Child Sponsorship — Does it Lift the Young Out of Poverty? | Part 3

January 12, 2023 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, which inspired numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to assist the poor and deprived worldwide, issued this third part of a Special Report on Child Sponsorship — Does it Lift the Young Out of Poverty?

Child and his sponsor — Sponsors play a huge role in the lives of the kids they partner with, they are not only providing financial help to receive an education, but they can be their child’s encourager, champion, intercessor, and light. Many different organizations like Compassion even provide the opportunity for sponsors to travel and meet their child in person. Photo by Compassion, What We Do: Child Sponsorship

Long-Term Success

Success stories can be recent, like Neale’s in South Asia, or long-term, like Peace Ruharuza’s in Uganda, although the latter tends to illustrate the lasting impact of child sponsorship. Another example of ongoing success comes from Uganda where Phanuel Mwami is a father, social worker and leader of a community development organization in his hometown. But before a ChildFund (formerly Christian Children’s Fund) sponsor helped change the direction of his life, it was full of hopelessness.⁴¹

Phanuel Mwami, 48, sits in the classroom at the school he attended as a child — The 48-year-old Phanuel Mwami is seated in a classroom at the school that ChildFund (formerly Christian Children’s Fund) established and funded when he was a child. He claims, “ChildFund made me who I am.” Photo by ChildFund, Child sponsorship changes the story for Phanuel

The sixth of nine children, Phanuel was the son of subsistence farmers who grew cotton and other crops on a small plot of land. Education in rural Uganda was not free or compulsory then (the country launched a free primary school program in 1997). With his parents unable to afford any kinds of supplies, by the age of eight, Phanuel had lost all hope of attending school.⁴²

The family had other priorities, such as food, clothing and basic shelter.

“When it would rain, one of our older sisters would tell us to hold the walls of the house so they would not fall on us,” he said. “I feared the abject poverty we were living in. I could have died because of a lack of essential services.”⁴³

That all changed in 1982 when a stranger named Bernard James decided to sponsor a child, which enabled Phanuel to enroll in a school that ChildFund had built using sponsorship funds. It was there Phanuel learned to read and write. The school also provided him with uniforms, books, supplies and nourishment. It also helped him survive when his father’s alcohol abuse drove his mother to move out in 1985 and take his other siblings with her.

He chose to stay, afraid following his mother would mean losing his place in the sponsorship program and a chance to get an education. It proved to be a wise decision: Phanuel excelled at school, found odd jobs, and saved enough money to pay his way through secondary school. A member of the school board who noticed his academic prowess took him into her home. Continuing gifts from his sponsor enabled him to buy a goat.

“I don’t want any child under my care to experience what I experienced. Sponsorship opened up my opportunities. It enabled me to live the life I always dreamed of, and now, I am dedicating my life to helping others.”

The now 48-year-old man went on to earn scholarships to attend university, where he studied sociology and social administration before he went on to pursue a career in social work. In 2010, Phanuel launched a nonprofit in the same community where he grew up. It supports more than 100 children in accessing an education.⁴⁴

“I don’t want any child under my care to experience what I experienced,” he said. “Sponsorship opened up my opportunities. It enabled me to live the life I always dreamed of, and now, I am dedicating my life to helping others.”⁴⁵

GFA World Child Sponsorship program staff visit a child's home — West Bengal: Home visits are a huge part of what GFA World’s child sponsorship staff do. Every day they visit different homes in their community encouraging the families of the children enrolled in sponsorship, but also assesing the situations of other families so they can help even more children in the future.

Recent Triumphs

With its sponsorship program launching in 2004, GFA World’s successes are more recent. Still, to date, the organization has helped a total of 142,000 children. During the pandemic-plagued year of 2021, more than 2,200 students in GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program graduated from high school and began pursuing a path to a better future.

Kasni

Among stories of those receiving help is Kasni, who lives in a village in South Asia. The oldest of four children, she was left in charge when her mother, Dayita, went to work each day in the jungle. (Dayita was forced to do so because her husband’s alcohol addiction made him so sick he couldn’t work or even get out of bed.) Gathering firewood from the forest to sell in the market, Dayita made very little money, meaning her children often went to bed hungry.

When Gospel for Asia (GFA World) sponsorship workers visited the village and heard about Kasni’s plight, they were able to help her get enrolled in the program. She began attending tutoring classes in the afternoons after spending mornings caring for her siblings. The program reduced Dayita’s financial burden and provided her daughter with nutritious food and school supplies.⁴⁶

Divena

Another stirring story involves Divena, already facing an uncertain future at the age of five after her mother deserted the family. Her father would leave Divena and her brother alone for weeks at a time while he worked as a truck driver. One day, a Gospel for Asia (GFA World) social worker visited children in Divena’s area. When this worker passed by the little girl playing in the mud outside her tarp-covered home, the worker felt pity for her.

The woman helped get Divena and her brother into GFA’s sponsorship program.

That meant a daily meal along with adult supervision and guidance, school supplies, and free school tuition. Today, Divena dreams of a brighter future.

“I was totally discouraged when my mother left us alone,” the girl said. “It was very difficult for me and my brother to live without her. We starved many days, and our father also could not look after us. Whenever I saw the children going to school, I felt very sad. However, today [GFA’s sponsorship program] has become a blessing to me and my brother.”⁴⁷

GFA World child sponsorship program — Sponsorship help break the relentless cycle of poverty for countless children around the world. It effects not only the child, but their family and their community.

Bir

GFA World’s founder, K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan), said sponsorship helps children overcome the stigma of poverty and the low self-esteem that often accompanies those from deprived circumstances. In his 2020 memoir, Never Give Up, he wrote about children like Bir, who scavenged plastic bags for his parents while believing he was as worthless as the trash he sorted⁴⁸.

Dr. K.P. Yohannan, GFA World Founder — Dr. K.P. Yohannan,
GFA World Founder

“When a Gospel for Asia (GFA World) Sponsorship Program center opened in his village, Bir and his friends discovered they were created for a higher purpose and that God loves them,” Yohannan said. “This knowledge sets kids free and completely transforms their lives. It’s critical that this generation does not give up and that it’s empowered to break free from the stranglehold of poverty.”⁴⁹

Sponsor a Child »

You can be part of the solution that is setting children free from a life of poverty. Simply visit the GFA World website: https://www.gfa.org/sponsorachild/. You can sponsor a child living in South Asia or Africa. You can also find a child who shares your birthday or pick a child to sponsor who has a specific age or gender. Your decision to sponsor can make a substantial difference in the life of an impoverished or underprivileged child.

About GFA World

Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In a typical year, this includes thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 880 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 163,000 needy families, and teaching to provide hope and encouragement in 110 languages in 14 nations through broadcast ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit the Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.

Read the rest of this GFA World Special Report: Child Sponsorship — Does it Lift the Young Out of Poverty? — Part 1, Part 2

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Read what 30 Christian Leaders are affirming about Gospel for Asia.

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

Footnotes:

“Child Sponsorship Changes the Story for Phanuel.” ChildFund.org. https://www.childfund.org/Content/StoryDetail/17179871321/. January 20, 2022.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
“An Education They Never Dreamed Of.” GFA World News. https://www.gfa.org/news/articles/an-education-they-never-dreamed-of/. May 2016.
“Neglected Girl Replaces Mud Canvas with Paper, Pencils.” GFA World News. https://www.gfa.org/news/articles/neglected-girl-replaces-mud-canvas-with-paper-pencils/. May 2020.
Yohannan, K.P., “Never Give Up” GFA Books. https://nevergiveupbook.org/. April 1, 2020.
Ibid.

Gospel for Asia Child Sponsorship — Does it Lift the Young Out of Poverty? | Part 2

January 6, 2023 By GFA Staff Writer

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WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, whose heart to love and help the poor has inspired numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to serve the deprived and downcast worldwide, issued this second part of a Special Report on Child Sponsorship — Does it Lift the Young Out of Poverty?

Dhitha was once a Gospel for Asia (GFA World) sponsor child herself. After finishing high school and attending college, she returned to become a teacher for other sponsored children. She is able to be a unique help as she was once in the exact situation many of these children are in right now. Dhitha, like the other teachers and social workers she serves with, loves the children in her care deeply and they are thriving as a result.

Sponsorship Success

Bruce Wydick, Economics Professor, University of San Francisco
Photo by University of San Francisco

One of the most newsworthy developments of the past decade on this topic has been leading academic research that proved a central point: child sponsorship works. University of San Francisco (USF) economics professor Bruce Wydick and two associates made that discovery in a study that attracted attention from national magazines in the U.S. and other media across the world. Their study found sponsorship made large, significant impacts on years of schooling and the probability and quality of employment.²⁰

Conducted over two years, the research analyzed data from six countries (Bolivia, Guatemala, India, Kenya, the Philippines and Uganda) for children sponsored by Compassion International. In an abstract, Wydick, University of Minnesota professor Paul Glewwe and USF graduate student Laine Rutledge wrote, “Early evidence suggests that these impacts are due, in part, to increases in children’s aspirations.”²¹

One media report said about the study:

To give you some specific statistics, it was found that formerly sponsored children stayed in school…

were 27 to 40 percent more likely to finish secondary school than those who were not enrolled in the Child Sponsorship Program;

were 50 to 80 percent more likely to complete a university education than non-sponsored children.²²

In some respects, the ministry’s projects are similar to government and international programs that promote education, Wydick and his associates wrote in their 2013 paper, published in the Journal of Political Economy. Sponsors pay for children’s school tuition and program, nutritious meals, health care and tutoring. However, they added, what distinguishes Compassion from most government, international, and some other sponsorship programs is children spending at least eight hours a week in an intensive after-school program that emphasizes spiritual, physical and socioemotional development²³.

