Dear Compassion International Board Members,
I am proud that my teen daughter has taken an interest in sponsoring a child through your organization and want to commend you on the transparency that seems to be the norm for Compassion. I am a board member of the God and Country Festival in Nampa, Idaho, and have been glad to help our organization partner with yours to promote compassion in Jesus’ name.
However, since Compassion is a steward of millions of dollars of resources being spent in the name of Jesus on behalf of the church, I feel it’s important to share with you something that your board may not be aware of.
I see many references to HIV/AIDS on your site, and I understand that there is a lot of good that needs to be done in service to those in third world nations who have been labeled as suffering from HIV/AIDS. I firmly believe that needs to continue, just with more accurate language and a more informed delivery of services, nutrition, and medicine.
However, since truth is a pretty important (and rare) commodity in our society, I think it’s critical that the church speak accurately about the HIV/AIDS science, and not promote what has turned out to be one of the biggest scientific frauds of the 20th and 21st centuries, second only to the Global Warming fraud that has recently been uncovered.
In short, many reputable members of the scientific and medical communities have found zero evidence of a causal connection between HIV and what is so commonly referred to as AIDS. Any fair reading of the various points of view will lead to the conclusion that HIV does not and cannot cause African AIDS or any other form of AIDS, because the reasoning behind the diagnosis of AIDS as a disease process is entirely illogical. This is not the appropriate place for a full discussion of the science, but I would be happy to discuss this with someone, and I encourage the board to research it independently.
There will come a point when the fraud can no longer be sustained by the popular media, just as the fraud of so-called global warming is no longer sustainable. I cringe when I see reputable organizations such as yours lending their good name and credibility to a scientific establishment that has purged dissenters from its ranks in the same way the global warming alarmist have purged dissenters from their ranks.
Lest you think what I’m saying is the result of wild conspiracy theory, I refer you to a couple of important books by published scientists on the subject which outline some of the reasons that have led to the false “HIV causes AIDS” theory to become “accepted science” due to politics and money rather than objective laboratory work:
- Inventing the AIDS Virus – Peter H. Duesberg
- Rethinking AIDS – Robert Root-Bernstein
- The Origin, Persistence, and Failing of HIV/AIDS Theory – Henry H. Bauer
Please contact me if you have questions, or Google a peer-reviewed scientist named “Peter Duesberg” to learn more about this. I hope to see Compassion on the right side of this issue after the board has a chance to review the literature, and before the pseudo-scientific facade of the HIV/AIDS theory comes down publicly and damages its reputation.
May God bless your ministry,
Kevin Harper
(208) 249-8893
Beware! Compassion International is a scam. I signed up for it and never received anything.
Signed up for it? I think maybe you got scammed by someone CLAIMING to be Compassion International! Two of my girls are involved in sponsoring kids through CI and they have regular communication with the kids and the organization.
It is not a scam. I regularly receive letters from the child that I sponsor. It is a good organization. I signed up in person, as representatives were at a concert I attended.
I am not saying Compassion is or isn’t a scam, but letters don’t prove anything.
Compassion isn’t a scam. I’ve sponsored children with Compassion since 1984 and have visited two of the children I sponsor. I’ve seen the benefits the children receive.
Charity Navigator recently awarded Compassion the highest rating for the ninth year in a row. They have ranked Compassion among the top 1% of charities.
Compassion is one of THE most reputable not-for profit charities – they continually receive the highest ratings from independant, outside evaluators. Over 80% of all contributions go directly towards the children they serve.
A quote from their Wiki page…
Ratings — Compassion International currently holds a rating of four stars (out of four) from Charity Navigator[4], a grade of “A” from the American Institute of Philanthropy[5] and met the “20 Standards for Charity Accountability” from the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance.[6]
http://blog.compassion.com/fiscal-responsibility-nine-consecutive-four-star-ratings/
http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/children-and-youth/compassion-international-in-colorado-springs-co-3017
Having supported several children through Compassion International and most recently having visited one of their students centers in Guatemala, I can attest to the quality organization of CI. When I met the little girl that my wife and I had supported, my heart was touched at the instant bond that was formed. We knew each other through our letters, but when I met her and her family, I knew this organization delivers what it promises.
