Leadership Development Program - Testimonies

For many sponsored children, being sponsored is only a first step. They long to find other avenues to improve the lives of other destitute children.

The Leadership Development Program is designed to identify and provide opportunity for outstanding Christian young men and women, who have been assisted by Compassion, to develop their potential as Christian leaders and contributors in their spheres of influence.

Here are some of the great stories of success coming out of the LDP Program.


A Success Story

By Barry Slauenwhite - President, Compassion Canada.

So often I have found myself wondering “What if.” What if a sponsored Compassion child would rise up to lead his nation? What if she became a legal advocate for the oppressed? What if the children of developing nations pursued their passions for medicine, art, engineering, or architecture? What effect could they have on the world around them?

Well, I don’t wonder anymore. The Leadership Development Program (LDP) established six years ago by Compassion allows our exceptional graduates to pursue post-secondary education and receive structured leadership training that equips them to rise to positions of influence in their countries and communities. Each year the numbers of graduates increase, and we are beginning to see the impact as they put their skills and training to use.

The program emerged from the conviction that youth with focused training could make a lasting impact on their world. Leaders need to be trained, not just in knowledge, but also in wisdom and experience. Students enrolled in Compassion’s Leadership Development Program serve in their local church or a Compassion project so they can get the hands on experience so vital to their development while serving under respected local leaders who will guide and mentor them.

This past year the Leadership Development Program (LDP) has seen many new graduates, including 11 students from the nation of Haiti. What is most remarkable about these 11 is that none of their parents had ever attended a single day of school. With obstacles stacked against them, these students have overcome the odds and are now prepared to apply their knowledge, wisdom, and ability to positively change Haiti – the most impoverished nation in the western hemisphere – because people like you cared enough to invest in their potential.

We, at Compassion Canada, will not be satisfied until scholarships are available to students in each Compassion country. Would you consider a donation – an investment – to the Leadership Development Program so we can continue to provide scholarships to exceptional students? It takes $3960 to support one student for one year. If everyone gave the little bit that they were able, there would be an abundance with which God could bless His children.

Believing in His Greatness,

Barry Slauenwhite
President, Compassion Canada

  • Sponsor an LDP student by using the search facility on the right-hand side of this page - $330 CDN per month or $3960 a year.
  • Make a donation to the Leadership Development Fund. 


Harriet Mutumba

Overcoming Overwhelming Odds

June 11, 2007 - Born in a poor suburb of Kampala, Uganda, Harriet Mutumba faced huge obstacles in her life. As a child growing up in a family of seven children, Harriet struggled to get anything of her own.

Her father, owner of a vegetable stall, made a meager income while her mother stayed home to take care of the children. The consequences of poverty were amplified when young Harriet went to school. Instead of being praised for her potential, Harriet was often singled out.

"My most painful memory is when one of my classmates said my family must be really poor since my dad had only one pair of trousers," the 25-year-old recalls. "I decided then to never speak up in class and I began to dread going to school." Her shame of being poor drowned out her self-esteem.

Though life was difficult for young Harriet, there was one place that served as her oasis from crushing poverty - her Compassion project. Harriet's life was forever changed for the better when she enrolled in a Compassion project in her community.

"When I got into the program of Compassion, I got photos from my sponsor and I was very excited," Harriet says. "I thought at least it's someone. Even if it's not someone that stays near me or someone that is in my class or in my school or in my community or in my country, there's someone out there who loves me."

Because her Compassion project paid for her school fees, Harriet began to shun her shame at going to school and started to blossom academically. But she received another devastating blow when she didn't score high enough on her state exams to get a government scholarship to a university. "I was very sure that my parents could not afford to sponsor me at the university," says Harriet. "I had lots of thoughts run through my mind, like becoming a prostitute since I had become a failure in life."

But through it all two realities were faithful to Harriet - God's never-ending love and the support from Compassion and her sponsors. Soon after graduating from high school Harriet was accepted into Compassion's Leadership Development Program (LDP). The program allowed her to obtain a university education, but Harriet says the skills she learned through the LDP were unlike anything her peers learned at the university.

