2. What is “End Poverty” ?
This is a social venture that we have undertaken to help
spread the news of poverty in other countries.
There is a growing number of people in the world today
that live on less than USD $2.50 a day.
Due to this, around 22,000 children die from hunger
each day because they could not purchase enough food
for nourishment.
Furthermore, a lot of parents these days in the
developing countries do not have enough money to pay
for school fees for their children and so, they do not have
a basic education and thus, cannot break out from this
cycle of poverty.
3. What is “End Poverty” ?
Through our social venture, we came across a social
group called Compassion, which is a Christian child
advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual,
economic, social and physical poverty.
This organization has been around for 61 years and is
founded by Rev. Everett Swanson in South Korea.
He started off by going to South Korea in 1952, after the
war that had ravaged the land there. He saw many
orphaned children on the streets and was inspired by the
verse Matthew 15:32 : "I have compassion for these
people...I do not want to send them away hungry“, as
such, he started off by helping 35 children.
4. What is “End Poverty” ?
Since then, he has found more people to work in
partnership with him and so, was able to extend his
reach further and help more children.
Now, Compassion is recognized internationally and
is helping more than 1.2 million children in over 26
countries.
5. Challenges that Everett Swanson faced.
One challenge that Everett Swanson faced was that
when he saw all these children on the street dying, he
questioned whether it was his job to step up and help
all these poor orphans in Korea after the war.
Even some of the children he knew who begged him
for money days before were all dead on the streets,
thus he was very concerned.
It was only after a missionary who challenged him to
do something about it, and a sign from God did he
finally start the Compassion group.
6. Challenges that Everett Swanson faced.
Another problem he faced was that after he had
established his organisation, he found it very difficult
to find sponsors to fund his organisation.
He tried various methods to encourage Christians to
help out in the cause to help children in poverty, but
met with little success.
Even though, he still tried his best to find sponsors
and manpower to support his organisation. And
today, there are over a million people being
supported by his cause.
7. Challenges that Everett Swanson faced
Despite these 2 obstacles and many other problems,
Everett Swanson persevered and achieved his goal of
helping children living in poverty.
8. What have we(boys) learnt from this experience?
First and foremost, we have learnt not to take for
granted the things that we have been blessed with in
the modern city life in Ingapore
We have learnt that people are suffering from
poverty, and how gravely poverty continues to hurt
people with less.
We have also learnt about how hard the struggle is to
live in poverty, as shown from many poverty-caused
problems such as malnutrition, lack of education and
even death.
9. What have we(boys) learnt from this experience?
Regarding the fight to eradicate poverty, we have
learnt about the many associations trying to do their
part to ensure that the people living in poverty
receive as much help as needed.
We have learnt what sacrifices have to be made in
order to go out of our way to help people in need.
We have learnt about how the founders of these
organisations had to stuggle to answer the call from
God to step out of their comfort zones to reach out to
the people who are living in poverty.
10. What have we(boys) learnt from this experience?
On a personal level, we have learnt the many blessings
that the Lord has given to us. We have learnt about the
many ways he has been good.
Through the lives of these men who fight poverty, we
have learnt more about Gods promise to us, and how he
will always have a plan for all of us, as seen in Jeremiah
29:11. They have showed God working through them to
help those less fortunate.
Finally, we have learnt that everyone has a part to play to
help people in need, no matter how small or large a role
that we have. Everyone can play their part in the
campaign to End Poverty.
