Ride for Compassion 2015

October 6, 2015
by Rodney Olsen
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ethiopia

What’s your image of Ethiopia? Are your ideas about the country still shaped by the famine that filled our television screens around 30 years ago in the mid-eighties? Thankfully much has changed since that time. Ethiopia is not a totally dry wasteland. In fact, it’s a land of rolling green hills where improved infrastructure and living conditions are driving the country forward. Everywhere you look in the capital city of Addis Ababa you see cranes and construction machinery as new buildings take shape. This hardly seems like the country that sparked Band Aid back in 1984.

Unfortunately though, not everyone is enjoying the benefits of the developments. There are still many battling poverty.

I was in Ethiopia in July last year and I saw conditions that confirmed that there is still much to be done there. Thankfully Compassion is there and is serving the poorest of the poor. That’s why I’m so glad that the Ride for Compassion is supporting a project in Ethiopia this year that will see thousands have access to hygienic toilet and showering facilities, dramatically reducing the risk of disease and illness.

Ride for Compassion 2015

Every year since 2009 I’ve traveled between Albany and Perth, a distance of over 500 kilometres, by bicycle. Next week I’ll be out there again. The ride will involve over 20 cyclists riding around 520 kilometres from Albany to Perth.

If you’ve been reading my blog for any time you’ll know that I work for Compassion, but I’m not supporting Compassion simply because it’s my job to do so.

I work for Compassion because I am convinced that there is no more effective organisation serving the world’s poor. I have seen no other method of working with those in poverty that even comes close to the way that Compassion is working.

I’ve seen Compassion’s work first hand in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Thailand. Every time I visit another church that is partnering with Compassion I am amazed at the change it is making in the lives of the most vulnerable members of our world, children.

If you’d like to make a difference in the lives of children who desperately need your support, simply visit my fundraising page.

I can assure you that your money will be well spent in releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

For the 14th consecutive year, Compassion International has earned the highest rating for U.S. charities from Charity Navigator—the nation’s largest charity evaluator. The 4-out-of-4 stars rating places Compassion International in the top one-percent of non-profits reviewed by Charity Navigator.

Let me thank you in anticipation of your support for children in poverty.



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Please Don’t Panic

August 25, 2015
by Rodney Olsen
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Financial markets across the world are plummeting. China has been driving economic growth way beyond its own borders for many years, but with the Chinese economy faltering and falling, investors all over the world are getting nervous and billions upon billions of dollars have been lost. Investors are understandably nervous which is likely to trigger further losses on world money markets. To say that things look grim is a massive understatement.

I’m not qualified to make too many comments on matters financial but can I ask you, can I plead with you, please don’t panic?

One of the biggest reasons I’m asking you not to panic is because I remember the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. That crisis brought on the Global Food Crisis. Higher prices around the world put even the basics of life, such as food, out of the reach of those who had the least to lose.

In 2008 I visited Haiti with Compassion Australia and I saw the result of the financial and food crises. I saw rioting in the streets of Port au Prince. People were desperate to find a way to put any kind of food on the table for their families … but there was no food. People were feeding their families dirt.

I understand that at such times we tend to tighten our belts and discard excess spending. Again, can I plead with you not to panic and make hasty decisions. Don’t consider that giving to those in need is excess spending. Those with the least are already at breaking point. If you are already giving to alleviate poverty you are probably the only way they’re staying alive. Please don’t think of giving to aid agencies as an extra. It’s not an extra. It’s life or death.

I’ve seen many times that the first thing that disappears in uncertain financial times is giving … and I get that. We all want to ensure the security of those we love and sometimes we do need to make tough decisions. All I ask is that when considering how you tighten your belt, you put everything on the table and make wise decisions. Don’t let your giving be the first thing that you automatically cut.

Sometimes there are no changes at all in our circumstances but the nervousness around us causes us to close our heart and our wallet to opportunities. That’s fear.

Don’t let fear direct your actions. If you’re a Christian you know that perfect love casts out fear. The choice is yours to live in love or fear. I pray that you live in love.

