From the Field Family: Haiti

To start off September, we get to read a very special letter. This letter is written by the man who runs the programs in Haiti. Haiti just happens to be the longest-running current program in Compassion. The very first country that Compassion worked in is Korea, which has long since graduated and is now a partner country! There are also other countries have have opened and closed since then. However, Haiti's program started in 1968 and is still running today. Sometimes, progress is slow, but consistent. Positive change is being made!

I currently have three children in Haiti: Emanise, Sevenson, & Veronika,

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Dear Kayla, 

My name is Guilbaud Saint-Cyr and I have been serving as the Compassion Haiti country director for 13 years now. The ministry of Compassion began in Haiti in 1968. The Lord has currently blessed us with more than 100,000 registered children in partnership with about 300 local churches. 

Guilbaud Saint-Cyr

We are so grateful for the enthusiastic and generous contribution you have provided to your sponsored children. Our committed sponsors enable children to have hope and a future and to participate in effective programs designed to shape their lives so they can become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults. 

One vivid is a young man who lived in the poverty of Solino, one of the largest and most dangerous slums in Haiti. One of five children in a family that struggled to meet their basic needs, he became a Compassion-sponsored child at an early age. Through the programs, he had access to quality education, Bible training, medical and food support, and income-generating training. Eventually he attained a bachelor's degree in administration in a prestigious university in Haiti and a master's degree in discipleship from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Today, he is ministering to children in the community where he grew up, reaching out to gang members by modeling the way. He not only meets the needs of his nuclear family and extended family, but he also chose to sponsor two little boys through Compassion - one from his former child development center and another from Colombia. 

A Slum Neighborhood in Haiti

We have several priorities for the coming year. As a strong and growing ministry in Haiti, we plan to reinforce our partnerships by equipping our church partners with new technology for timely processing and delivery of child information to sponsors, and by helping them serve more children. We are also considering partnerships with new denominations in the regions we already operate in to serve the high volume of new children we foresee in the future. 

Children in Their Compassion Classroom 

We will continue to implement our WaSH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), started a year ago, consisting of providing water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, coupled with education and awareness training. We can save lives and enhance child development through WaSH initiatives. We are completing our pilot phase with 12 centers and can already see the great impact of the strategy. Our vision is to implement WaSH in all our centers throughout the country. 

Children Learning in Their Compassion Classroom 

We are developing a new youth-development strategy to enable all our eligible high-finishing students to fulfill their inner calling and potential through higher education, and transition the current Leadership Development Program model to a broader, integrated approach under the responsibility of churches. 

We are fighting tirelessly to eradicate poverty, this evil that takes away our precious children's hope, dignity, and joy of living. We firmly believe that what happens in the life of a child ripples throughout their environment now and in the future. Each sponsor letter and word of encouragement has untold impact on a child and gives that child back hope, dignity, and joy. Please write your children as often as you can. 

A Girl Writing a Letter to Her Sponsor 

Please pray that God's wisdom will lead us to be more effective in carrying out this ministry of releasing one child at a time from poverty in Jesus' name. Changed environments may help children, but transformed children will inevitably change their environments. Let us continue to band together to make this happen for the glory of God. 

Children Playing on the Playground at Their Compassion Project 

All these great accomplishments and initiatives have been made possible because of wonderful sponsors like you. Thank you again for your partnership and for your commitment to your sponsored children; this is a battle we can't win without you. 

In Jesus,

Guilbaud Saint-Cyr

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