As
part of the Honors Colloquium class, we have to get out of our dorm rooms and
get involved with something on or around campus. My wonderful Resident Advisor
is always trying to give us opportunities to get out and have fun. We have done
and or are trying to set up activities like volunteering at the local animal
shelter, going bowling, doing trail cleanup, and working at the Boys and Girls
Club that is in town. We always have a really great time, and it’s is nice to
help out the community and get to know people better. So, when my RA told me
about an experience called Compassion, I was very eager to go.
The
Compassion Experience’s slogan is “Experience Another World Without Leaving Yours”.
This is because the purpose is to give you a glimpse of what it is like for children
living in poverty-stricken, violent countries in South and Central America, Asia,
and Africa. They set up rooms you walk through to resemble those of the
children’s. From the floors to the ceilings and everything in between, they had
props and actual possessions and pictures from each child to make it feel real.
They also gave you a pair of headphones attached to an iPhone that would play a
different recording of the child talking and telling his/her story based on the
room you were in. I felt like I had walked into a different world. There were
three childrens’ stories that you could go to when we went: Carlos, Kiwi, and
Olive. We were only able to make it to Carlos and Kiwi; unfortunately we ran
out of time.
Carlos
was from Guatemala. He was forced to work with his father at a very young age
and for many hours a day to get by. His father dealt with their rough situation
by turning to alcoholism. It was this alcoholism that killed him, leaving
Carlos and his mother to fend for themselves. They struggled to make enough
money to survive, but there was never enough to fully feed them. Carlos felt
like he had the obligation as the man of the house to work and provide for
them, so he worked as much as he could doing anything for money. Eventually, he
was able to go to the center that Compassion International had set up in the
town, where he was able to eat, be sponsored by a family in another country,
and learn about God’s love for him, which helped both he and his mother to stay
strong enough to survive. Carlos made it to adulthood and was able to get a
good job to make enough money to live a good life.
Kiwi
lived in the Philippines with her younger sister, mother, and father. She had
three older brothers, but none of them survived past childhood. Her father is
an alcoholic and her family struggles to get by through selling fruit at the
market. Her mother often considers moving to another country, where jobs await,
but Kiwi and her little sisters talk her out of it. They move to another city
in hope of better job opportunities, where they have to deal with bad flooding
that brings sewage, trash, and dead rats into their house. One day, their
father attends a sermon dealing with how God will protect and take care of
them. The revelation makes him stop drinking, and they become a Christian
family. They are helped by Compassion International, along with Kiwi’s sponsor,
and Kiwi eventually grows up, goes to college to be a physical therapist, and
gets married.
Compassion
International goes and sets up places where kids get the chance to be kids and
to learn about God. At the end of each story, they had another room filled with
pictures of kids around the world in need of a sponsor. The sponsor would send
money each month to help the child and his/her family get by in the name of
God. Overall, the experience was amazing, intriguing, and eye-opening. It made
me appreciate all the things, I realize now, that I took for granted, and made
me aware that problems like this exist and are very real for many people. It
brings me hope that organizations like Compassion International are trying to
help. Maybe, one day, we can help all the people in need to have better lives,
even if it means having a pair of shoes or a hot meal.
