How To Help The Children Affected By The Haiti Earthquake Disaster

::The following is a guest post by Brittany at Uncorrupted.net::

Life is full of ups and downs. Sometimes those ups feel like you’re floating on Cloud Nine, and sometimes the downs feel like you can’t get any lower. I can remember some of those bright-sunshiny moments, but I know for a fact that my downs cannot even compare to the recent tragedy that we’ve all been hearing about– the “7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti, with the epicenter located just 10 miles from the capital, Port-au-Prince.” ~ Compassion International

When disasters such as this happen, some people are left wondering, “What can I do?” – “How can I help?” – or “Am I giving to a credible charity to help the victims?” These are all questions I once asked myself. But not anymore…

For over three years, my family and I have been involved with Compassion International, a Christian child sponsorship & development program that helps to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. I chose Compassion based on a few things:

• Not only does Compassion provide the Child Development Sponsorship Program where you can sponsor a child, but Compassion also provides the Child Survival Program, where mothers are educated about how to care for their infants and toddlers, and the Leadership Developmental Program, where select sponsored students are given the chance to receive an undergrad degree (can you imagine being raised in poverty and coming out with a college degree?!)
• Compassion has various giving opportunities that include a disaster relief fund. This provides: food, water, temporary shelter, trauma counseling, sanitation & personal items, medical attention, and preventative health care to victims.
• Compassion International is financially responsible. You are even able to download their annual financial reports.
• Compassion International is rated 4 STARS by Charity Navigator. In fact, Compassion is among the top 1% of charities, according to Charity Navigator.
• The website of Compassion International is incredibly easy to navigate (as seen from allllll my links above). But, if there was ever a time when I needed to actually talk to a live person at Compassion, I would be able to call their toll free number and speak to a representative directly (1-800-336-7676, M-F, 7am-5pm MT).

Compassion International serves over 65,000 children in Haiti. I humbly encourage you to prayerfully consider donating any amount to Compassion’s disaster relief fund.

$35 helps enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
$70 gift helps care for a family’s needs for two weeks.
$105 helps provide enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
$210 gift helps care for two families’ needs.
$525 provides relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
$1,050 gift cares for 10 families’ needs.
$1,500 helps rebuild a home.
$2,100 supplies 20 families with the basics for three weeks.

(Please note that according to Compassion Australia: “Compassion is not withholding ANY funds for administration purposes.”)

Here is a map of Compassion centers in relation to the estimated epicenter “The blue icons represent child development centers, and the red icons represent child survival programs. Most red icons hide behind the blue ones, but for some reason a few show through. The orange circles represent earthquake activity in the last week (or so).” ~ Compassion International Facebook

“And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” ~ Matthew 10:42

::Brittany is a wife to Michael and stay at home, home-schooling mom to three girls, ages 6 1/2 years and under. She is also a volunteer child advocate, as well as the Northern Virginia Area Coordinator for Advocates for Compassion International.::

If you would like to donate to Compassion International’s Disaster Relief Fund, you can do so HERE.