Hurricanes, social unrest, economic crises, food shortages. Add these to the ongoing spread of COVID-19 and the reality for people living in extreme poverty is even more dire.
But we serve a God who hears our prayers and responds. We invite you to pray for the children and families we serve. Please also pray for our frontline staff members who are doing everything they can to help and are themselves impacted by the same disasters.
WATCH on Facebook:
Compassion Canada’s President and CEO, Allison Alley, shares updates and prays for the needs facing the children we serve and our frontline staff.
While the following list isn’t exhaustive, it will give you a snapshot about many of the challenges our brothers and sisters around the world face. May it move you to pray:
Latin America & the Caribbean
- Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico: Hurricane Eta has devastated homes and livelihoods in several countries. Thousands of beneficiaries have been displaced, and our staff have not been spared — many homes of our Honduran staff were flooded. This week, the already vulnerable region is being hit a second time by Hurricane Iota, a very powerful storm with destructive flooding where rainfall could reach 24 to 36 inches in parts of Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize and Guatemala. While our staff have done everything possible to prepare our partners, we do expect additional impact to our church partners, children and their families.
- Haiti: A currency exchange rate crisis in the nation is making it difficult for churches to provide critical services to children, including health checkups, education grants and food distribution, which are so seriously needed in the midst of COVID-19 impacts and damage from hurricanes – and this on top of the typical vulnerabilities of poverty.
Learn more about COVID-19’s impact in: Central America & the Caribbean and in South America
Asia
- Philippines: Our church partners, children, families and our staff have gone through an incredible five major storms in just a three-week period (Typhoons Molave, Goni and Vamco; Tropical Storms Atsani and Etau). Many people were killed and the damage to infrastructure and agriculture in the country will be in the billions of dollars. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced and are being housed in evacuation centres, including children, youth, Compassion staff and their families. Some of our staff in the Philippines also sustained substantial damage to their homes and are receiving help from their co-workers. To live and work in such conditions is extremely challenging.
Learn more about COVID-19’s impact in Asia
Africa
- Some of our countries in Africa are facing different levels of social unrest. We are still doing our best to understand how these emerging situations are affecting our centres, staff, children and families. Due to the complex nature of these events, we cannot comment further at this time to particulars, save that we are actively monitoring these situations and will communicate further (as appropriate) as soon as we can. Please pray for the safety, health and well-being of the children and families living in these at-risk areas.
- Before COVID-19 began to seriously impact Africa, locusts and flooding were already causing significant problems in several of the African countries where we serve. The pandemic has magnified the consequences of these disasters and put many communities and localities at risk of hunger. Many African children have had their education delayed or even stopped completely to help their families make enough money to survive.
Learn more about COVID-19’s impact in Africa
This is troubling information, and we know that if you sponsor a child, your first question will likely be, Is my child okay?
We want you to know that we’ll be in contact directly if your sponsored child has been impacted.
