COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL’S “THE COMPASSION EXPERIENCE” IS COMING TO CUMMING

Interactive Tour Immerses Visitors into Daily Life in Another Country
CUMMING, GA —  Compassion International, a leading authority on child sponsorship which releases children from poverty globally, will be bringing its tour, “The Compassion Experience”, to the Cumming area November 13-16. 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 Parkway Church at 5830 Bethelview Road in Cumming from November 13-16. 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 the Dominican Republic and Keyna. Each child’s story starts in hardship but ends in hope.
The experience includes 1,700 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.”

Click here to watch a video that previews “The Compassion Experience.”

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 1.4 billion people are living on less than $1.25 per day1 (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 1.7 million children in 26 of the world’s most impoverished countries.
For more information about “The Compassion Experience”, visit www.CompassionExperience.com, on Twitter, and 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 6,900 Christian churches in 26 countries to release over 1.7 million babies, children and students from poverty in Jesus’ name. Compassion has been awarded the highest rating for financial stewardship and transparency for 14 consecutive years by Charity Navigator, America’s largest charity evaluator. For more information on the ministry, visit compassion.com or follow them on Twitter.
WHO:
Cumming-area residents — all ages are welcome.
WHAT:
An interactive tour through the life of a child living in a developing country.
WHEN / WHERE:
November 13-16, 2015
Parkway Church
5830 Bethelview Rd
Cumming, GA 30040
1 Worldbank.org 2 Unicef.org
3 Unicef.org