“In the sample, the average duration of sponsorship was 9.3 years,” they wrote. “So … by the end of their childhood, sponsored children have participated in about 4,000 hours of Compassion programming, including extra activities such as retreats and camps. A primary objective of this extended contact is to raise the child’s self-esteem, aspirations, and self-expectations.”²⁴

“Locally-run child sponsorship [programs] that invest in the lives of children over a number of years ensure that these children do not fall through the cracks. They grow up better educated, healthier, more confident and spiritually connected.”

What’s more, recent economics studies suggest that internal constraints that reflect low aspiration can lead to poverty traps. After the professorial team reported on adult life outcomes, they presented a summary of evidence from three follow-up studies of 1,380 Compassion-sponsored children in Bolivia, Kenya and Indonesia. The studies found that sponsored children exhibited higher levels of self-esteem, aspirations and self-expectations—and lower levels of hopelessness.²⁵

The summary table included such results as the following:

Total years of education: Mean, sponsored individuals, 12.03; non-sponsored individuals, 10.24.
Completed secondary school: Mean, sponsored individuals, .646; non-sponsored individuals, .449.
Completed university: Mean, sponsored individuals, 0.78; non-sponsored individuals, .043.²⁶

Ian McInnes, former CEO of Tearfund—a charity that partners with churches in 50 of the world’s poorest countries—said the study was a particularly heartening one that illustrated why the London-based group and Compassion choose to work directly with children in need.²⁷

Paul Brown spent over 15 years serving as CEO for ChildFund New Zealand and helping to grow it into one of the country’s leading international aid agencies. Photo by ChildFund.org.nz

“Locally-run child sponsorship [programs] that invest in the lives of children over a number of years ensure that these children do not fall through the cracks,” said McInnes, who stepped down in 2015. “They grow up better educated, healthier, more confident and spiritually connected.” Added former ChildFund New Zealand CEO Paul Brown: “It confirms what sponsored children tell us; that not only is practical support important but the knowledge that someone far away cares about them and provides encouragement helps them believe in themselves and succeed.”²⁸

It wasn’t just sponsorship organizations that lauded the study. BBC News interviewed a former Compassion sponsoree named Peace Ruharuza, who grew up in Uganda and later moved to the United Kingdom before returning to her homeland to raise her three children.²⁹ The charity she founded, Fountain of Peace Children’s Foundation, is still in operation. Based in the UK, it provides support for children across the Kyenjojo region of western Uganda. One of 14 children, Peace spent much of her childhood passed around between family members and experienced considerable neglect and abuse. Sponsored by a Canadian family at the age of nine, she told BBC that sponsorship gave her the boost she needed: “It gave a new lease in life, helped me become what I am and to change a generation.”³⁰

Ruth, a Child Sponsorship alumni, now a Business Owner in Ecuador — Through Compassion, a young girl named Ruth was matched with her sponsor Debby who helped her dream of one day being able to attend university. Years later, Ruth not only fulfilled this dream and became a journalist, but she and her husband (also a former sponsor child from the same center Ruth attended) were able to start a tourism business which provides a livelihood for many others in their community. Photo by Compassion, 7 People Who Defeated Poverty With Their Sponsors

Continuing Benefits

Young girl pays attention in class in GFA World's Child Sponsorship program — A tsunami hit Sir Lanka at the end of 2004 leaving devastation and refugees in its wake throughout the country. The slum area where this girl lives was no different. Gospel for Asia (GFA World) began their sponsorship program here shortly after the disaster and it became a long-lasting benefit and blessing to the community.

Another abstract by Wydick, Rutledge and USF graduate student Joanna Chu outlined how child sponsorship programs have been in existence since the 1930s. Over the next 75 years, they grew to the extent that nearly 3.5 million children in developing countries are now sponsored through the eight largest sponsorship programs.³¹

They said this means that a conservative estimate would put the current flow of funds to sponsored children from developed countries at $1.6 billion US per year, with total international transfers over the past two decades at $30 billion US. Given this “non-trivial” flow of resources, Wydick’s group said it was surprising that so little had been done to evaluate the impact of sponsorship programs.³²

The exception: a randomized field experiment looking at the impacts of a Dutch program that funded new classroom construction. The program also gave students in randomly selected schools a $6 uniform and $3.44 in textbooks. That study found that even low-cost interventions resulted in beneficiaries attending school half a year longer than in the control group and advancing a third of a grade further in their education.³³

In their study focused on Uganda, Wydick’s group found that

child sponsorship increased formal education by 2.9 years over a base of 8.4 years,

increased the probability of formal employment to 72.1 percent from a base of 55.15 percent,

and increased the probability of white collar employment to 37.1 percent from 19.1 percent.

They also found modest evidence that sponsored children lived in higher-quality homes as adults, were more likely to use mosquito nets (a simple tool to prevent mosquito borne illnesses), and were less likely to smoke or drink alcohol.³⁴

Ironically, even though sponsorship has been around for so long, it isn’t necessarily understood, according to a 2017 study of 1,000 American charitable donors. The study was completed by Grey Matter Research Consulting of Phoenix and Opinions 4 Good, a philanthropic online market research firm based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It found that while 87 percent of American donors were aware of child sponsorship, only 24 percent felt very familiar with it.³⁵

Ron Sellers, President of Grey Matter Research. Photo by GreyMatterResearch.com

The Donor Mindset Study found that, overall, 74 percent of all donors believe child sponsorship is a legitimate, credible way of helping children in need, yet only 26 percent believe that strongly. Among people who were currently sponsoring a child, 98 percent believed that sponsorship is legitimate and credible, but only 68 percent felt that strongly. The other 30 percent had some doubts.³⁶

The study also found significant confusion about how sponsorship actually works. Three of four donors believe that, despite what sponsorship organizations claim, the money doesn’t really help one child but is used for the charity’s overall programs. Seventy-seven percent wrongly believe that sponsored children have more than one sponsor, although major sponsorship organizations all state each child has one sponsor. Ron Sellers, president of Grey Matter Research, noted that this research showed a charitable sector that needed to go beyond high levels of awareness to build familiarity and comfort.³⁷

“Most donors are aware of sponsorship and are generally positive toward it, but there is not a lot of real familiarity with how it works,” Sellers said. “It’s notable that most donors don’t hold any of their positive or negative perceptions about sponsorship strongly, but only somewhat. That shows a lot of donors aren’t entirely sure of their position on child sponsorship. … The interest is there but so are doubts or concerns. It would be wise for sponsorship organizations to explore deeply what these obstacles are and how they can effectively overcome them.”³⁸

“I have seen these meetings take place dozens of times and I can tell you it is powerful every single time. There’s nothing like watching a sponsor hug his/her sponsored child for the first time.”

Despite such ambivalence, researchers found mechanisms that allow donors to be able to visit their child (offered by major sponsor organizations) serve as a “sort of warranty” for donors. Eighty-one percent of donors say the ability to visit their sponsored child makes sponsorship more legitimate and believable.³⁹

Indeed, a national magazine story about the Donor Mindset Study quoted Compassion International spokesperson Tim Glenn about the difference this option makes: “I have seen these meetings take place dozens of times and I can tell you it is powerful every single time. There’s nothing like watching a sponsor hug his/her sponsored child for the first time. Sponsors can walk into the classrooms at the Compassion child development center and see the very desk where their child sits. They can meet the volunteers who cook hot meals for the child or chat with the teachers who give their time to tutor and mentor each child. It’s a life-changing experience for everyone involved.”⁴⁰

Sponsor a Child »

About GFA World

Read the rest of this GFA World Special Report: Child Sponsorship — Does it Lift the Young Out of Poverty? — Part 1, Part 3

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Read what 30 Christian Leaders are affirming about Gospel for Asia.

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

Footnotes:

Gospel for Asia Child Sponsorship — Does it Lift the Young Out of Poverty? | Part 1

December 19, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, has been the model for numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to help the poor and deprived worldwide, issued this first part of a Special Report on Child Sponsorship — Does it Lift the Young Out of Poverty?

In existence for many years, child sponsorship has been adapted by Christian ministries and NGOs alike as it provides education, sustenance and other benefits impoverished children might otherwise never have. But does it work? Does sponsoring children really help kids escape a life of poverty? This article is intended to get to the bottom of those questions, and more.

