need: $66,546

 
$66,546: Funded December 24, 2015. Completed Fall 2016

Your gift helped transform the well-being and health of 915 Compassion-assisted children, their families, and their caregivers.  The funds you donated, combined with the gifts of other caring friends, enabled the three church-based Compassion centers these children attend, located northwest of the capital city of Lomé, to drill deep borehole wells. More importantly, you provided the children something they have never had before — access to abundant, safe water and the promise it provides of a bright and healthy future!

There are a few wells in the communities targeted by this project, but they are far from the Compassion centers, and the lines to collect water are unbearably long. Additionally, for Saturday activities hosted at the center, volunteers prepare by spending all day Friday collecting and hauling water. But even then there is not enough water to meet Saturday’s needs: The children cannot wash their hands before meals or after visiting the toilet, and there is not enough to drink to stay hydrated during the games. Volunteers cooking the children’s meals often run short of water, which also makes properly cleaning the center facilities impossible. Worse still, the water is often unsafe, leading to illness among the children. Recently, the three centers reported 54 cases of  waterborne illness, including life-threatening cholera. Diseases also affect children’s school attendance.

The staff members have to spend a significant portion of their budget to treat these preventable illnesses — funds that could be better spent on expanded learning and development opportunities for the children.

The children’s home situations are another detriment to their health. In most cases their families’ source of water is contaminated and located a significant distance away. The time-consuming, physically taxing job of collecting water often falls to the children, and their caregivers have little understanding of the principles of good hygiene, sanitation and the prevention of waterborne diseases.

With your help and the help of others, this dire situation can be turned around — not only for the children currently served by these three Compassion centers, but for countless more to be served in the future. Expected to take 16 months, this life- changing initiative will accomplish the following at each center:

• a borehole well site selected
• task force committee appointed and a drilling expert hired
• bids from drilling companies solicited and the most reputable and competitive selected

• a deep borehole well drilled and an electric pump installed
• a concrete tower constructed and a high- capacity water storage tank installed
• water supply lines connected
• a hand-washing station constructed
• 915 Compassion-assisted children and 874 caregivers trained in proper

hygiene and sanitation practices as well as waterborne disease awareness and prevention

• water made available to families in the community for a reasonable price (using the funds collected to maintain the well)

TOTAL PROJECT AMOUNT:  $66,546

Thank you for your prayerful consideration of this request. Your contribution will not only help provide the gift of good health and a healthy future for Togolese children in need but will also serve as a tangible and powerful expression of God’s love for them.

$24,812: Funded December 24, 2015. Completed Fall 2016.
Community Profile: The Child Development Center of the Evangelical Mission Church of Tonoukouti has no potable water source at its premises. Tonoukouti, located in the Zio District of the Republic of Togo is deprived of any reliable source of potable water. This proposal aims at providing TG-621 with a permanent source of potable water, a storage tank to make the sourced water available on time for registered children, their siblings, caregivers/ parents, church members and the community as well.  Hygiene training will also be provided to the caregivers, the workers and volunteers and to the children to help them choose better water hygiene and sanitation practices.

The Zio river  is the only source of water availaible for the majority of the communities in the Zio South cluster At Tonoukouti, Though there are some available uncovered water wells, the river is the common place where many of the inhabitants fetch water to drink and for use in their houses such as washing their clothing and bathing. Such water is very likely to be filled with microbes, worms and bacteria which often are the source of water boren and water related diseases such as dysentery, diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever, urinary infections, goiter, draconculose of which the children of the village and registered children suffer the most.

A total number of 228 registered children and, 236 caregivers, projects workers and church community members’ will be the direct beneficiaries of this intervention.