Celebrating 10 years of Gifts of Compassion!

We launched our first Gifts of Compassion gift guide 10 years ago. The impact is huge—and we’re just getting started.

Written by: Alyssa Esparaz

Ten years ago, we released our first-ever Gifts of Compassion gift guide. Every year, Canadians have responded with overwhelming generosity. Today, we want to pause and celebrate the impact we’ve made together through 10 years of Gifts of Compassion.

In 10 years, Gifts of Compassion has raised over $11.5 million, directly impacting 644,553 individuals living in poverty.

But don’t get lost in the big numbers. Hear the stories. Your gifts sent students to university, empowered caregivers with income generating skills, and provided mentorship, counselling and spiritual retreats to teens in some of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in the world. Your gifts built and equipped playgrounds, libraries, baseball fields, vocational training centres, kitchens, classrooms and computer labs. Your gifts provided food, healthcare, sanitation and clean water.

Your gifts provided stability in times of crisis and disaster, relief in the midst of desperation, sparked dreams in the hearts of youth, ignited hope in the lives of struggling families and so much more than can be captured in one blog post.

This isn’t just about numbers. It’s about narratives of despair re-written into stories of hope. It’s about love in action. It’s about gifts flowing from a movement of compassionate Canadians who choose to faithfully respond to the needs of children and families living in poverty.

And yet, the numbers are worth celebrating, too!

In 10 years, Canadians gave over 100,000 Gifts of Compassion, including more than:

And here’s just a small, tip-of-the-iceberg peek into the impact 10 years of Gifts of Compassion has made:

• Provided scholarships, vocational training and small business support to over 7,200 youth and caregivers
• Funded HIV/AIDS prevention and care for 167,992 people
• Provided the protection of a mosquito net to 278,574 people
• Funded major life-saving medical interventions for 15 children
• Rebuilt safe homes for over 787 people
• Provided safe playgrounds to over 10,200 children
• Raised over $650,000 to provide safe washrooms and sanitation to over 19,300 people

Raised over $1.2 million to provide clean water to over 124,500 people

What can we say, but thank you.

We’re just getting started

We’re so thankful for the immense impact Canadians have made through Gifts of Compassion over the past 10 years. We’ll likely never know the full extent and reach of the impact.

And yet, the needs of children and families around the world remain immense—especially as this year, the COVID-19 crisis is undoing years of progress in the fight against poverty.

This year’s Gifts of Compassion gift guide is designed to specifically address the urgent needs arising out of the COVID-19 crisis. It’s not the way we imagined launching into our second decade of Gifts of Compassion. And yet, if there’s anything we know based on the past 10 years, it’s this: in the face of overwhelming need, we can count on generous Canadians to keep showing up.

Whether you’ve given every year for the past 10 years, or this will be your first time giving, we invite you to join us in meeting real needs in the real lives of children and families living in poverty around the world though Gifts of Compassion.

Originally published on: https://www.compassion.ca/blog/celebrating-10-years-of-gifts-of-compassion/