Many children face poverty, hardship and crippling crisis without a hope of anything better in their future. Child sponsorship organizations seek to come alongside them, let them know they are seen and loved and provide a helping hand so their future can be one where these children can not only dream, but see those dreams fulfilled. Photo by Compassion, Prayer for Children in Conflict

About two years ago, Compassion International joined the billion-dollar charity club. That put it alongside such noted names as United Way, Salvation Army, the Red Cross and the YMCA. Its 2020 fiscal year income topped that mark by $1.2 million, growing 4 percent over the previous year despite its major spring fundraising initiative getting canceled because of COVID-19¹.

A key element of this news is Compassion’s status as one of the best-known organizations built on child sponsorship, a valuable component of lifting children out of poverty worldwide. Sponsors help provide kids with such opportunities as education, medical care, protection against malnutrition, and clean water. That such purposes resonate with donors is demonstrated by the Colorado Springs-based ministry’s record of 21 years of consecutive growth².

“Our sustained growth is a testament to our faithful supporters who are committed to the work we are called to do in releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name,” Controller and Vice President of Finance Amanda Whitmire told the city’s Gazette newspaper. “[It is also] our ability to continue that work with increasing effectiveness and efficiency through our workforce and dedicated church partners.”³

Child Sponsorship: A popular model

While groups like Compassion offer one-on-one matches between a sponsor and a child, others put donations to work through community development. Some organizations utilize other methods, but no matter how the money is used, child sponsorship is purported to offer children a chance to escape the cycle of poverty that can trap people for a lifetime. (One recent estimate places the number of sponsored children worldwide at 10 million.⁴)

GFA World national missionary pastors help tutor children in this community — In Rajasthan this pastor and another pastor have taken it upon themselves to help tutor the children in the community each evening between 4:00-5:00 as the children have been having trouble learning in the local classroom.

According to the World Bank, 53 percent of children living in low- and middle-income nation are classified as “in-school non-learners,” meaning they are enrolled in school but do not retain the things they learn.⁵ The agency found that children in this group cannot read or comprehend a short, age-appropriate story by the time they finish grade school. In poorer countries, the agency says the number can range as high as 80 percent.⁶ What’s worse, those who fail to finish school can easily join the ranks of the world’s 160 million child laborers.⁷

This was the kind of bleak situation facing a boy in South Asia named Neale not too long ago. The eight-year-old lives in a rural mountain village with his parents, who are employed in the area’s fertile tea fields. Their meager earnings aren’t enough to cover necessities, meaning Neale sometimes doesn’t have bus fare to make it to school. Because of sporadic attendance, his grades were dropping. This was devastating for the boy as a good education would be instrumental for him to be able to one day get a good job and be able to fulfil his dream of helping his mother.⁸

That’s when one of Neale’s teachers, who had noticed his situation, showed up at his home to tell him about a way to receive tutoring. The solution: a child sponsorship program operated by Gospel for Asia (GFA World), a non-governmental organization that operates in Asia and Africa. It meant Neale could receive the attention and time he needed to thrive. The following week, Neale sat with dozens of children like him listening to their tutor. After school, child sponsorship staff helped reinforce the lessons and helped him complete assignments.

Children receiving guidance and encouragement from GFA World child sponsorship staff — Like these children, Neale (not pictured) sat with his peers, receiving guidance and encouragement from Gospel for Asia (GFA World) child sponsorship staff.

“Neale also received a nutritious meal, tips on proper hygiene and school supplies—greatly relieving his mother of additional financial expenses,” Gospel for Asia (GFA World) reported. “The staff saw to his every need, wanting to help Neale achieve his dream. They offered all sorts of guidance, instilling within him the discipline he needed to advance his education and grow as an individual. Little by little, as Neale’s grades rose, so did his hope. That good job he wanted didn’t seem so distant now; helping his mother didn’t seem so impossible now.”⁹

This is a key attraction for sponsors; such programs afford them the opportunity to help desperately needy children who otherwise face a bleak future. In its materials, Compassion International outlines a variety of benefits, beginning with holistic child development that blends physical, social, economic and spiritual care to help each child fully mature. Thousands of churches in low- and middle-income nations tailor this model to the contextualized needs of the children in their community.

Other benefits the ministry lists include the opportunity to hear the gospel, better health, better nutrition, education and vocational support, safety and protection, and socio-emotional development.¹⁰ Plus, personal correspondence; in 2020, Compassion translated and sent 4.9 million letters from sponsored children to U.S. sponsors. Spokesperson Tim Glenn says the ministry’s growth is “a testimony of the power of relationship. The relationship between sponsor and child, the relationship between our ministry and our church partners, and of course, the relationship between God and his people.”¹¹

Child reads a letter from her sponsors — The letters from their sponsors tell children they are loved, they are remembered, and they are important. These letters are often some of the most treasured possessions these children have. Photo by WorldVision.org

Approaches Vary When it Comes to Sponsoring a Child

Another sponsorship charity founded four decades ago by a group of five Catholic lay workers (four siblings and a friend) reached the $2 billion in total aid distributed last year. Based in Kansas City, Kansas, Unbound serves 300,000 people in 19 countries throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia.¹²

Estrella and her daughter Hannah who received sponsorship — Through Unbound, not only did Hannah receive sponsorship, but after their home was destroyed by a fire, the organization provided funds for Hannah and her mother, Estrella’s house to be rebuilt. Photo by Unbound, Coping in the Pandemic

Originally the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, the organization says most sponsored children have representation through small parent/guardian groups that direct how the funds are allocated. They commonly go toward food, education and skills training, health care, improved living conditions, and seed capital for a farm or small business.¹³

One 25-year-old woman, who is now a nurse in South Asia, said without sponsorship, it would have been impossible to achieve her goals. President and CEO Scott Wasserman said the number of lives Unbound has helped in its history is “humbling,” with the $2 billion marking a milestone in providing sponsorees with dignity and a path out of poverty.¹⁴

“The World Bank estimates 120 million more people will fall below the poverty line because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Wasserman said. “[That] just strengthens our resolve to continue helping marginalized people around the world emerge from poverty as happier, healthier, contributing members of their communities.”¹⁵

Unbound’s approach shows the difficulty of trying to place sponsorship in a neat box. This is further illustrated by one of the larger sponsorship organizations, World Vision. The Seattle ministry, which takes in more than $1 billion annually, tweaked its sponsorship model in 2019. World Vision’s “Chosen” program allows children to select their donors instead of donors choosing them.¹⁶

“The World Bank estimates 120 million more people will fall below the poverty line because of the COVID-19 pandemic. [That] just strengthens our resolve to continue helping marginalized people around the world emerge from poverty as happier, healthier, contributing members of their communities.”

Initially done through a pilot project with seven churches across the U.S., the following year World Vision expanded the system to 22 countries, potentially affecting 180,000 children. The move came partially in reaction to criticism that allowing sponsors to choose children gave them a sense of power while diminishing that of poor children.

Still, whether the child picks the sponsor or vice versa, Hillary Kaell—an associate professor at Montreal-based McGill University and the author of a book about child sponsorship in the U.S.—said that the ministry sees God at work in either direction.

Child choosing a sponsor — In a unique twist on the normal sponsorship process, World Vision began their Chosen program which allows the child to pick their own sponsor. Photo by World Vision, Chosen

“In promotional videos for its Chosen program, World Vision makes it clear that God is still the guiding force…” wrote Kaell. “Sponsors say, ‘There are so many things that are bigger than us. … Through God we’re intertwined.’ Or they marvel at how a child across the world is serving as God’s ‘mouthpiece’ by choosing them. [Sponsor] Nichole feels it, too. After watching a video of [child] Junayet choosing her, she told me, ‘I could see God in the moment. Junayet came up with all of the joy in the world. He literally ran to my photo. God’s hand is in all those moments.’”¹⁷

Not all child sponsors, or sponsorship programs, come from a religious perspective. One example is Children International, a secular nonprofit formed in 1936 to provide food baskets for women and children in two Israeli cities. Over the next two decades, it expanded to an orphanage, a medical clinic and an orthopedic hospital.¹⁸

In the 1970s the organization experienced expansion and growth, with the Kansas City-based charity making a gradual shift to a sponsorship model that helped children in Asia and Latin America. Today it maintains 67 community centers in 10 nations (including the U.S.) on five continents. According to the organization’s website, “As a secular organization, we respect and honor the religions, cultures and languages of all our children and families. Sponsored children and our staff work together to achieve our goal of ending poverty for good through programs that focus on health, education, empowerment and employment.”¹⁹

Sponsor a Child »

About GFA World

Read the rest of this GFA World Special Report: Child Sponsorship — Does it Lift the Young Out of Poverty? — Part 2, Part 3

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Read what 30 Christian Leaders are affirming about Gospel for Asia.

