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Compassion Australia

Income Generation

Income Generation

Empower young people and their families to be economically self-supporting

Three billion people live on less than US$2.50 per day (World Bank).

WHY INCOME GENERATION IS SO IMPORTANT

Adults reading/writing skills

757 million adults still lack basic reading and writing skills. Two-thirds (63 percent) are women.

75 per cent of the world's poorest

75 per cent of the world's poorest people — 1.4 billion women, children, and men—live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood

Women + Education = Reduced child mortality rate

A study found that, for every one additional year of education for women of reproductive age, child mortality decreased by 9.5 per cent

Bank account ownership

Across developing countries, there is a nine percentage point gap between women and men in having an account at a formal financial institution

Sources: UIS; UN; World Bank

The opportunity to learn a skill or understand how to run a business is an important key to breaking the cycle of poverty. However income generating activities are not just about providing finance for a family. They are about empowerment—teaching a young adult that they can use their God-given skills to plan for their future. It is coming alongside a family and teaching them to break the cycle of poverty for the following generations.

Through generous supporters, Compassion intervenes on several fronts:

Providing business and finance training opportunities for caregivers and young people
Identifying caregivers who would most benefit from income-generation help
Facilitating income generating workshops such as credit management, basic business and accounting
Linking caregivers with other micro-enterprise credit institutions

You can support young people and their caregivers to be empowered through income generation training and equipped with important skills for life.

For every $1 donated

80% goes to program, 20% to administration

80%

Program development and delivery

80% goes to program, 20% to administration

20%

Administration and fundraising costs

See exactly where your money goes

Income Generation Stories

Feature Story

5 Important Results of the Plastic Bag Ban in Kenya

In the slums of many African countries, children’s daily life involves dodging mountains of discarded plastic bags. Now that Rwanda and Kenya are fighting back against the bag, what does this mean for families living in poverty?.. Read more

FAQs

What is Compassion's Highly Vulnerable Children fund?

Compassion's Highly Vulnerable Children fund offers a lifeline to children in Compassion's programs facing unthinkable hardship and living in high-risk situations.

This includes: children who have been orphaned (or youth-headed households), children whose primary caregiver is incapacitated, children who have suffered abuse or exploitation, and children with special needs.

Together with the local church, Compassion identifies children in highly vulnerable situations and provide them with specialised care and assistance to ensure they are stabilised and can continue to participate in Compassion's program.

Examples of help given to these children can include: immediate housing arrangements, trauma counselling, nutritional support and provision of every day needs, legal assistance and renovations to structures and shelters.

The Highly Vulnerable Children fund goes beyond the response of sponsorship to ensure children are kept safe and continue to be given opportunities to grow and develop without facing immediate risks to their safety and well-being.
Where does Compassion Mums and Babies operate?
Compassion Mums and Babies works in over 25 developing countries to prevent premature death, secure good health and enable positive development in the youngest, most vulnerable children.

Mums and Babies always operates through a survival project at the Compassion centre in local communities. It is the first phase of our holistic child development model. From age one, children will transition from Mums and Babies into the Child Sponsorship Program.

You can
- Give to Mums and Babies
- Learn more about the Child Sponsorship Program
What is Mums and Babies?
Compassion Mums and Babies gives young children critical support during the vulnerable prenatal months and first year of life. It cares for mums and their little ones in their own homes, the centre of their lives.

Combining Compassion’s expertise and the local church’s loving support, Mums and Babies aims to prevent premature death, secure good health and enable positive development for babies and their mothers in over 25 developing countries.

Your support provides:

Home-based care for mothers and babies, with perinatal specialists visiting families monthly to offer healthcare, education and emotional support.

Advocacy for mums to ensure they are treated fairly by local services and can access the essential support they need to thrive, including medical care and birth attendants.

Community support networks that bring mothers together to combat isolation, learn new ways of earning an income and provide each other with long-term support.

Compassion centres, where mothers can always turn for support, learning opportunities and expert advice on how to monitor their child’s healthy development.

When a child turns one year old, the focus shifts from survival to early childhood development, and the child is eligible to join Compassion's Child Sponsorship Program while continuing to receive personalised home-based care until age three.

You can:
- Give to Mums and Babies
- Learn more about Compassion's Child Sponsorship Program
How much does it cost to support Critical Needs?
The recommended amount to give to one Critical Need is $12 per month. However, you can give any amount of your choosing through either options of one-off or monthly giving. The giving options are flexible, so you have the freedom to support the areas you are most passionate about through Critical Needs.

You can:
- Give to Critical Needs
How does Critical Needs work with Child Sponsorship?
Critical Needs and the Child Sponsorship Program work side-by-side to equip Compassion's local church partners with the resources to provide holistic support and long-term, customised solutions for children, their families and communities. While the Child Sponsorship Program connects one child with one sponsor, Critical Needs giving is not directed to one child, but provides essential support to thousands of Compassion registered children when they need it most. Every child will benefit from Critical Needs during their time in Compassion’s program, as sponsorship funds alone are not sufficient to cover the varied and often urgent needs of the children we support.

You can choose to support children globally through Critical Needs or fund an entire project in a specific community. These projects are both reactive and proactive and could include water filters to provide safe water to a community, reconstruction of homes after natural disasters, or income generating activities for adolescents and children's caregivers. The right assistance is identified and provided by the local church in partnership with Compassion.

You can:
- Give to Critical Needs
- Sponsor a child