Why does Compassion focus on individual child development rather than broader community development work?
During Compassion’s 50-plus years of development work, we’ve seen various approaches to breaking the cycle of poverty in children’s lives. We’ve discovered that changed circumstances rarely change people’s lives, while changed people inevitably change their circumstances. Community development is important work that addresses the external circumstances of poverty and is an important complement to our work. However, our primary focus is individual child developmentan inside-out, bottom-up approach that recognizes the God-given value and potential of each individual child. Many of these children grow up to become positive influences in their own communities.