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

Footnotes:

Rabey, Steve. “Compassion International crosses $1 billion milestone.” Colorado Springs Gazette. https://gazette.com/life/compassion-international-crosses-1-billion-milestone/article_4131990a-187b-11eb-9f03-5ff71a170a62.html. November 1, 2020.
“Accountability Report.” Compassion International. https://www.compassion.com/multimedia/OCFO_AccountabilityReport2020.pdf.
Rabey, Steve. “Compassion International crosses $1 billion milestone.” Colorado Springs Gazette. https://gazette.com/life/compassion-international-crosses-1-billion-milestone/article_4131990a-187b-11eb-9f03-5ff71a170a62.html. November 1, 2020.
Kaell, Hillary. “When a child chooses a donor to sponsor them, it’s a new twist on a surprisingly old model of international charity.” The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/when-a-child-chooses-a-donor-to-sponsor-them-its-a-new-twist-on-a-surprisingly-old-model-of-international-charity-148209. November 12, 2020.
“Ending Learning Poverty.” The World Bank. Last updated, https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/ending-learning-poverty. October 20, 2021.
Ibid.
“Child labor: Facts, FAQs, and How to Help End It.” World Vision Inc. https://www.worldvision.org/child-protection-news-stories/child-labor-facts. July 7, 2022.
“Keeping His Future Intact.” GFA World News. https://www.gfa.org/news/articles/keeping-his-future-intact-wfr21-10/. October 2021.
“Keeping His Future Intact.” GFA World News. https://www.gfa.org/news/articles/keeping-his-future-intact-wfr21-10/. October 2021.
“What the Benefits of our Child Sponsorship Program?” Compassion International. https://www.compassion.com/how-we-work/benefits-of-the-program.htm. Accessed May 19, 2020.
“Compassion International crosses $1 billion milestone.” Colorado Springs Gazette. https://gazette.com/life/compassion-international-crosses-1-billion-milestone/article_4131990a-187b-11eb-9f03-5ff71a170a62.html. November 1, 2020.
“Our History.” Unbound. https://www.unbound.org/OurImpact/WhoWeAre/OurHistory. Accessed August 29, 2022.
“Our History.” Unbound. https://www.unbound.org/OurImpact/WhoWeAre/OurHistory. Accessed August 29, 2022.
“Unbound Reaches Significant Milestone with $2 Billion in Aid.” Unbound. https://www.unbound.org/Media/2021/August/Celebrating2Billion. Accessed August 29, 2022.
“International Nonprofit Unbound Disburses $2 Billion in Aid for Children and Elders Overcoming Poverty.” Globe Newswire. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/08/17/2282277/0/en/International-nonprofit-Unbound-disburses-2-billion-in-aid-for-children-and-elders-overcoming-poverty.html. August 17, 2021.
“Chosen: The Power to Choose Is in the Child’s Hands” World Vision Inc. https://www.worldvision.org/sponsor-a-child/chosen. Accessed August 29, 2022.
Kaell, Hillary. “When a Child Chooses a Donor to Sponsor Them, It’s a New Twist on a Surprisingly Old Model of International Charity.” https://theconversation.com/when-a-child-chooses-a-donor-to-sponsor-them-its-a-new-twist-on-a-surprisingly-old-model-of-international-charity-148209. Accessed August 29, 2022.
“Children International Is a Secular Nonprofit.” ChildrenInternational.com. https://www.children.org/learn-more/history/non-religious-charity. Accessed May 10, 2022.
Ibid.

Gospel for Asia [GFA World] Says Child Sponsorship Makes University Dream Come Alive

December 15, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX — For the world’s poorest children, one thing increases their chances of graduating from university by up to 80% — being sponsored by someone in the U.S. or other Western country.

Child sponsorship makes university dream alive for world's poor, escaping the generational poverty trap, says Gospel for Asia (GFA world) — **CHILD SPONSORSHIP ‘TURNS DESPAIR TO REMARKABLE HOPE’:** A new report (http://www.gfa.org/press/sponsor) by global mission agency Gospel for Asia (GFA World) says research suggests the sponsor-a-child model adopted by many leading nonprofit organizations gives children in abject poverty a much higher chance of graduating from university and achieving their dreams.

A new report (http://www.gfa.org/press/sponsor) says research conducted in six developing countries around the world over a two-year period suggests the sponsor-a-child model adopted by many leading nonprofit organizations makes “significant impacts” on sponsored children’s education, health, well-being, and aspirations.

Researchers from the University of San Francisco (USF) and University of Minnesota found sponsored children in South Asia, Africa and Latin America stayed in school longer, were much more likely to complete high school, and were 50-80% more likely to graduate from university, says global mission agency GFA World (Gospel for Asia).

Escaping Generational Trap

“When children in abject poverty have no prospect of going to school, their dreams are crushed and they have no hope of escaping the generational poverty trap,” said Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founder K.P. Yohannan, also known as Metropolitan Yohan.

Child sponsorship “provides the opportunity to go to school, receive basic healthcare, and have clean water–meeting whatever needs the child’s community might have,” he said. “It turns utter despair to remarkable hope. Many sponsored children grow up to be teachers, nurses, and even doctors.”

Sponsored children — most of them supported by donors in the U.S., Canada and other Western countries — show “higher levels of self-esteem, aspirations and self-expectations, and lower levels of hopelessness,” says the report titled Child Sponsorship Helps Lift the Young Out of Cycle of Poverty (http://www.gfa.org/press/sponsor).

Created For So Much More

For thousands of children — like Bir, a boy who used to scavenge in trash piles to survive, and Divena, a five-year-old girl abandoned by her mother — when a sponsor steps up it speaks to their hearts, showing them “they’re created for a higher purpose and that God really loves them,” Yohannan said.

Gospel for Asia (GFA World) donors have helped support 142,000 children across South Asia, and the organization aims to sponsor 500,000 children worldwide by 2030.

“Millions of children living on the streets and in slums today is truly heart-breaking,” said Yohannan. “We must rescue them and give them hope in Christ’s name.”

About GFA World

GFA World (Gospel for Asia) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In a typical year, this includes thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 880 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 163,000 needy families, and teaching to provide hope and encouragement in 110 languages in 14 nations through broadcast ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit the Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.

Learn more about how to provide pure, clean water to families and villages through GFA World Jesus Wells and BioSand Water Filters.

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Source: GFA World Digital Media Room, Child Sponsorship Makes University Dream Come Alive for World’s Poor, Says Gospel for Asia [GFA World]

GFA Child Sponsorship Program Helps Young Woman Fulfill Dream

September 26, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan, has been the model for numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, to help the poor and deprived worldwide, discussing how Gospel for Asia (GFA World) child sponsorship program helped a young woman fulfill her dream.

Sarafina swept the floor of her grandparents’ house, discouraged, ashamed and with no hope for her future. She wanted a job so desperately, but after discontinuing her studies a few years prior, she figured her chances of ever getting a decent one was slim to none.

She had moved in with her maternal grandparents after her mother died and her father remarried. Her grandparents had worried her stepmother wouldn’t love or look after Sarafina well, so they welcomed their granddaughter into their home with open arms. But their finances were pretty tight, which meant Sarafina would not be able to pursue higher education that would enable her to get a good job.

Shattered Dreams

Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan, discussing how child sponsorship program helped a young woman fulfill her dream. — Through GFA World’s child sponsorship program, Sarafina was able to achieve her goals.

In her younger years, Sarafina had participated in GFA’s child sponsorship program. Seeing the need of her and her family, Gospel for Asia (GFA) staff had welcomed 5-year-old Sarafina into the program, providing pencils, books, a schoolbag and all the other supplies she needed to succeed in her studies. Providing education support such as tutoring, Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers invested in Sarafina’s education and success.

After completing the 12th grade, Sarafina graduated from the program with plans to pursue higher education. Instead, due to her family situation and their financial constraints, she took care of the house and helped her aging grandparents. Sarafina feared being a burden on her grandparents, yet she also longed for the opportunity to continue her studies—a dream that Sarafina felt might never be fulfilled.

A Second Chance

A few years later, local Gospel for Asia (GFA) staff conducted a youth fellowship program and invited all the graduates of the child sponsorship program to attend. Sarafina happily accepted the invitation, excited to attend the event.

Sarafina’s former teachers were thrilled to see her and inquired how she was doing. They were shocked to learn that she, who had kept such a promise, had discontinued her education. Sarafina explained what had happened and how she had to prioritize caring for her grandparents over pursuing her dreams.

The Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers listened attentively and offered encouragement. They even informed Sarafina of a place she could go to pursue further education that would help her secure a job.

Sarafina was overjoyed! She excitedly enrolled in a course to prepare for work as a blood bank technician. Though the program was not easy for her, Sarafina put her trust in Jesus and remained in contact with the Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers from the program, who provided encouragement and support every step of the way.

Renewed Hope, Strengthened Faith

Eventually, Sarafina finished her degree and obtained a job in a hospital as a pathology lab technician. Sarafina was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude at the second chance she had been given to reach her dreams.

“My heart is filled with gratitude toward God and His people,” Sarafina said. “I will never forget [the GFA workers] and all the help I have received from them. It is only because of [them] that I am in this job today.”

Through the encouragement and support of the Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers, Sarafina not only was able to pursue her heart’s desire of finishing her education and getting a job, but she also experienced Christ’s love.

Read how GFA’s child sponsorship program changed Acenath’s life.

*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia World stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.

Source: Gospel for Asia Field Reports & Updates, GFA Child Sponsorship Program Helps Young Woman Fulfill Dream

Learn more about the GFA World national missionary workers who carry a burning desire for people to know the love of God. Through their prayers, dedication and sacrificial love, thousands of men and women have found new life in Christ.

