Mobilizing sector partnerships to end child poverty
Compassion is a world leader in holistic child and youth development. Learn more about how our proven programs are transforming the lives of over 2.3 million children and youth, along with their families and communities around the world.
Over the last 70 years, Compassion has fought against global poverty by partnering alongside local communities to meet the unique needs of children, youth and adults living in poverty. Compassion International is a leading global authority in holistic development. We have helped more than 2 million infants, children and youth around the world in physical development, cognitive development, socio-emotional development and sustainable community development. Today, Compassion partners with over 8,600 community partners in 29 different countries in Africa, Asia, Central America, South America and in the Caribbean. Compassion Programs are fueled by our Global Partner Alliance, which is composed of Compassion offices in 12 supporting countries in Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania.
Our global impact
2,338,867 participants
in Compassion’s child and youth development program
1,167,683 girls
1,171,184 boys
33,901 participants in Compassion’s Survival program
One Survival program participant represents a pregnant mother or an infant and their caregiver
8,613 community-based local partners in 29 countries
1.7 million supporters around the world including over 90,000 Canadians—are a part of this movement, making a real and tangible difference in the fight against poverty.
“One of the things that we find so effective about this model is that these local partners were there before a crisis hits, whether it’s a global pandemic or food crisis. And they’ll be there long after because they’re planted and rooted in these communities.”
ALLISON ALLEY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, COMPASSION CANADA
How Compassion works
Compassion is a leading authority on holistic child and youth
development. Our proven and localized holistic child development
program is what makes us so effective in the many different contexts
where children in poverty find themselves around the world.
Everything we do is with the goal of seeing children not only survive,
but thrive.
SURVIVAL: MATERNAL AND INFANT HEALTH
Compassion’s maternal and infant survival and health program aims to secure a child’s opportunity to live. Mothers and babies are supported during pregnancy and the first year of life with tangible care and life-saving interventions.
The Survival program provides infants, pregnant mothers and caregivers with:
Pre- and post-natal healthcare
Nutrition monitoring and support
Caregiver mentorship and workshops
Early childhood learning and development
Vaccinations
Routine mental screenings
Impact: 33,901 global Survival program participants.
WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE
Compassion’s WASH interventions protect children from deadly diseases by ensuring that they have access to clean water, proper sanitation facilities such as washrooms and hand-washing stations, as well as providing hygiene education.
In response to needs expressed by local leaders, Compassion partners local resources with funding from around the world to provide:
Wells and boreholes
Water filters
Rainwater harvesting systems
Safe latrines/washrooms
Hygiene training & hand-washing stations
Impact: 134,609 program participants. In the last 5 years, Compassion has provided Water, Sanitation and Hygiene to 1,025,059 participants.
HEALTH
Compassion’s health initiatives give children and their families the resources to meet their most critical health needs, providing nutrition, health screenings, dental and ophthalmological care, emergency surgeries, disease prevention and education.
Compassion’s health interventions include both prevention and care, including:
Health and dental clinics
Disease prevention and awareness
Major medical interventions
Impact: 318,670 program participants.
EDUCATION
For many young people, education is the key to unlocking a future free from poverty. Compassion empowers children and youth to pursue futures free from poverty by providing learning resources like computers and textbooks, as well as educational opportunities including the tuition needed for vocational training, college or university. In 2024 Compassion provided 13,573 students with scholarships to pursue post-secondary education.
Compassion provides educational resources to communities and supports individual students in creating and executing a personalized education and career plan. Around the world, Compassion’s education initiatives provide:
Tertiary
Computers, textbooks and learning centres
Technical and vocational education and Training (TVET)
Impact: 381,674 program participants.
DISASTER/CRISIS RELIEF
We know that in times of crisis and disaster, it’s children and people living in poverty who are the most vulnerable. Compassion responds to urgent needs caused by disaster or crisis by assisting children and their communities with disaster relief, recovery, resilience strengthening and mitigation. Compassion’s disaster relief efforts are always led by our local partners who are a trusted and established presence in the lives and communities of the children we serve. In the first half of 2024, Compassion disbursed $15 million in its relief response to over 260 reported disasters.
Our disaster relief interventions include:
Shelter (temporary & reconstruction)
Food Relief
Trauma counselling
Post Disaster Recovery
Disaster Prevention, Recovery & Resilence
Impact: 399,870 program participants.
Program Countries
Africa
- Burkina Faso
- Ethiopia
- Ghana
- Malawi*
- Kenya
- Rwanda
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Uganda
- Zambia*
Asia
- Bangladesh
- Cambodia*
- Indonesia
- Myanmar*
- Philippines
- Sri Lanka
- Thailand
Central America and the Caribbean
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
South America
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Ecuador
- Peru
*Program expansion countries
Our Funding Countries
Australia • Canada • France • Germany • Italy/Spain • South Korea • Netherlands • New Zealand • Nordic (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) • Switzerland • United Kingdom/Ireland • United States
Our commitment to child protection
Child protection is one of the core elements of who we are as an organization. For us, child protection isn’t just about our certifications, such as our Level One Certification from Keeping Children Safe (KCS), or ensuring all Compassion personnel, staff and volunteers are screened and trained in child protection—though we do that too. Instead, our approach to child protection comes from the sobering knowledge that we work with some of the most vulnerable children and youth in the world. If we want to see them thrive, they need to be protected and safeguarded. That’s why we have a global team dedicated to child protection, from prevention to intervention.
“The beauty of Compassion is that we have a long-term development perspective. That means sustainability for the children and their families is at the core of our program interventions.”
SIDNEY MUISYO, CHIEF PROGRAM OFFICER, COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL
Impact story: A different path
3-year project | £1 million grant
Compassion UK partnered with the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) on a £1 million, three-year project in Togo to increase survival rates of children in the first year of their life.
Through the partnership, 23 Survival programs brought the knowledge and funding of the FCDO together with the contextualized experience of Compassion in Togo to serve 2,339 mothers and babies.
The project exceeded every one of its targets:
28%
more births attended by a skilled health professional
9%
more newborns born at a healthy birthweight
31%
more mothers exclusively breastfeeding for the first six months
“The first support I received was a food kit. I’ll never forget it. For the first time in months, we ate normally—we weren’t having to skip meals for days on end. Without the Survival program, my daughter and I would not have made it. The Survival staff and the other mothers in the program have become like my family. I’m so grateful to have their support.”
ADJOWA, MOTHER OF EYRAM, A PARTICIPANT IN A SURVIVAL PROGRAM FUNDED THROUGH COMPASSION UK’S PARTNERSHIP WITH THE FCDO
Networks and associations
Compassion Canada is proud to be a member or affiliate of the following networks and associations:
Email us for more information on sector partnership