Child Survival Program - Nicaragua
April 17, 2018
This past Sunday, Deep Water Church had the honour of hosting Barry Slauenwhite, President and Chief Executive Officer of Compassion Canada.
We announced the launch of a new project which Deep Water will be supporting through our ReachOut initiative — Compassion’s Child Survival Program in Managua, Nicaragua.
ReachOut will be providing $10,000 in funding each year for the next 3 years to support the program. Donors from Deep Water have committed to support the remaining $9,800 for the first year to ensure we are fully funded for the project. As well, 27 children were sponsored in Nicaragua on Sunday morning. Amazing!
HERE IS WHAT THE CHILD SURVIVAL PROGRAM IS ALL ABOUT:
In 2015, 4.5 million babies died within their first year of life. The mission of Compassion’s Survival initiatives is to identify babies who are the most vulnerable and give these precious children a healthy start in life and to show both mothers and their babies that they are personally known, loved and protected.
With the funding provided, Compassion trains and equips local church staff members and more than 1,000 churches to be the hands and feet of Christ for these women and babies during pregnancy and infancy, with the goal of children entering Compassion’s sponsorship program.
THIS IS WHAT THE PROGRAM PROVIDES:
Home-Based Care — where mothers are visited monthly in their homes by a Survival specialist, who offers education in prenatal care and early child-rearing as well as one-on-one biblical mentoring with parents.
Advocacy for Moms — that provides and secures funding for medical treatments, ensures mothers are treated fairly by local services and arranges for birth attendants to assist mothers during childbirth.
Group-Based Learning Activities — that combat isolation through a supportive community of mothers. Parents can receive basic education and income-generation training to combat long-term poverty.
Survival Centres — where staff coordinates outreach and care and offers a safe place for new mothers to learn and grow, all while monitoring and supporting healthy child development.
The Child Survival project in Nicaragua will support about 20 mother's during their pregnancy and throughout the first year of the babies life.
We hope you will pray for these families over the coming year, that bonds between parents and babies will be loving and secure, that mothers will be encouraged by the community of support throughout their pregnancies and postpartum experiences, and that the Survival staff will have continued energy and passion.
This is an amazing mission to be part of as a church family. It is only through generous giving of people to the ministries of Deep Water that we are able to gather the money needed for this project. Thank you to everyone who gives!