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Children in Crisis: The World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame’ | GFA World Special Report Part 3

May 9, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, has been the model for numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to help the poor and deprived worldwide, issued this final part of a Special Report on the world’s greatest ‘badge of shame’: Children in Crisis.

Each of their children were suffering and it was all preventable…if only they had clean water. But their nearest source was a contaminated pond and it wasn’t always possible to walk the 3-6 miles to reach safer water, so they drank what was poisoning them. One day though, everything changed.

Kids at Risk of Sexual Exploitation

For millions of children around the world, hunger, thirst and disease are just three of life’s cruel injustices. They are, however, not the vilest or the most horrific.

While an accurate number is difficult to pinpoint, it’s estimated millions of children worldwide—from the slums of Haiti to the sordid child sex industry of Bangkok, Thailand—are victims of sexual exploitation and prostitution.

Millions of kids around the globe are at risk of sexual exploitation — These three children are safe for now in a loving family in the state of Haryana, India, but millions of other kids around the globe ages 10-17 are at risk of sexual exploitation or enforced prostitution.

A report on child trafficking by UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, says:

“Sexual activity is often seen as a private matter, making communities reluctant to act and intervene in cases of sexual exploitation. These attitudes make children more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Myths, such as the belief that HIV/AIDS can be cured through sex with a virgin, technological advances such as the internet [that] has facilitated child pornography, and sex tourism targeting children, all add to their vulnerability.”^[32]

UNICEF’s report highlights the following highly disturbing facts:

Surveys indicate that 30-35 percent of all sex workers in the Mekong sub-region of Southeast Asia are ages 12-17.
Mexico’s social service agency reports more than 16,000 children engage in prostitution, with most of them active in tourist destinations.
In Lithuania, 20-50 percent of prostitutes are believed to be children, some as young as 11. Kids from orphanages and children’s homes are especially at-risk, and 10-12 year-olds have been used to make pornographic movies.

“Prostitution is legal in some parts of Asia so the chances of girls being victimized are drastically increased,” said GFA World’s Yohannan. “Many of the poorest families are manipulated into selling their daughters to opportunists who promise a better life for them. But many of these girls are never heard from or seen again. It’s a fate worse than death.”^[33]

National Geographic tells the harrowing story of “S” in Asia (name withheld) who left home at the age of 12 with a family acquaintance who promised to find her a job in the city. She was sold to a brothel where she was kept as a sex slave for two years before the police freed her and sent her to a shelter. Six months later, “S” met a woman who promised to take her back home to her family—but sold her to another brothel instead.^[34]

A vulnerable young girl — The young and unprotected are easy targets for those who would carry out unspeakable atrocities against them.

The shameful catalog of sexual abuse against unprotected girls is a global disgrace.^[35]

According to the Korea Future Initiative (KFI), North Korean girls who escape across the border to China are forced to stay “invisible” and often end up in brothels and the cybersex trade. “Girls as young as 9 are forced to perform graphic sex acts and are sexually assaulted in front of webcams, which are live-streamed to a paying global audience,” says KFI.^[36]

In Haiti, many young girls enter into “survival prostitution” because they have no other way to feed themselves.

A church leader in Haiti explained to me: “Let’s say that a girl does not eat for a day. She’s hungry but she will survive. However, the next day, she has nothing to eat. Now, she has gone two days without food. A married man asks her, ‘Can I take you to a restaurant?’ She will not say ‘no.’ The next day, he offers to buy her clothes… a nice dress. Do you think she will say ‘no’? Before long, she is his mistress. She has become dependent on him for food and clothing. This happens all the time in Haiti.

“Many girls practice prostitution in our cities and even in our churches. Their parents encourage them because they are desperate for food, so they encourage their 15-year-old daughters to have sex to bring in money. It’s a desperation trade: ‘You help me, and I will have sex with you.’”

In Haiti, these child sex workers are known as “Degaje.“ In the local Creole language, the term refers to sex workers in survival mode. Their families are known as “Brase,” also a reference to being in a state of survival. Hence, Haitians talk about “Degaje” from “Brase” families.

In nations around the globe, poverty also leads to child marriages, with men frequently marrying girls under the age of 13. According to a report by Gospel for Asia (GFA World), there are as many as 650 million “child brides” in the world today, including adult women who married in childhood.^[37] In 2020, a startling report by CBS News stated that one in every five children in the world is married.^[38]

“Globally, millions of girls—a number so vast as to defy comprehension—are trapped in a web of exploitation,” said Yohannan. “Girls living in areas of political instability, conflict, or oppression are especially vulnerable to forced marriage and sex slavery.”

In 2014, the kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria by Boko Haram terrorists grabbed the news headlines, but globally the ongoing, rampant abuse of girls continues largely under the radar:

In Bangladesh, a survey of 375 sex workers revealed nearly half of them were child brides, married as young as 11, and trafficked into prostitution.
In China, sex-selective abortions resulted in a national shortage of women, fueling demand for child brides and sex workers.^[39]
In the U.S., more than 200,000 minors were married between 2000 and 2015. Most were girls and more than 80 percent were married to an adult, CBS News reported.^[40]

Girls trying to survive in the slums — Maharashtra, India – February 2018: Life is anything but simple for these girls who live in one of the many slums in their state. Survival here is often dependent on scavenging and selling what you can.

Children with their mother collects stones to help earn a little money for their family — West Bengal, India – August 2020: COVID cost their father his job which made his drinking problem worse. Their mother was forced to Delhi to earn money, leaving these three siblings alone and abandoned. Without alternatives, these children at risk of starvation, had to visit the river each day to break up stones to sell to somehow get something to eat.

Little girl selling vegetables in the weekly market — Maghalaya, India – October 2021: This little girl runs her family’s stall to sell various items in the weekly market. Like her, many children have to work to help their family make ends meet. But the practice can hinder a child’s education, especially if they drop out of the school for ongoing work at home.

Children at Risk of Slavery

In addition to trafficking for sex and forced marriage, children worldwide are also highly vulnerable to labor exploitation and modern-day slavery.

Millions of children in Asia, like this young boy, are involved in child labor — Millions of children in Asia are involved in child labor. Some children are forced into it, while others have to drop out of school so they can work to help their struggling families.

Around the world, 152 million children as young as five are engaged in some form of child labor. More than 4 million children work in factories, sweatshops, brick-making kilns, hazardous mining operations, rice fields, domestic servitude and other exploitive, forced labor.^[41]

In Southeast Asia, 13-year-old Min Min searches for precious stones at a quarry. In 2020, at least 160 people were killed by a mudslide at a jade mine in the region where he lives. “We risk our lives for these stones,” Min Min said. “A man died last night … I saw it with my own eyes.”^[42]

Because of the dire economic situation in Haiti, many young children are turned out of their homes by parents who can’t afford to feed them. Often, these children—some younger than 10 years old—enter into domestic servitude, a form of child slavery, with another family.

Facing neglect and physical abuse, these children are known as “rest avek,” translated “stay with,” and are treated essentially as slaves, expected to rise early each day to do the most menial chores.

Real-life Cinderellas

These real-life Cinderellas don’t have the opportunity to attend school, so they have virtually no chance of escaping their situation.

Bhil boy works in the brick making factory alongside other adults and children.

“Haitians dream of escape,” one Haitian man in the capital Port-au-Prince told me. “If you look at Haitian paintings, many of them depict the ocean. The ocean represents escape… liberty. For Haitians, the outside world is paradise; Haiti is hell.”

But for Haiti’s “rest avek” children and millions more trapped in exploitive labor around the world, there is no escape.

In Asia, nine-year-old Lakshmi worked in a factory as a cigarette roller. But it’s her 10-year-old sister she’s most worried about.

“Every morning at 7 a.m. she goes to the bonded labor man, and every night at 9 p.m. she comes home,” Lakshmi said. “He treats her badly. He hits her if he thinks she’s working slowly, or, if she talks to the other children, he yells at her. He comes looking for her if she’s sick and can’t go to work.”

“I don’t care about school or playing. I don’t care about any of that. All I want is to bring my sister home. For 600 rupees [about $8] I can bring her home—that is our only chance to get her back. We don’t have 600 rupees … we will never have 600 rupees.”^[43]

A better life seems like a far-fetched dream to children like Lakshmi and her sister in Asia. At the root of their despair is grinding poverty.

But there is hope.

More than 138,000 children received food, medical care, and an education since GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program began in 2004. GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program opens the door to a life of opportunity for thousands of children whose lives teeter on the brink of hopelessness, exploitation and suffering. Through its community development approach, Gospel for Asia (GFA World) shows children, their families and their communities the love of Christ by meeting practical needs.

Working with community leaders, solutions like basic health care, food, clean water and educational and community service opportunities help break the cycle of generational poverty.

In the next decade, Yohannan says, he wants to see 500,000 at-risk children in some of the world’s most desperate places enrolled in the program—and his organization invites people to sponsor a child, or more than one child, to help set them free from the curse of poverty and its childhood-ravaging effects.

