Compassion International Team on the Ground to Provide Immediate Relief to the People of Haiti

In the Process of Accounting for 64,000 Sponsored Children

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Jan. 15, 2010—Leaders from the world's largest child development organization are on the ground in Haiti to assess the devastation caused by Tuesday's earthquake and organize urgent relief efforts.

"The damage is truly catastrophic," said Compassion International President and CEO Wess Stafford.  "We are going to do all we can to provide immediate relief and to continue, without interruption, our long-term work with the children of Haiti to permanently break the terrible cycle of poverty in this, one of the poorest nations on the planet."

Working in Haiti since 1968, Compassion currently has 230 child development centers in Haiti that serve more than 64,000 children, many in and around Port-au-Prince.  
 

MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES:

• Port-au-Prince native Edouard Lassegue, Compassion International's regional vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean
• Begining his career as a relief worker in Haiti, Wess Stafford is now leader of the world's largest Christian child development organization; he currently has a number of local staff who have not yet been accounted for
  
• Americans who recently visited their sponsored child in Haiti

OPPORTUNITIES TO HELP HATIAN RELIEF EFFORT:

• Visit Compassion.com to give any amount:
• $25 - helps provide clean water to a family for a week
• $500 - helps provide critical life items like temporary shelter, blankets and clothing for 10 families

• Text "disaster" to 90999 to give $10
• Become a sponsor of a child in need, helping he/she thrive, not just survive
• Child sponsors exchange letters, emails and photos, and some even visit their Compassion children

ABOUT COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL

Compassion International is the world's largest Christian child development organization that permanently releases children from poverty.  Founded in 1952, Compassion successfully tackles global poverty one child at a time, serving more than 1 million children-pre-natal through higher education - in 25 of the world's poorest countries.  Recognizing that poverty is more than a lack of money, Compassion works through local churches to holistically address the individual physical, economic, educational and spiritual needs of children - enabling them to thrive, not just survive.  Compassion has been awarded eight consecutive, four-star ratings by Charity Navigator, America's largest charity evaluator.

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