Compassion International

Since I was a small child, my family has been involved with the organization Compassion International. There are many organizations with similar goals, but the general point of Compassion is to bring support to children around the world. According to their website's Mission Statement:

In response to the Great Commission, Compassion International exists as an advocate for children, to release them from their spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enable them to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults.

Compassion is a wonderful program that brings life changing help to more than a million children. Individual people or families will pick a child and send them money and letters monthly. As a child, my parents sponsored two children, so I grew up knowing the importance of helping those in need. When you help out someone who is worlds away from you, you're making a global impact in the life of that person.

Within the past year, I have begun sponsoring a seven year old girl from Bolivia named Clara. To help pay for the monthly support, I have previously been dipping into savings. However, as an attempt to pull together my personal daily change and my desire to change the world by changing one life, I have decreased buying beverages from restaurants and given the money saved to Clara.

I will post more about Clara and her life at a later date, and will now accompany my updates of my progress with updates about Clara and her life situation, and information about Bolivia.

For more information about Compassion, visit http://www.compassion.com/about/aboutus.htm

Initial Plan of Action

As I wrote a bit ago for a class assignment, I am going to attempt to make a difference in the world simply by enacting a few personal changes. After reading books like Fred Pearce's When the Rivers Run Dry: Water-- The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century and Vandana Shiva's Soil Not Oil, I hardly feel as if I can really make much of a difference by myself. However, I decided that I would try to help by changing a few seemingly small things in my life.

For my daily personal change, I am going to try to do a number of small things that will collectively make something of a difference. Among these things are only using reusable water bottles, always using my reusable grocery bags, and eat out at restaurants (especially fast food) less. I currently have reusable bags, but I often forget them. I also do not eat at a lot of fast food places, but the ones that do make my list are visited too frequently.

This blog will be where I track my progress and state any new ideas or helpful resources for those attempting the same. Maybe I cannot change the world by myself, but perhaps I can change something.