Children at risk living on the street in Asia — God loves each child at risk, each kid in crisis, living on the street in Asia and Africa. He sees their needs and will not ignore their cries for help. Nor will we. Through GFA World’s child sponsorship program, and your support, children are getting their needs met, while finding out that God cares for them.

Redeeming Children in Crisis

Impoverished children from Karnataka, India — Two young impoverished children in Karnataka, India convey the wonderful beauty found in every child, no matter their station in life.

Our world bears a great “badge of shame” for its appalling neglect of and cruel injustice toward children in every nation, on every continent. But there’s an opportunity for redemption—and each of us can do our part.

In Kampala’s Kisenyi slum, one lonely street boy about 10 years old caught my attention as he sat in the dirt, wearing only torn rags. His leg was badly injured, split open, and flies had gathered on the gaping wound. He was inhaling fuel from a plastic bottle to dull the pain. As I crouched beside him, he told me he’d been run over by a car. The driver hadn’t bothered to stop. Maybe God put me on this earth for this very moment? It was, perhaps, the first time someone had actually cared about this boy, the first time he’d experienced God’s love through another human being. It was an honor to clean and bandage his wound. At that moment, God broke my heart for the suffering children of this world. But He did more than that—He showed me that every child reveals His beauty, even when they’re dressed in filthy rags and lying in the gutter.

As Mother Teresa is quoted as saying:

Mother Teresa holding a child — Mother Teresa
Photo by Wikimedia

The child is the beauty of God present in the world, that greatest gift to a family.^[44]

Give to Help Support Children at Risk & Kids in Crisis »

If this special report has touched your heart and you would like to make a real difference in the lives of children in crisis around the world, and bring hope to kids at risk of violence, impoverishment, or child labor, then make a generous one time or monthly gift to help kids in need in Asia or Africa.

About GFA World

Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.

Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report: Children in Crisis — World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame’ — Part 1, Part 2

Learn more about the GFA World Bridge of Hope program and how you can make an incredible difference in the lives of children, bringing hope to their lives and their families, transforming communities.

Learn how to provide a chance for children without sponsors. When you give to help unsponsored children, you help supplement the lack of resources when children in Asia don’t have the sponsors they need to stay in a Bridge of Hope center.

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Read what 25 Christian Leaders are affirming about Gospel for Asia.

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

Children in Crisis: The World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame’ | GFA World Special Report Part 2

May 4, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, which inspired numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to assist the poor and deprived worldwide, issued this 2nd part of a Special Report on the world’s greatest ‘badge of shame’: Children in Crisis.

Street children resting outdoors exposed to danger and hunger — Without much to call their own, these two boys hold tightly to each other. The streets are a dangerous place for anyone to live, but even more so for vulnerable, and often exploited children.

Child Sacrifice: Boy’s Head ‘Sold by Father For $2,000’

Moses' grave site. — 15-year-old Moses went out to buy potatoes and never returned home. His heartsick parents found his body the following week. He is laid to rest here, the cruel victim of child sacrifice and leaves behind not only parents, but his three-year-old sister. This community in Uganda now has a unique alert system that has already rescued two children from a similarly awful fate. ©2014 World Vision/photo by Jon Warren

Other street boys, Kandwanaho told me, fall victim to Uganda’s sinister underworld of child sacrifice. With its roots in witchcraft, child sacrifice is still practiced among both the poor and the rich. Wealthy businessmen abduct a young street boy with few physical blemishes, have him beheaded and then bury the boy’s head under the foundation of a new building “to bring them luck” with their new money-making venture, Kandwanaho said.

A report by ABC Newstells the story of a young mother who found the headless body of her 17-month-old son in a shallow grave in a banana plantation in her rural village near the Congo border. “I pulled my son’s body out of the soil,” she said. “I realized he had no head.” The child’s killer turned out to be his own father, who was given $2,000 by a rich businessman in return for the boy’s head.^[16]

Atrocities against street children are not confined to any single country. In Brazil, news reports tell of organized “death squads” that deliberately seek out and murder street children viewed as nothing more than garbage littering the streets.^[17]

Kandwanaho showed me where his friends sometimes sleep inside giant, used tractor tires, piled up in a yard. One night, they were swept up in a police “clean-up” operation and transported to a children’s detention center outside Kampala. Every year, hundreds of street kids end up in “remand” centers, juvenile prisons, where they can be detained for months or even years without a court hearing. Their crime? Often, it’s just living or begging on the streets and being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sixty Feet, a nonprofit organization, helps bring smiles back to marginalized and forgotten children. — Sixty Feet serves in the midst of pain and hurt to help bring smiles back to the children most of their society has written off or forgotten. Photo by Sixty Feet

Nonprofit organizations such as Sixty Feet seek to help children in the prison facilities. Their vision is to “provide a Gospel-centered continuum of care for critically vulnerable children that includes minimizing contact with the law, providing for critical needs, and supporting long-term restoration.”^[18]

In Uganda, many street kids are from the northern Karamojong tribe.^[19] They’ve fled the underdeveloped, famine-prone region to come to the capital, where they live in crowded slums, such as the Katwe slum featured in the Disney movie Queen of Katwe, and beg at the intersections. These beautiful children, especially the girls, are extremely vulnerable to sexual predators.

Every month, scores of Karamojong children and families arrive in Kampala, putting more pressure on the slums and increasing the number of kids competing for handouts.

Kids as young as 3 wander along the streets, their hands outstretched, narrowly avoiding the perilous open drainage ditches. If they collect a few thousand Ugandan shillings, maybe 50 cents or a dollar, it goes straight to their parent or someone posing as a parent. Mostly, though, they’re ignored by passers-by and motorists, many of whom believe they’re simply feeding the problem and incentivizing begging if they give a handout.

This exodus of children from poorer, rural areas to the cities in search of food and work is not unique to Uganda. It’s a global phenomenon in poor, underdeveloped countries across Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Street children begging on the streets of South Asia — Small fingers reach through the jeep’s open window. These children shift through the busy traffic in Maharashtra risking life and limb in hopes a few rupees will be slipped their way.

Children at Risk of Starvation

Children in poverty from Haiti walks by mud cakes drying in the sun — Haitian children walk by ‘mud cakes’ drying in the sun. The cakes, made of dirt, salt and oil, make a cheap food to stave off hunger. At 2 cents each, they’re the only affordable food option for thousands of Cite Soleil kids at risk and other impoverished residents. Photo by Crossroads Foundation, Flickr

When crops fail due to drought or other calamity, or work opportunities dry up, children and their parents often face a stark choice: move… or starve.

Driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of young children around the world suffering acute malnutrition, a polite term for starvation, was expected to skyrocket by 20 percent in 2020, according to a report by the U.N.^[20] That’s an additional 10 million starving children worldwide. “Children living on the streets are particularly at risk,” the report says.

In Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, I’ve watched children eat “mud cakes,” sun-dried cakes made from dirt mixed with salt, water and a little margarine.^[21] Mud cakes are a symbol of the despair children face in this Caribbean island nation—a sense of hopelessness that continues into adulthood.

“Ask a Haitian, ‘what do you think you’ll be doing in five years?’ and he will laugh,” a Haitian doctor told me. “Our people do not think about tomorrow; we do not plan for the future. We live from day to day. We are a people in survival mode.”

Around the world, humanitarian agencies such as GFA World (Gospel for Asia) have increased efforts to feed the most vulnerable children and their families during the pandemic as millions of day laborers have been laid off from jobs or unable to work because of lockdowns.

The Texas-based agency has distributed food to tens of thousands of families on the edge of starvation in Asia and Africa, filling a critical gap for parents facing the near-impossible task of feeding their children amid total loss of income and with no safety net to fall back on. “The situation in our village is terrible,” one parent told Gospel for Asia (GFA World). “We don’t have any work and we’re unable to provide food.”

Child hunger is also growing in rich nations, such as the U.S., where more than 11 million children live in “food insecure” homes and don’t have enough to eat, according to the U.S. Government.^[22] A staggering 18 million children in the U.S. could go hungry in 2021 because of the pandemic’s economic impact, according to the No Kid Hungry campaign.^[23] In the U.K., 1.8 million school-age children—one in every five kids—is at risk of hunger.^[24]

These children and their family struggle with hunger due to poverty — Uttar Pradesh: Most of the families in this neighborhood live in small houses in the surrounding fields, and typically struggle to make ends meet financially. Parents often earn 50-60 rupees per day as manual laborers, meaning that the family goes hungry, including their children, like these young ones shown here.

Thirsty? How About a Cup of Feces-contaminated Water?

Small boy collecting unclean water from an open water source — Sinduhli, Nepal, March 2021: As the water levels underground start shrinking, people collect water from small puddles in the forest for drinking. This small boy was asked by his parents, who were working in the fields, to fetch water for drinking from a puddle in the hills. But the water collected from these open puddles can be full of germs and bacteria, as other animals and birds use them too, often causing fatal illnesses.