"Other students who are in university but who are not in the Leadership Development Program, miss [important] skills," Harriet says. "There are seven leadership skills that the LDP program gives you. They train you to be an influential Christian leader and that's a servant leader, someone who will emulate Jesus when He washed the feet of His disciples. [Through the program] I get discipleship skills. Not any student in university can get such skills."

Today, Harriet investigates complaints of family abuse, including domestic violence and child abuse in her role as a lawyer with the Uganda Human Rights Commission. She interviews victims and counsels them to help change the culture of violence permeating the poor and vulnerable in her country.

"I plan to advocate for children in a much bigger aspect," Harriet says. "I want to advocate for children out there who cannot speak for themselves."


Javier Villca

A Student of the Arts

June 19, 2006 - From a young age, Javier Villca showed a special talent for drawing and painting. When a neighbor who was an artist discovered Javier's gift, he began to teach the boy about technique. By the time he was a teenager, Javier's painting was already advanced enough that he was able to sell his work in order to supplement the family income. At age 16, he was awarded a two-year scholarship to an art school, where he further improved his skills.

Javier is the oldest of seven children. His family is a member of the indigenous Quechua tribe in Bolivia. Years ago, his parents moved from a rural farming community to the city of Cochabamba, hoping to find better opportunities for their children. In the city, his father continued to raise vegetables and his mother sold them in the market. Javier's parents struggled to provide for their large family and he and his sister, Mariana, were eventually registered into Compassion Bolivia's sponsorship program.

As he grew up, Javier excelled not only in painting, but in his studies as well and, when he was ready to graduate from high school and Compassion's program in 1999, he was asked to be part of Compassion's Leadership Development Program (LDP). LDP allows exceptional Compassion graduates to continue their studies at a university and take part in leadership and discipleship training so that they can become influential leaders in their communities.

Today, Javier Villca is an architecture student at Aquino University in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He continues to excel at painting and even displayed his work at his university earlier this year. Among his paintings was a portrait of his Compassion sponsor, Dennis Beard. It was Javier's way of saying "Thank you" to a man who has been an important part of Javier's life for many years. Dennis, who lives in Canada, began sponsoring Javier in 1993 and continues to support him as he takes part in LDP.

Friends say Javier is passionate about his studies and his painting. He hopes that through his studies he will continue to help his family improve their situation. And with his painting, he says he hopes to influence and give back to society with the talents that God has given him.

K. Sheela

Breaking Educational Barriers - Setting Precedent for India's Impoverished Girls

August 19, 2005 - Like many teenage girls, K. Sheela loves to talk with her friends and spend time together. Teenage-girl interests aside, the 19-year-old Compassion India Leadership Development Program (LDP) student is untypical.

Sheela is achieving something remarkable for impoverished girls in her country: a higher education. Though great strides are being made in India, more than half of its female population remains illiterate. In India, as in many cultures in the developing world, educating daughters is not a priority, particularly in impoverished homes. Investing in a son's education takes precedence, since he will carry on the family name and contribute to the family's economic bottom line later in life.

Confident, extroverted Sheela is a prime example of successful intervention among impoverished girls in her culture. "I am studying for a business degree in accounting — my life's ambition," says the first-year LDP student who attends Karnataka University in Bangalore. The 19-year-old credits Compassion for helping her to fulfill that dream.

Difficult Beginnings

Sheela's childhood circumstances do not portend her present academic success. In the impoverished neighborhood where she was raised, a semi-urban community of 300,000 people located north of Bangalore, the average income is just U.S.$54 a month. More than 50 percent of adults are unemployed. Just one in two children finishes grade school.

While she was growing up, Sheela's father, a telephone operator, was the only source of economic support for his wife and two children. A quality education was not in the family budget for Sheela's brother — or for her. But that all changed when the precocious little girl was enrolled at the local Compassion-assisted Goodwill Student Centre (IN-309).

Compassionate Intervention

At the student centre, Sheela received financial assistance that enabled her parents to send their outgoing daughter to school. Included in Compassion's holistic program was the much-needed emotional support from Christian adults. "Our Compassion teachers used to encourage us in whatever we did," the college student recalls fondly.

When Sheela graduated from high school last year, she was awarded top honors in her school's camping program. Her outstanding academic record and leadership qualities, including her spiritual commitment, qualified her to become one of Compassion India's first LDP participants when its program began in 2004.