I can say first hand that it is not a scam. I had heard about it through my church and never sponsored a kid because I thought it was a scam and in 2007 I went to thailand on a mission trip the children at the church were pretty much all compassion kids. They showed me the letters their sponsors had written them and they wrote them back. The only thing they do not do is translate it to english. But it is real and I know myself at 19 sponsor a 4 year old in central america!
I don’t claim to know Compassion International inside & out, but I can tell you that I went to Africa on a mission trip that had no connection to Compassion International and we coincidently drove right by the Compassion office in Tanzania on our way to a friend’s house. I told the missionary that I would like to stop in and see if I could visit my sponsor child. I had not planned a visit, I did not call, I just walked right in. The staff was down the hall having a time of praise and worship. I waited a few minutes, a staff member welcomed me, found my child’s file and they arranged a visit the following week! I went to my sponsor child’s home, had tea with his family and visited his church and school. I have been sponsoring him for almost 10 years now and I have not yet encountered any problems with the organization. I couldn’t be happier that our sponsor child is a part of our family’s life.
That’s great to know! I agree, I think CI is a great organization…one of the few left that really are doing the Lord’s work with very little financial waste. Two of my daughters are sponsoring children through CI and I wouldn’t let them send their money if I didn’t believe it was well-run.
God bless!
–Kevin
to you out there.. i spent a whole year working for a compassion international project in Brazil.. so i KNOW what goes on behind the scenes. CI is one of the most amazing works going on for the glory of God that’s out there!!!
Everyone’s posts were very helpful (especially Rose’s). We sponser a girl from Brazil and have been nervous about whether CI is legit because she never answered our questions from our letters and she asked many of the same things over and over as if she never received our prior letters. She never commented on the pictures/drawings we sent her. In one of her handwritten letters, my name was written over someone else’s “white-outted” name. After reading others’ posts, I think I’ll just contribute these concerns to miscommunication or perhaps the girl’s age.
Compassion International is NOT a scam. You’ll always find people online who will be inconvenienced one way or another by computer glitches, misinterpre-tations or administrative delays and immediately claim a good cause is a scam. Real scam victims often fall for the very legitimate-looking emails from unscrupulous online crooks who claim to be Compassion, but are not–wolves in sheep’s clothing. Yes, you have to be careful, but don’t call something a scam until you do your research.
How do I KNOW Compassion is legit? The Pastor of my church was skeptical of Compassion a few years ago, as well, and he avoided promoting it to our congregation. However, about a year-and-a-half ago, he and about 25 other pastors, along with representatives from Compassion International traveled to the Philippines where he and his cohorts witnessed first-hand not only the abject poverty so prevalent there, but, also, the desperate, squalor conditions of scores of children and their families living in the “Smoky Mountain” (city dump) of Manila and other places. Thankfully, however, he also witnessed the incredible blessing Compassion has been for the children of the Philippines, making not only food and clothing available, but also providing education opportunities and spiritual assistance. Even after the child becomes a young adult, sponsors can continue to help them to enter and finance various college or university programs to pursue higher education so they can realize academic and career dreams–something they would have thought only an impossible dream without Compassion and programs like it. There has never been any pressure for us to be in or stay involved in Compassion, in fact, you have the right to exit the program if you should happen to fall on financial hardship.
My family sponsor two beautiful children from Ethiopia. Compassion offers the chance for sponsors to meet their sponsored children. I have met people who have done just that. So, if Compassion is a scam, someone has gone through an incredulous amount of expense and elaborate planning to come up with something I know is total on the up and up.
Please go to http://www.kaimikichristian.org or email our Pastor, Ron Arnold, at kcc@kaimukichristian.org if you still have doubts and please dig further. A lot of children, especially in foreign countries, are in desperate need of us being even a little generous with our over abundance. Blessings to you.
A little confused about the article’s concerns about whether HIV leading to AIDS. The AIDS epidemic is killing so many people around the world, including my brother and social work clients. Isn’t that all we need to know in order to get motivated to act out of compassion? CI doesn’t need to agree or disagree with theories about HIV/AIDS in order to be considedred reputable. If some people do not get what they expect from CI, they need to follow through with the organization. Glitches in organizations do not render them as crooked, else all programs, companies, etc. could be called scams. As far as global warming, I lived in CA for 25 yrs, and gradually experienced hotter seasons whereas in the past they were more mild. I lived in MI for 20 yrs., and everyone knows that the winters in cold-weather states have gradually gotten less and less severe. Even if HIV or global warming theories were true “scams,” what is at stake? Wouldn’t the right thing to do still be to care for the afflicted and the environment? How does “proving someone wrong” take away our responsibilty to help our neighbors and give us excuses for not caring? Sometimes I think anti-progressives are so busy splitting hairs that they lose perspective of what’s really important sadly to the detriment of vulnerable populations.
