Compassion International

I’m putting three stars only because I’m trying to give Compassion International the benefit of the doubt as I am sponsoring two children due to the fact one of the children’s sponsor couldn’t continue with commitment. The children are siblings according to Compassion International. I’m wording my review with doubt because I have the same issue as another person stated in their review. At the end of her letter I noticed her name was different from her name on the account. So I went back through previous letters the name change started with the previous letter before the one I received today. And the content of those letters are totally different from the many letters I’ve received before ( the last two are very vague). And the letters before were more personal and it asked questions and the responses were written according to questions from the letter I wrote to her. Something just doesn’t feel right!!

I rated them in the middle of the road. I love the idea. My wife andbI are sponsoring two children. We just received a letter from both of them. One lives in Mexico. The other in Togo. What a coincidence! To make things a little shadier, the letter from the child in Mexico used a different name than the name of the child on the account. We really thought we were actually helping to give these two children a better chance in life. Now I am thinking these two children may not even be real children in the program. If they are, how much of our money is actually even benefitting them? We are seriously considering ending our sponsorship.

We’ve sponsored two children since they were young around 5. I really enjoyed getting the cards, pics and letters. This is not the same compassion when we started. First thing to know if you give them a Christmas gift and don’t mark it as for the child they will split it between other children that you are not sponsoring. I don’t mind that but they aren’t transparent. Something else happened this year the young lady we were sponsoring turned 16 and her parents took her out of the program for reasons that were told to me that she could make more money by working or they simply do not align with the programs values? That’s ok. Never did get a final letter explaining that as compassion told me I would. The next part was astounding. They would send me pics of a child that they wanted me to sponsor to take our girl’s place. We didn’t want to sponsor another except the one we currently had. They took money out of our bank account to sponsor another child we did not give them permission to do that. I called in the young man advised me that it stated on the letter that if I didn’t call them I would automatically be given another child which they did. We couldn’t believe they had the nerve to do this. Don’t get me wrong we love these kiddos but what a sneaky, underhanded way to do it. The young man said on the phone we are trying to get children out of poverty. Yes. We are too but be transparent. My goodness we were shocked. Now we feel bad for getting a child’s hopes up with their deceitful ways. I feel bad saying this but after our boy is 18 we won’t be doing this anymore.

I have sponsored a child for 6 years. I don't even know how I have managed it for that long because in America, I am below the poverty line. I really wanted to do this for the longest time, so I signed up when my church had a Compassion Sunday. From the beginning, I had problems with the billing, because they promised to not withdraw the money from my account until after my disability check had been deposited. That was their first lie to me. That and the fact that I couldn't send gifts to my sponsored child. I endured many overdrafts to my checking account because of CI. Over time as I sent stickers and bookmarks/coloring pages, I never received ANY confirmation that she had received any of them! I was constantly solicited to send money for more gifts, and when I did, there was no acknowledgement that she had received anything. I don't want to feel as though I am abandoning her, if I cancel my sponsorship. But I lost my disability income when I recently married, and they just hiked up the monthly donor amount again. We will see how it goes, but even though I sent pictures of my wedding, the person who writes her letters is still calling me "Miss Peggy". No acknowledgement of my prayer request. (I have stage 3 throat cancer.)

Oct 2021 I have been supporting two girls from Africa for 7 years. I rarely get photos of the children and when I do it's the same old sad poor looking photo I was given initially. 1x they sent me an updated photo and then the very next time I heard from them they were back to the old original photo where the girls were young and poor looking. I've written online and complained about photos w 200 likes. 1 reply from a woman compassion rep. said I needed to find another charity if I thought I was going to get updated photos on a regular basis.!! . Needless to say I was floored with that response. Also their accounting is wrong. And the last 4 years I have been paying annually. But yet I keep finding out at the end of the year that I have a balance. Although that's impossible I have paid that so-called balance twice and guess what yes it is back again. Received a progress report from the president and they were off by over $300 of what I have contributed. That is a lot of money, so I wrote a letter to the president explaining the problem end of October 2021. It's almost Christmas and I still have not heard back from anyone. Compassion hold off some of those beg letters and please send out a How am I doing annual survey and please be sure to read them. It's a great program...I hate to pull the rug from under my girls after so many years, one is 19 now and will be graduating out of the program very soon. Kudos to the donors who have had an opportunity to visit their children, I plan to do that too I think it would make me feel much better. Oh and I just thought about it while there I can take my own darn photos. LOL

I attended a Christan concert and they were handing out sponsor packets. I sponsored a little girl but the picture was of a boy. It took awhile to get a photograph of the little girl. I sent a $100 for her birthday and it took me asking and writing Compassion before I ever heard if this child received the $. Something happened to her mom but I never heard. I sent stickers (the ONLY allowed item us sponsors can mail) and frequently sent coloring sheets. I NEVER heard if she got these items. I found out her family moved right before her birthday and Christmas. If I had not called asking that the $ I contributed to both of these occassions be refunded I never would have received it. Compassion sent me another packet for a new child to sponsor. My husband was just laid off from his job so it wasn't a good time to commit to this again. Compassion AUTOMATICALLY enrolled me. I got letter from family saying how happy they were and pictures of their new baby. It was heartbreaking to call Compassion and terminate this sponsorship. Compassion should never just enroll people without consent and deduct $. I really wish it was possible to mail gifts to these children along with monthly contributions. I disagree with Compassions reasoning behind this policy. I miss the girl I sponsored. It was on my bucket list to fly and meet her. I might try again at a later date

I have been sponsoring 2 Compassion children, one has graduated from the program. Her sister contacted me on FB and asked if I would be a friend of hers and of her sister whom I supported for at 10 years. I accepted the request. Nobody has asked me for help with money or anything else, however, much gratitude has been shown via my former Compassion child. I still have another child I'm supporting and have been supporting him for 12 years.. since he was 4 years old... Recently, he has sounded very down in his letters to me and has asked for prayer for him and his family.. I felt very sad for him and told him that my other now former Compassion child had contacted me on FB... Mind you, I did not encourage him to contact me on FB.. The Compassion staff deleted my letter and called me on the phone saying this was strictly prohibited. Why is that? It would be my choice to live with the consequences of whatever happened.. I'm still sponsoring my child and likely will until he's graduated out of the program... but this disturbed me a lot. So don't tell your current child about any of your former children that you were contacted on FB... or the hand of the law will come down and everything good you have done will come into question... and for what... That's what I don't understand... We have freedom of speech... and a need to be ethical... that's for sure... I've tried to write encouraging and uplifting letters to my child and comfort both children during times of need... Anyway, that's all.. I lost a little respect for the ministry... when I know that people meet their children and even have connections to where they live... I don't get it...