This aspiring young business leader is a role model for impoverished girls in her country. And it's not just in education. "My future plans include telling the Good News to people who have not heard about [it]," says Sheela. "I want to help people who are in need!"

Jonathan Agunda

Standing Tall

August 30, 2004 - At 21 years old, Leadership Development Program (LDP) student Jonathan Agunda is a small guy accomplishing big things with God's help.

Although Jonathan is only five feet, five inches tall, he is unable to stand fully upright inside his home in Nairobi's Mathare Valley. Not unlike the other homes in this impoverished squatter's community, the one Jonathan shares with his mother and older sister is a small, one-room structure with mud walls, a dirt floor and a corrugated tin roof. There is no running water, electricity or bathroom.

Kenya's Mathare Valley is not a place that inspires great accomplishments. It is where Nairobi's poorest congregate and slowly waste away from disease, starvation and lack of hope. But even in this desperate place, God can be found — Jonathan is proof. A Spark of Hope.

"Compassion really gave me and my family hope for a better life," says Jonathan, who was enrolled in a local church-based project when he was 10 years old. Specifically, it was project worker Isaac Okinyi who instilled in Jonathan the confidence and desire to become all he could be in Christ. "Mr. Okinyi recognized my potential and immediately became involved in my academic life by encouraging me to do my best."

Jonathan's best, as it turned out, was impressive. He was first in his class throughout his elementary and secondary school years. An outgoing boy, he also excelled at soccer and as a Sunday school teacher at the Redeemed Gospel Church. It was obvious that he had natural leadership ability and the potential to succeed in Compassion's Leadership Development Program. Currently a second-year LDP student, Jonathan is succeeding, majoring in finance at Nairobi University and, at the same time, honing his Christian leadership skills.

The Confidence to Look Ahead

Looking ahead is not something the residents of Mathare Valley like to do. For too many of them, bowed under the weight of poverty, the future holds only despair. But in one Mathare home, a young college student stands tall, looking forward to a better life, one in which he can help ease the burdens of others and share with them the light and life of Christ.

Blanca Tucubal

A Princess Serving Her Heavenly King

April 29, 2004 - Cherie Rayburn, Contributing Writer

"I did a research project at the university on how to set up a school," says 24-year-old Blanca Tucubal. "Now I can do it in real life!" Soon to graduate from San Carlos University and Compassion's Leadership Development Program (LDP) in Guatemala, Blanca's goal is to establish a secondary school in the poor rural community of Chivarabal.

An education major, Blanca is already putting her leadership skills to work by serving as principal of the elementary school in Chivarabal. Community leaders credit Blanca with getting more children than ever to attend school. However, Blanca is not stopping there. The nearest secondary school is a two-hour walk from Chivarabal. Consequently, even those who complete elementary school usually do not go on. Blanca plans to change that.

A Desire to Give Back.
Having been given so much throughout her life, Blanca is excited now to be in a position to give to others. One special blessing she recalls from her early years as a Compassion-sponsored child happened when she was in sixth grade. She relates, "My sponsors sent me a special monetary gift and, for the first time in my life, I was taken to a store where I could choose anything I wanted. I felt like a princess."

What Blanca wanted was a pair of shoes that she'd seen in a store but knew her family couldn't afford. "I have a picture of myself wearing those shoes," Blanca says. "Even now, whenever I see that picture, it moves me with thankfulness."

Gifts From Above.
The eldest in a family of seven girls, Blanca received an even more important gift at her Compassion project — the gift of learning about God's great love for her. Accepting Christ at age 13, Blanca says one of her favorite Bible stories is of Jesus walking on the water. "I thought about that story the day I took the national exam to graduate from high school and qualify for college. It's a tough test but I had confidence God was going to hold me up."

Blanca passed the test and on the day she graduated from high school, she received yet another incredible gift — acceptance into Compassion's Leadership Development Program. Now on the threshold of graduation from university, Blanca, expressing her appreciation to Compassion and the LDP, says, "Compassion is a door that has been opened to me and my family and, as a plus, the Leadership Development Program has raised my vision of God's purpose for my life."