Please don’t panic. Please don’t let the poorest of the poor suffer even more.

This afternoon I’m heading to Indonesia to visit churches there which are partnering with Compassion. I want to be able to assure those I meet who are living in poverty that the world knows their need and that they will not be forgotten. If you’d like to live out of love instead of fear, please consider sponsoring a child today through Compassion.



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Learning for Life

June 29, 2015
by Rodney Olsen
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I don’t think I ever really felt as if I fitted in at school. I did OK. There was nothing in my results to raise alarms. I just did what I did and was more than happy to leave that world behind at the end of my schooling. Having said that, I am incredibly thankful that I was able to have the education I did. While I didn’t really value it at the time, it has helped to set me up for all the years since.

A lot of us in places like Australia are less than keen about school in our early years. However, I see a real contrast when I visit churches partnering with Compassion in developing countries. Wherever I’ve traveled I meet children who are incredibly thankful for the opportunity to learn. Here, everyone gets to go to school. In many other countries it’s not like that.

Take, for instance, Togo where over half the population on A$2 or less a day. The average cost of a grade nine textbook in Togo is more than six times this amount. Imagine paying a week’s wage for just one textbook.

Even if children do get the opportunity to go to school, most will never have the opportunity for higher learning. Only 14% of students that finish secondary school in Sri Lanka will go on to enrol in tertiary education, compared to 86% in Australia. In Africa, only 8% of young people enrol in tertiary education, compared to a world average of 27%.

Thankfully Compassion is working to help young people bridge some of those gaps.

Education is a powerful way to reduce poverty. Every child in Compassion’s programs will have the opportunity to go to school and receive an education. But for thousands of these children, breaking the cycle of poverty requires extra educational support to see them succeed and thrive.

Compassion staff knows each individual child’s strengths, struggles and dreams for the future. They understand their specific education needs—and how meeting those needs can help them overcome poverty.

From vocational training and university education, to computer labs and libraries, from literacy and numeracy tutoring, to textbooks and classrooms, Compassion child development centres tailor their education programs to meet children’s individual needs. It’s an approach that helps to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

Compassion’s approach is working but there’s much more to be done. It’s not only Compassion who thinks that their programs are making a difference.

THE WYDICK RESEARCH

Compassion child sponsorship, and the educational support it includes, has clear, positive outcomes for children living in poverty. Independent research conducted over three years by Dr Bruce Wydick and his team found numerous benefits for former Compassion sponsored children compared to their non-sponsored peers.

• They stayed in school for an average of 1 to 1.46 years longer;

• Were 14 to 18 per cent more likely to have salaried employment as an adult, and;

• On average, were 50 to 80 per cent more likely to complete a university education.

Compassion is currently running an Education Appeal to help ensure that young people don’t fall at the first hurdle when they’re setting out on life.

Right now there are thousands of children and young people who have great talents and abilities, but lack the resources to reach their potential. Your generous support will help give children around the world the extra educational support they need to live free from poverty. Please donate to this year’s Compassion Appeal to help provide children with life-changing education and skills that will impact all areas of their life.



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A Mother’s Decision

May 9, 2015
by Rodney Olsen
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ThaiHouse

One of the greatest honours in my work is sitting in the homes of those living in poverty and hearing their stories. It’s impossible in the short time I have with them to really enter into their world but sometimes there are glimpses that give me a new respect for the courage they show in facing the kinds of struggles so very many people in our world meet each day just to survive.

A few days ago I travelled on winding mountain roads a few hours out of Chiang Mai, Thailand, with a number of fellow Australians. We arrived at a small village and it was there that we met an amazing woman. She welcomed a small group of us into her home. We sat together and she started telling us her story.

We asked a lot of questions about her home, which her husband had built from timbers he sourced in the surrounding jungle areas. It took around five years to gather the materials and a similar time to construct their dwelling. Her husband is a farmer, working at little more than a subsistence level.

