Image courtesy of Compassion International.
Interactive Tour Immerses Visitors into Daily Life in Another Country
Severn, Md.-Compassion International, a leading authority on child sponsorship which releases children from poverty globally, will be bringing its “Change the Story: The Compassion Experience” tour to The Church at Severn Run in Severn, Md., on October 3-6. The event will educate visitors about the realities of life in poverty as well as provide an international experience to visitors who may not ever have the opportunity to travel abroad to a developing country.
The Compassion Experience
The four-day event will be set up in the parking lot of The Church at Severn Run at 8187 Telegraph Road in Severn from October 3-6. There, visitors will be invited on a self-guided journey where they will be immersed in the lives and stories of two children living in Kenya or the Philippines. Each child’s story starts in hardship but ends in hope.
The experience includes over 2,000 square feet of exhibit space, featuring replicas of the homes and environments of these two Compassion beneficiaries. The event is free and family-friendly.
“We built ‘The Compassion Experience’ in order to really bring the developing world to America,” said Mark Hanlon, Compassion International’s senior vice president of global marketing and engagement. “When people think of poverty, they often think of the lack of things, the lack of stuff, the lack of money. Those are all symptoms of poverty. The real issue of poverty is the lack of hope. Through our holistic child development program, Compassion stirs hope in children. And you’ll see that hope come to life at this event.”
The Poverty Problem
The tour is highly interactive, using individual iPods and headsets to offer visitors a sense of what life is like in extremely poverty-stricken areas around the world where more than 1.4billion people are living on less than $1.25 per day 1 (USD). In the areas Compassion serves, one in five children die before the age of five2, mostly from preventable causes, and 101 million3 children worldwide do not attend school. Tour goers will have the opportunity to “change the story” of children living in poverty by learning more about the issue, as well as Compassion’s child sponsorship program, which tackles global poverty one child at a time. Compassion currently serves more than 1.4 million children in 26 of the world’s most impoverished countries.
For more information about “Change the Story: The Compassion Experience,” visit www.compassion.com/change, @ChangeTour on Twitter, and www.facebook.com/changetour on Facebook.
About Compassion International
Compassion International is the world’s leading authority in holistic child development through sponsorship. Compassion revolutionized the fight against global poverty by working exclusively with the Church to develop children out of poverty to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults. It is the only child sponsorship program to be validated through independent, empirical research. Compassion partners with more than 6,200 Christian churches in 26 countries to release over 1.4 million babies, children and students from poverty in Jesus’ name. Compassion has been awarded the highest rating for financial stewardship and transparency for 13 consecutive years by Charity Navigator, America’s largest charity evaluator. For more information on the ministry, visit compassion.com.