My friend went to Tanzania and met one of the children that she sponsors this past summer. Her pictures and testimony moved me to sponsor a child myself. I am so excited to get to know my little girl.
i’ve been a sponsor of a young man for several years and we communicate regularly. someone who read one of his letters said that it sounds like the organization wrote the letter but i’ve been aware of his improved ability with age and feel sorry for the nay-sayers. it’s a wonderful organization to partner with, and i’m not even a traditional christian. i still want to help. rita
I have sponsored a total of four children through Compassion International. I have proof that they are NOT a scam. Two of the children that I sponsored have since left the program – if this had been a scan they would have simply continued to send me “correspondence” from my children but they let me know both times that regrettably my sponsorship was at an end as that child was either too old for the program now or had left the program. This is a really great program doing untold good around the world. It’s a God thing.
Agreed, thanks!
The letter that AIDS and HIV are a scam is a bunch of crap. I have watched many persons die in front of me of the disease. It is fully real and fully medical. Anyone that would disagree is Satanic in not wanting people to be healed of this horrible disease.
Howard, please be careful what you are accusing people of. By calling me Satanic and saying I don’t want people to be healed, you obviously did not take the time to read the letter, and would prefer to shut down honest debate rather than confront the truth.
Yes, there are real disease processes at work that are killing people, but those previously existing disease processes were re-named AIDS for political power and pharmaceutical profit. What is in question is the veracity of the claim that the collection of diseases we now call AIDS are caused by HIV. They are not.
Maria, it is not a matter of wanting to win an argument, or of not caring or not wanting to protect the environment. I believe as Christians we are to care for the sick, no matter what their disease is, and act as stewards of the environment that God gave us. What is at stake is truth, plain and simple.
Let’s say for a moment that the global warming hype is not a scam. Can I get a show of hands of people who think a bunch of bureaucrats are best suited to fix it?
Please be aware, don’t take everything at face value.
While I haven’t read any of these books myself, I would be wary that they were published in 1993, 1998, and 2007. In the biomedical community this is a LONG time. Also be aware if whether or not these authors have done their own HIV/AIDS research or if they’ve simply compiled information. The same information can be used to present a variety of opinions. Not to mention, see if these authors have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. I don’t think publishing through another company reflects negatively, but if they haven’t published their same arguments to the scientific community after being peer reviewed, that’s kind of fishy. Not to mention Bauer’s reputation for researching extensively on the Lochness monster (the author of the 2007 book)… That’s not to judge him personally, but as a scientist, where evidence is worth it’s weight in gold.
All I’m saying is, do some background research and take everything with a grain of salt.
And I will vouch for Compassion. Though I don’t sponsor any children myself, I know a couple of people who have gone on trips, sponsor a couple of children themselves, with one of them being a licensed social worker. They have nothing other than good things to say.
Glad to see you vouch for Compassion Int’l, they seem to be a first rate organization.
As for your other points about AIDS/HIV research:
My wife had a sponsored child with Compassion before we were married 15 years ago. We have continued to sponsor. We had received a letter about our previous child that his father had found a good job and the family no longer needed our support- would we be interested in helping another child? At other times I have called to ask questions about financial expenditures and the people at Compassion were very helpful in answering my questions without defensiveness and to my satisfaction. This is a legit charity that does great work to help these kids. No fraud that I can detect, if I did we would have stopped sponsoring years ago.
Ned,
I am not sure what led you to believe that Compassion is a “scam”. We have sponsored several children over the years. Because we do sponsor multiple children, you can bet we have done our research by seeing how independent watchdog organizations (like Charity Watch) rate them. They always get top marks for stewardship of money entrusted to them.
We regularly correspond with these children. Each lives in a different part of the world, so each has a different life. But all live in poverty that is difficult for us as Americans to understand — we feel privileged to be able to share a little of what we have to impact their lives as it does.
