Compassion Canada celebrates big milestone
LONDON, ON—If all of the children matched with sponsors from Compassion Canada got together, the line would stretch from Ottawa to Montreal—100,000 children in total.
It’s a significant milestone for the 51-year-old Canadian ministry, and for its director Barry Slauenwhite.
“When I became president and CEO [in 1993], we were just at the 10,000 mark. Could we do it in my lifetime? Could we ever reach it in my lifetime? So this is a personal milestone for me,” he says.
Compassion Canada’s sponsorship model helps whole families and communities, working with the local church in the child’s community. Through its partners on the ground, Compassion Canada runs projects focusing on providing food, education, medical treatment, clean water and more, including job training and life skills classes. Sponsored children receive support through primary, junior high and high school.
“That money is turned into goods and services and we provide the healthcare, the nutrition meals, the afterschool programs and all the spiritual training,” Slauenwhite says. “We work exclusively with the local church so that every single person that touches the life of the child is a Christian in a church context and that child senses genuine love of Christ.”
Compassion Canada is part of the wider network of Compassion International, through which more than 1 million children have been sponsored since its inception in 1952.
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