STONEY CREEK, ON, December 11, 2022 /24-7press release/ — For the world’s poorest children, one thing increases their chances of graduating from college by up to 80% — being sponsored by someone in North America or another western country.
A new report (https://www.gfa.ca/sponsor) says research conducted over a two-year period in six developing countries around the world suggests the sponsorship model, which is being adopted by many leading nonprofit organizations, is having “significant impacts” on education, health, the well-being and aspirations of the sponsored children.
Researchers from the University of San Francisco (USF) and the University of Minnesota found that sponsored children in South Asia, Africa, and Latin America stayed in school longer, were much more likely to graduate from high school, and were 50-80% more likely to graduate made university, says global missions agency GFA World (www.gfa.ca).
escape the generation trap
“When children living in abject poverty have no prospect of going to school, their dreams are shattered and they have no hope of escaping the generational poverty trap,” said KP Yohannan, founder of GFA World, also known as Metropolitan Yohan.
Sponsorships for children “provide the opportunity to go to school, receive basic health care and have clean water — which meets all the needs of the child’s community,” he said. “Pure desperation turns into remarkable hope. Many godchildren become teachers, nurses and even doctors.”
Sponsored children — most of whom are supported by donors in the U.S., Canada, and other Western countries — exhibit “higher levels of self-esteem, aspirations, and self-expectations, and lower levels of hopelessness,” according to the report, titled “Child Sponsorship Helps Lift the“. Young from the cycle of poverty (http://www.gfa.ca/sponsor).
Made for so much more
For thousands of children — like Bir, a boy who scavenged through rubbish heaps to survive, and Divena, a five-year-old girl abandoned by her mother — it speaks to their hearts when a sponsor shows up and shows them “they” that they were created for a higher purpose and that God truly loves them,” Yohannan said.
GFA World donors have helped support 142,000 children across South Asia and Africa, and the organization aims to sponsor 500,000 children worldwide by 2030.
“Millions of children living on the streets and in slums today is really heartbreaking,” Yohannan said. “We must save them and give them hope in Christ’s name.”
GFA World (www.gfa.ca) is a leading faith-based global missions agency helping national workers bring vital help and spiritual hope and sharing the love of God to millions of people around the world, particularly in Asia and Africa. In a typical year, this includes thousands of community development projects benefiting downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 880 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 163,000 families in need and teaching to bring hope and encouragement in 110 languages in 14 countries through broadcast ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, beginning with compassion projects in Rwanda. You can find the latest news in the press section at https://gfanews.org/news.
PHOTO CUT: CHILD SPONSORSHIP ‘TURNS DESPAIR TO REMARKABLE HOPE’: A new report (http://www.gfa.ca/sponsor) of global missions agency GFA World says research suggests the sponsorship model, adopted by many leading non-profit organizations, gives children in dire poverty a much higher chance of graduating from university and pursuing their dreams.
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