Hunger is dreadful, but for millions of children, the most immediate threat to their health and survival is the lack of safe drinking water. A staggering 2 billion people, mostly in Africa and Asia, get their drinking water from feces-contaminated ponds and watering holes, leading to often-fatal diseases such as cholera and dysentery. Children under the age of 5 are the most at-risk.^[25] The World Health Organization (WHO) says nearly one in every three people in the world doesn’t have access to safe drinking water,^[26] and the U.N. predicts that by the year 2050 up to 5.7 billion people worldwide could be affected by water shortages.^[27] Drinking contaminated water can lead to many deadly diseases, such as typhoid, hepatitis A, and diarrhea. Globally, diarrhea kills almost 2,200 children every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).^[28]

Organizations like World Vision and Gospel for Asia (GFA World) have made clean drinking water a top priority.

GFA World drills about 4,000 new community wells called “Jesus Wells” every year, providing safe drinking water for entire villages. Over the past two decades, the organization has drilled more than 30,000 wells and distributed more than 58,000 BioSand water filters that remove 98 percent of water impurities.^[29]

The organization’s Jesus Wells supply safe drinking water to approximately 37.5 million people across Asia—roughly equivalent to the entire population of California.

“We offer clean, life-giving water to all people,” says Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founder, K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan). “The Lord has used our efforts to bring clean water to the suffering. They receive healthy, life-sustaining support. This gift of free water is one more way we are able to demonstrate the love of Jesus for those in need.”

Jesus Wells are deep wells, drilled in remote villages in Asia where girls often have to trek miles on foot every day to the nearest watering hole or pond to fetch water, putting themselves at risk of sexual assault and even tiger attacks.

“Our family members were suffering from diarrhea and other [waterborne] diseases,” says Arnab, father of three girls and a boy, describing the difference a Jesus Well has made in his village. “Our children who were sick are healthy now.”

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About GFA World

Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report: Children in Crisis — World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame’ — Part 1, Part 3

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Read what 25 Christian Leaders are affirming about Gospel for Asia.

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

Children in Crisis: The World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame’ | GFA World Special Report Part 1

May 2, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, whose heart to love and help the poor has inspired numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to serve the deprived and downcast worldwide, issued this first part of a Special Report on the world’s greatest ‘badge of shame’: Children in Crisis.

A shocking U.S. Border Patrol video showed human smugglers dropping two unaccompanied children—sisters ages 3 and 5 from Ecuador—over a 14-foot section of the border fence in the New Mexico desert.^[1] The smugglers ran off, leaving the young girls alone and stranded.

Migrant children and their desperate parents enter the U.S. illegally on June 15, 2019 by crossing the Rio Grande in rubber boats near Los Ebanos, Texas. Photo by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Flickr

Another young mother from Central America thought she was on the cusp of giving her 9-year-old daughter a better life in the United States. They’d traveled a long, perilous journey and had just one more hurdle to cross: the Rio Grande River separating Mexico from Texas. Tragically, it was a step too far. The little girl apparently drowned before reaching the other side, NBC News reported.^[2]

Desperate to escape extreme poverty and surging gang violence in their native countries, thousands of migrant children from Latin America continue to flock to the U.S. southern border, with or without their parents. The journey is fraught with dangers that include becoming prey for human traffickers and ruthless drug cartels en route.^[3] Every day in Spring 2021, U.S. border officials were detaining more than 600 unaccompanied migrant children trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, with many children risking their lives to do so.^[4] According to a CNN report in April 2021, there were more than 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children in the custody of U.S. officials at that time.^[5]

The plight and peril of migrant children seeking refuge in the U.S. is a stark reminder that “children in crisis” are not restricted to far-away countries.

Children are in crisis right on our doorstep, in our own neighborhoods, wherever we live in the world. And the problem is growing worse. Until we take steps to protect and prioritize children, their neglect will be a shameful legacy for the nations of our world.

SANTA TERESA, N.M. – U.S. Border Patrol Agents responded to a potentially life-threatening situation involving two female tender-aged toddlers mistreated and abandoned by human smugglers just west of Mt. Cristo Rey. Camera technology observed a smuggler dropping two young kids from the top of the 14-foot-high border barrier, and then immediately fleeing the area after abandoning the helpless little girls on the north side of the international boundary line around March 30, 2021. Video by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Public Affairs – Visual Communications Division, dvidshub.net

The sight is too much to bear for many Western visitors: A frantic teenage mother, with a newborn strapped to her back, looking for a handout to feed herself and keep her tiny baby alive.

But this real-life scene often isn’t what it appears to be. The baby is not hers. She has actually rented the newborn from its mother or guardian so that her pleas for help solicit greater sympathy from passersby.

Renting out “babies-to-beg” is a common practice in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, where hundreds of children and teenagers from outlying areas—some with parents, many without—descend on the city in the hopes of scraping together money for food. Every day the ritual is the same: hustle, beg, scavenge or steal to survive.

If she’s fortunate, this desperate teenage girl, who is extremely vulnerable to sexual exploitation and prostitution, will solicit enough sympathy to purchase a Rolex. Not the luxury wristwatch Rolex you and I might think of, but an egg-filled chapatti, similar to a burrito, that’s served on nearly every street corner.

Her plight and the fate of the baby she carries on her back are intertwined. Both face a life—likely a very brief life—of perpetual struggle. Both face the threat of abandonment and exploitation. Both girls are continually at risk.

That so many of the world’s children in crisis live without compassionate considerations or safeguards from harm is tantamount to being one the world’s greatest “badges of shame.”

They’re among the estimated 1.2 billion children worldwide who are considered “at risk,” vulnerable to a host of calamities, abuse, hunger and diseases—a toxic combination driven largely by poverty and supercharged by the COVID-19 pandemic.^[6]

2021 Global Childhood Report — The 2021 Save the Children Global Childhood Report highlights the toughest places on Earth to be a child, and examines the many factors that rob children of their childhoods and reveals where greater investments are needed to save children from poverty, discrimination and neglect. Photo by Save the Children

According to Save the Children, more than half the world’s children are at risk of poverty, conflict and discrimination against girls.^[7] A report by the international charity states that one billion children live in poverty, 240 million live in areas impacted by conflict, and 575 million girls live in countries where discrimination against women and girls is common.

According to Save the Children, Singapore and Slovenia are the best places to be a child, where childhood is most protected.^[8] In contrast, Save the Children’s latest Global Childhood Report for 2021, “The Toughest Places To Be A Child,” lists 10 sub-Saharan African nations as the worst places to be a child, “where childhood is most threatened.”^[9]

Perhaps surprisingly to some of our readers, the United States is ranked 43rd on the list, behind Russia, Lebanon and Belarus. According to Save the Children’s report, “The United States badly trails many other advanced countries in helping children reach their full potential.” Nonetheless, it ranks among the top 47 countries in the world where relatively few children miss out on their childhoods. The report states, “Countries with similar scores include Bahrain, China, Montenegro, Qatar, Russia, and Slovakia.”^[10]

Save the Children says millions of children are being “robbed of the childhoods they deserve.” The agency states that every child has a right to childhood free from fear, safe from violence, protected from abuse and exploitation.

The concept of childhood is defined in the (U.N.) Convention on the Rights of the Child. It represents a shared vision of childhood: healthy children in school and at play, growing strong and confident with the love and encouragement of their family and an extended community of caring adults, gradually taking on the responsibilities of adulthood.^[11]

But, the report acknowledges, “This ideal contrasts starkly with the childhood many experience.”^[12]

Poor children in Asia walking along the street — These children, just like almost every child in their Haryana slum, set out early each morning in search of garbage in their area. They go around looking for empty plastic bottles, cans, metal, and the like which they then can sell to make a little money to help their families.

Fatherless Kids in Crisis: The ‘Epidemic’ of the Street Children

Around the world, one of the most critical issues affecting children is the surge in the number of kids living on the streets, with no one to protect them or care for them.

Child abandonment is a worldwide crisis. Globally, the “epidemic” of absent fathers, especially, is a major cause of child neglect, often leaving children without a male role model, protector and provider.^[13]

Combined with the tribal practice of having multiple wives or concubines, it’s not unusual in some African countries for one man to produce upwards of 30 children.^[14] Many of these children grow up never having any relationship with their father, or even knowing who their father is.

An abandoned child in the slums of Kamapala, Uganda — An abandoned child sits alone and neglected next to open sewage in the slums of Kamapala, Uganda in July 2007. Photo by SuSanA Secretariat, Flickr

A report published in 2020 by the African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect revealed that child neglect and sexual violence were the biggest issues facing kids growing up in Uganda, one of the lowest-ranking countries.^[15] In 2015, a study of street children in the capital city of Kampala revealed that most kids, the large majority being boys, began their life on the streets between the ages of 5 and 10. Seven out of every 10 street kids had come to Kampala by public taxi or bus. They came for a myriad of reasons. Some came to find work and advance their prospects; others were orphans or victims of abuse or neglect who’d fled horrible home environments; and then there were the rebels and runaways. Almost two-thirds of the kids had lived on the streets for at least a year, and many of them had been on the streets for four years or more. More than half of the children reported they’d been physically abused on the streets, and one in every four said they’d suffered sexual abuse.