In addition to regular support, we are able to send special gifts for occasions such as birthdays. When we do this, we almost always receive a letter from the child thanking us and telling us what the money was used for. Often articles of clothing and other things that in this country we simply take for granted.
Since it happens that we live near Colorado Springs, my wife and I have actually visited the headquarters of Compassion International. We even know one of the employees at Compassion.
I can tell you with 100% certainty that Compassion International is not a scam.
I know that we’ve beat the first poster down enough, but I wanted to share a little story of encouragement. While I was working and single I felt the desire to sponsor a second Compassion child – he was 16 at the time and lived in Honduras. I think I wrote him a few letters(maybe once a quarter). He wrote me toward the end of his sponsorship and asked me” if I had asked Christ into my heart” and shared his testimony. Wow. All his letters were in Spanish, but translated. I was very touched, encouraged, and reminded that God is in control of this world.
It fills my heart with comfort and joy to hear all the excellent reviews everybody has given Compassion, as I am a sponsor of several childern from all over the world by way of the blessing of Compassion Int. I have received many, many letters from all 7 of my kids. The true blessing of Compassion and it’s works is that it’s done in JESUS name! Thank you Commpassion Int. for your commitment and obediance, which gives us sponsors a chance to follow in your beautiful foot steps. May our GOD, the Creator of the heavens and earth, bless you in JESUS name.
Compassion International is a great organization. I did much research before I sponsored my first child many years ago in the Philippines, I’ve now felt led in the past months to sponsor more and now sponsor a child in India and Thailand. I hope to get to visit my Philippines child next year. God Bless this organization.
I worked at a Compassion International center in Peru for 6 months and they are absolutely excellent. Whilst I didn’t necessarily agree with everything, all the staff are incredibly hard working and put in many hours way beyond what they are paid. The center’s are very well regulated and the children are all genuinely happier and blessed because of the work.
The assertion that the opportunistic infections that arise from the diagnostic criteria required before a diagnosis of AIDS can be given are not caused because of an infection of the HIV virus is too ludicrous to even be discussed. Of course it stands to reason that such a ridiculous assertion is somehow tied to global warning speaks volumns about Mr. Harper and the ultra right-wing slant of his beliefs. Mr. Harper has probably never met a consipracy theory in which he isn’t a staunch believer, and my experience with them is don’t try to confuse them with truth.
I have sponsored a child through Compassion International for several years. I also contribute extra each month to go towards AIDS relief in impoverished countries. I have investigated Compassion International extensively and am confident that it is a wonderful organization that is committed to actually practicing Christian morales, ethics, values, and principles instead of just talking about them.
For the record, I decided to reply in private to Mr. Lain. God bless you brother for supporting Compassion. I believe it’s a great organization.
For those who want to actually do something as “preposterous” as examining an opposing point of view on the subject of the HIV/AIDS link, I highly recommend this book:
Dr. Peter Duesberg
Inventing the AIDS Virus
http://www.amazon.com/Inventing-AIDS-Virus-Peter-Duesberg/dp/0895263998/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320854894&sr=8-1
God bless….
CI is an outstanding ministry. We just returned from Nicaragua where we visited 8 Compassion projects. In each project we saw children being fed and educated. We were allowed to see the on site record keeping for children and randomly choose the record we wanted to review. A representative from Compassion was present, the school accountant and school coordinator were all present when a record was reviewed. Compassion was incredibly careful about confidentiality, meticulous in record keeping. With us were three people who have been sponsoring children for years. The children greeted these people with open arms. I am impressed with Compassion International. God bless
I have first hand knowledge the organization is real, the people are wonderful and I would work with them again. I personally want to thank Jorge, Roberto, Alexandria, Jose, and David in El Salvador for being so helpful and dedicated. The money goes to the children and they are in desperate need for the most basic of human needs to survive. 99.99 percent of Americans have no understanding of the conditions these children are living under. I was there, saw it for myself.
During the past decades, the two organizations that I have been associated with are Compassion Int. and Assist International, both organizations meet my standards of providing a high level of integrity and dedication. While I don’t have to agree on how they do everything, what and why they do it, is commendable, honorable, and most importantly meets the Biblical standards. I have seen the letters in El Salvador, the children, where they live, the schools, the training programs, and so forth. If you need proof, I could write long stories of the children, their first names only, how they live, where they live (approximately) and so forth insofar as not in violating confidences.