It wasn’t long before she started telling us about the eldest of her four sons, who is currently about eighteen, and the brain tumour that he is battling. How do you cope with something like that when you’re already living in poverty? Thankfully Thailand’s health system has paid a significant amount of his treatment costs but the remaining amount is still a struggle.

Her youngest son is almost three. He seemed to be a happy and healthy little boy. In his old, worn grey t-shirt and red shorts he lay on the concrete floor, leaning his head on his mother’s lap. At the time of his birth his mother was suffering from a kidney disease. After breast feeding her new baby for just fourteen days the doctors told her she would have to stop as they needed to give her medication which would affect her milk.

Not being able to breast feed meant buying formula for her son. The problem was, their family couldn’t afford the ongoing cost. Having to regularly buy formula was simply beyond their means.

The solution was almost unthinkable. They would have to find someone else in their village to take their baby. To simply ensure that he could live, they would need to give him up to someone who could afford to look after him.

No mother should ever have to face that kind of decision. The most precious of all gifts, their brand new baby boy, would have to grow up in someone else’s family, calling someone else mum. Poverty is a thief and a destroyer.

Thankfully, that’s when the local church, partnering with Compassion, stepped in. Mother and son were registered in Compassion’s Child Survival Program at the church, meaning that the family would have the essential support they needed to stay together.

Mum’s kidney disease is now improving too. Instead of the 90 tablets she was taking each day, she’s down to just three.

In a few months that precious little boy will turn three and he will ‘graduate’ into Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program, meaning that he’ll get the opportunity of being released from spiritual, socio-emotional, physical and economic poverty in Jesus’ name. A sponsor, thousands of kilometres away from his village, will pay a modest monthly amount to secure his future and to let him know that he is loved.

As we prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day tomorrow, let me encourage you to consider making the burden for a mother living in poverty a little lighter by sponsoring a child through Compassion. Let’s together honour the mothers in our own lives as well as those mothers who, through no fault of their own, are facing the kinds of struggles and decisions no one should ever face. (If you’re reading this after Mother’s Day it’s not too late to make a lifetime of difference for a child and relieving some of the burden for their mother through child sponsorship.)



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A new day in Thailand

May 4, 2015
by Rodney Olsen
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(Click the photo for a closer look.)

They might have million dollar views but the family we met yesterday are certainly not ‘living the dream’. Some might even say they’re facing a nightmare.

It started years ago when the husband of this small family in Thailand started cheating on his wife with other women. Then there was the drinking and the gambling. Part of that dangerous mix was also the physical abuse he handed out to his wife.

On Saturday afternoon the whole situation escalated when the husband and father to four children gathered his belongings and left to live with another woman. How does a family living in poverty cope in that kind of situation? Where do you turn when there’s no social security or safety net?

Sunday was a new day.

Thankfully two of the young children in this family, a ten year old boy and his four year old sister, have already been recieving care from the local church. That local church is partnering with Compassion to see children released from poverty in Jesus’ name. Because those children are reigistered with Compassion, there are benefits for the whole family.

Sunday was a new day because while the children were registered with Compassion, they hadn’t yet found sponsors. Yesterday, when one of the group I’m traveling with in Thailand heard that these children needed a sponsor he agreed to sponsor both. At that point he had no idea of the trauma the family had been facing.

We visited the family’s modest home and the little shop that provides a small income for them to tell them that the children were being sponsored. When their story poured out so did the tears. We had opportunity to pray with the family and assure the mother of ongoing support. It was a powerful moment and it pointed to God’s perfect timing.

Of course this is not the story of someone from the western world flying in to make all things right for a family in poverty. This is a story of the local church being there for a family in deep need. That church is partnering with Compassion. Now, on the other side of the world, a man from a local church in Perth is also partnering with Compassion. Through that chain there will be a brighter future for a mother and her children. It’s about partnership and it’s a big part of why I love working for Compassion.

Today you have the opportunity to be a link in another chain, bringing hope and healing to another family. Will you consider sponsoring a child through Compassion?



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