Many street boys have nothing more than torn rags or sackcloth to wear as clothes and no shoes on their feet, leaving them vulnerable to puncture wounds that quickly become infected, causing their feet to swell grotesquely. Many of them carry a constant companion tucked inside their ragged clothing—a plastic bottle containing fuel, dipped in a filthy piece of cloth. Every few minutes, they inhale the fumes from the bottle, their eyes floating upwards as the cheap “drug” takes effect. It’s the only way they know to dull their senses and take away the pain and suffering in their lives.

Young boy from Africa collecting garbage to help earn some money for his family — Young Kandwanaho (not pictured) fights for survival by working excruciatingly long hours searching for cardboard to sell. Sometimes he has nothing to show for it at the end of the day and, if so, goes hungry. But even on the days when he makes enough to eat, Kandwanaho still has to join the thousands of other children searching the streets of Kampala for somewhere safe to wait out the night.

I once met a boy named Kandwanaho who told me how he searches the alleys of Kampala from daybreak until dusk, collecting discarded cardboard boxes. He visits the alleyways behind the local market stalls and shops, picking up boxes that once held soap, sodas or other goods. Sometimes, he’ll “strike gold” and find a giant TV box. When he’s gathered several boxes, he takes them to the sprawling downtown marketplace, known as Owino Market, and sells the cardboard to the shoe salesmen. They cut the cardboard into sole-size pieces and slide the card into the footwear to help the shoes keep their shape. If Kandwanaho works a 12-hour shift, he makes just over one dollar.

There are times he roams the streets alone all day—dodging taxis, stubbing his bare toes on the cracked roads, inhaling exhaust fumes, hoarse from thirst—and does not find a single box to recycle. On those days, he has nothing to eat unless he dives into the garbage piles to search for a scrap of anything edible among the competing stray dogs and cockroaches.

For Kandwanaho, and many like him, the most troubling time is nightfall as the city’s hectic rhythm subsides. It’s as if everyone is returning home, except for the kids who live on the streets. They have nobody, and nowhere to call home. The dimming light is their cue to find a place in a drainage ditch or empty shack for the night. It’s their hour to poke around the trash piles for any bits of food ditched at the end of the day. As the light fades, their reality mirrors the approaching darkness.

In Uganda, because street boys are viewed by many business owners as thieves and troublemakers, they’re chased off, beaten up and, in extreme cases, even murdered. The reality that human life is cheap and expendable on Kampala’s volatile streets is clearly evident.

As the lowest of the low, street kids are most often the “whipping boys” when anything goes wrong. Kandwanaho told me that a group of his friends were once caught stealing copper pipes they intended to sell. They were kicked in the head, beaten unconscious, soaked in gasoline and set alight, Kandwanaho recalled tearfully. At their burial in a paupers’ graveyard, he and other street boys were the only mourners present.

Give to Help Support Children at Risk & Kids in Crisis »

About GFA World

GFA World (www.gfa.org) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.

Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report: Children in Crisis — World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame’ — Part 2, Part 3

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Read what 25 Christian Leaders are affirming about Gospel for Asia.

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

From Cybersex to Child Sacrifice: GFA World Reports on ‘Children in Crisis’

February 8, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, which inspired numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to assist the poor and deprived worldwide, reveals on a shocking new report, from U.S. border to South Asia, 1.2 billion children in crisis face ‘horrors,’ exploitation on sickening scale.

Children in Crisis: World's Greatest Badge of Shame, released by Texas-based missions GFA World, reveals child exploitation on a global scale — **CYBERSEX TO CHILD SACRIFICE:** The humanitarian crisis on America’s southern border featured in a shocking new report that examines the horrors facing the world’s children in 2022. “Children in Crisis: The World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame'” (www.gfa.org/press/KidsCrisis), just released by Texas-based mission agency Gospel for Asia (GFA World), reveals child exploitation on a global scale.

America’s humanitarian border crisis is featured in a shocking new report that examines the horrors facing the world’s children in 2022.

Many migrant boys and girls fall prey to human traffickers, smugglers, and drug cartels en route to the U.S., according to the report “Children in Crisis: The World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame‘” by Texas-based humanitarian agency Gospel for Asia (GFA World).

The report highlights a terrifying U.S. Border Patrol video that shows human smugglers dropping sisters – 3 and 5 years old from Ecuador – over a 14-foot section of the border fence in the New Mexico desert. The smugglers ran off, leaving the young girls alone in the dark.

The border situation, says the report, is a “stark reminder” that children are “in crisis right on our doorstep … wherever we live in the world. And the problem is growing worse.”

Situation Critical

The report estimates 1.2 billion children worldwide are vulnerable to a host of calamities, including abuse, hunger and diseases. It’s a “toxic combination” driven largely by poverty and supercharged by the pandemic, the report says.

Among the horrors are child slavery, sexual exploitation – including the online cybersex industry – and even child sacrifice.

In Uganda, a young mother found the headless body of her 17-month-old son in a shallow grave. The child’s killer turned out to be his own father who was paid $2,000 by a businessman in return for the boy’s head, the report says. It’s believed the child’s head was considered by him to be a “good luck” charm.

The report highlights the following disturbing facts:

30-35% of sex workers in the Mekong sub-region of Southeast Asia are 12-17 years old
Mexico’s social service agency reports more than 16,000 children engage in prostitution, mostly in tourist destinations
20-50% of prostitutes in Lithuania are believed to be children – sometimes as young as 11 – and orphans have been exploited to make pornographic movies
North Korean girls, some as young as 9, are forced to perform sex acts in front of webcams, live-streamed to paying customers worldwide

“Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is helping children escape poverty and protect themselves against such vile abuse and atrocities,” said the organization’s founder K.P. Yohannan, also known as Metropolitan Yohan. “Unless we act now to protect all children and show them God’s love is real, the consequences will be unforgivable.”

About GFA World

Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based global mission agency helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit the Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Source: GFA World Digital Media News Room, From Cybersex to Child Sacrifice: New GFA World Report Probes ‘Children in Crisis’

Being Surrounded by 125 Energetic, Joyous Children Was a Real Treat

December 15, 2017 By GFA Staff Writer

Gospel for Asia (GFA) News, Wills Point, Texas, Throwback Story

It is always amazing to me when small moments in your life have more significance than you realized at the time. When Gospel for Asia’s Bridge of Hope Program started, I did not imagine how many tens of thousands of lives would be changed by it. To sponsor the second Bridge of Hope child in GFA’s history was quite an honor for me and my wife.

I remember the excitement and enthusiasm of everyone had when the entire staff met to witness Dr. KP Yohannan select the first child to be sponsored.

Starting a child sponsorship ministry was embarking into unknown territory for Gospel for Asia (GFA). We were primarily known for our national missionary sponsorship emphasis, and there was concern of how a child sponsorship program would be received by our supporters.

Dr. K.P. Yohannan to sponsor the first Bridge of Hope Child - Gospel for Asia — The staff waited enthusiastically for Dr. KP Yohannan to sponsor the first Bridge of Hope Child.

The Lord was growing the ministry at a tremendous rate. Would we be up to the challenge of providing all the infrastructure needed for a quality program?

We weren’t sure how everything would turn out, but we walked in faith believing it was direction from the Lord. And we have witnessed His faithfulness to our obedience.

Through the years, GFA has sought to be faithful in small beginnings, and we have experienced the joy of seeing the Lord grow the work. Bridge of Hope has been very successful. Thousands of our national missionary donors also began sponsoring children as soon as we shared with them the details of the program. On the field, our field partners were able to set up Bridge of Hope centers in many locations, despite the hard work.

I remember shortly after the program started, I had the privilege to visit one of these centers. Being surrounded by about 125 energetic, joyous children was a real treat. After we were seated and before the program started, I looked out on a sea of serious faces staring at these strange people from a foreign land. I am sure they were told to be on their best behavior for these visitors.

At the precise moment before the program began, I was able to exercise one of my “spiritual gifts.” I caught the eye of a curious little boy who was staring at me. I then proceeded to make a funny face. At first, he resisted the urge to laugh. His friends sitting next to him looked at him to see if he would crack. He did and then they all started to laugh. They expressed pure joy that did not need a translator. I have exercised that “gift” at more than 100 Bridge of Hope centers over the years and have never tired of the merriment and happiness of the children.

prayed over the first Bridge of Hope children sponsorship packets - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Dr. K.P. Yohannan and staff prayed over the first Bridge of Hope children sponsorship packets.

One source of sorrow I have is to witness the contrast of the demeanor between those children in the program and those wishing to be in the Bridge of Hope center. It is heartbreaking. My wife and I have often wondered if our little sponsorship makes a difference, is it really that important? But we know it is to that one child.

Because of the multiplier effect of sponsorship, which ends up affecting the lives of entire families, our sponsorship is important. Together, with thousands of other sponsors across the world, hundreds of communities are seeing their lives and the lives of their children transformed. Education brings opportunities that parents and other relatives could never have imagined would be available to their children.

Many times, while visiting a Bridge of Hope center and sitting in a plastic chair in hot and humid conditions, staring at the rows of hopeful faces of the children, I hearken back to the memory of the day in the office when we sponsored our first Bridge of Hope child. It is amazing when small moments in your life have more significance than you realized at the time.

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