Through Compassion you can sponsor an individual child and quite literally, change their life. Compassion works with one million children in 25 countries, seeking to break the cycle of poverty and transform entire communities. Your sponsorship provides education, healthcare, life skills and vocational training, equipping your child for their future.
Your Urban Angel & Compassion
Urban Angels all over the world are sponsoring children in Kinango, Kenya. We have focused our support on this village to make the most impact – imagine if we could sponsor every child there, then the next village…until we could be Your Urban Angel to a whole region of this country! We are giving these children hope and opportunities and creating a brighter future for them, their families and their nation.
COMPASSION BRINGS HOPE AMIDST DESPAIR
37-year-old Zainabu can still hear the doctor’s words ringing in her head. “You’ve been tested positive for HIV.”
Her fragile world fell apart with one simple sentence and despair threatened to overwhelm her. “It seemed like my life and the livelihood of my children had been cut since they all depended on me,” she remembers.
Zainabu is the mother of five and has often had to fight for her children’s survival. Sometimes the cassava she sold simply did not bring in enough to feed her family and she was forced to exchange sex for money. It was in these desperate attempts to provide for her children that she contracted the virus.
A helping hand
Hope returned to the family through the local church-based Compassion project, where Zainabu’s nine-year-old daughter, Wairimu Daniel, is registered.
The caring staff of MCK Kinango Child Development Centre in Kinango, where Abundant Life Ministries supports over 120 children, noticed Zainabu’s failing health during their regular home visits. Their consistent love and support helped her overcome her fears and she told them her HIV status.
They encouraged her to begin developing goals for living positively and through the Compassion AIDS Initiative, were able to give her access to the healthcare she so desperately needed.
Speaking up
Zainabu explains, “After long soul searching and prayer, I joined a local support group and disclosed my status publicly. It was the best medicine. I could now break the silence all because Compassion cared for me through the project workers and the access to health facilities.”
Zainabu joined Jipe Moyo Support Group, an initiative supported by MCK Kinango Church and the Compassion project. The group educates its members and their families about HIV/AIDS, while also working to reduce the stigma of the disease in the community.
Today Zainabu is a leader of the group and is instrumental in helping others living with HIV/AIDS. “Since I joined Jipe Moyo Support Group I have gained a lot of knowledge and experience on education and therapeutic nutrition for people living with HIV/AIDS. I have also acquired a lot of spiritual, psychological, emotional and economic support from the group,” she explains.
Through the church and the Compassion project Zainabu was also able to benefit from a revolving loan fund. “I used the money to start the business and I am now doing well. Through the income, I now get money to buy food for my family,” she explains.
Hope for the future
Zainabu is grateful for the intervention of the church and Compassion in her life and the lives of her children. “I love being part of the project, I know the church in Kinango and Compassion love me and I appreciate the help they have accorded my child.”
The experience has also increased Zainabu’s faith in God. “I was tempted to quit, perhaps fall down and die. But I didn’t. I have learnt a lifelong lesson that when you feel the worst, look up and reach out to hope. Believe in God and light will come pouring in. You will see a breakthrough by breaking the silence, all you have to speak the word, have faith in the word of God and in your God-given potential,” she adds.
With the support of the Compassion project, Zainabu and her family have become a light in the community. “As a family, we have committed ourselves to helping other people,” she explains.
Her hope for her own family knows no bounds. “I am determined to see all my children finish school, go to university and even get married. I am determined to make the most of my new life. HIV should not stop anyone from achieving their goals in life.”
