Ministry Fosters Partnerships to Help West African Children
by Allie Martin
September 8, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Christian ministry that matches children and sponsors in the United States is expanding its services into one of the poorest countries in the world -- the West African nation of Burkina Faso.Ranked last in school enrollment, literacy, and gross national product, Burkina Faso is a country where many children are born into families facing overwhelming poverty. Nearly 60 percent of the population are living on less than a dollar a day.
| | 
Dr. Wess Stafford |
Dr. Wess Stafford is president of Compassion International, a child sponsorship and development organization. He says the need in Burkina Faso is tremendous. "Everything is run down," he explains. "The infrastructure is run down, the roads are virtually nonexistent, and people live in little huts on which the roofs are generally made of grass or wood."An extreme climate also creates many challenges for the Burkinabe poor. "It's very, very hot," Stafford says. "For half of the year there's no rain and for the second half of the year, it just rains all the time. Almost everybody there makes their living trying to eke out something from agriculture."
The U.S.-based ministry seeks to ease the effects of poverty on Burkinabe children by providing basic necessities, including health care, supplemental nutrition, educational opportunities and spiritual training. Through Compassion International projects, sponsored children receive regular medical checkups, hygiene training, dental care, and educational opportunities.
The CEO of Compassion International says the ministry is working in Burkina Faso as it does elsewhere, by equipping local church partners and supporting them in a cooperative effort to improve the lives of poor children. He notes that Compassion has gathered about 300 or 400 pastors from across the country and helped them to coordinate their efforts.
"One of the things Compassion often does is, in places where the church kind of works in independent little silos, denominations not talking to each other, we bring them together," Stafford says. "I told them, 'You guys may not be able to agree on how to do the Lord's Supper, or how to baptize, or when the Lord is coming for us, but you surely can agree that children matter, right?'"
Today, with the addition of the Burkina Faso projects, Compassion International currently serves more than 168,000 poor children in five African countries, as well as in other parts of the world. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the ministry pairs children in developing and Third World nations with sponsors in the U.S. and other countries -- individuals who are willing to pledge $28 a month to provide resources for a child.
