The Value of Kids Helping Kids
When kids help kids, they learn important lessons about caring for others, selflessness, servanthood, ownership, leadership skills, obedience, stewardship and generosity, all of which are qualities Jesus calls his children to live out.
Teaching young kids to help others will lead them to live out many Christlike values in their adult lives. There is no better time to learn how put these attributes into action than as a kid!
“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” — Proverbs 22:6, NIV
Kids are inspiring, and when they catch a vision, they won’t stop until they make that dream a reality.
Encouraging kids to help others empowers them to make a difference in people’s lives around the world. They recognize that they have the ability and power, even as a kid, to make change in a situation and to bring valid solutions to problems. This helps develop leadership skills, teaches them ownership, boosts their self-confidence and empowers them to act.
Through helping and caring for others, kids get closer to the heart of God and his love for the poor and needy. They learn to live out the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself and serve as Jesus did. Through this, natural self-centeredness fades as they look to the needs of others instead of their own. This grows characteristics of selflessness and servanthood.
Additionally, when kids donate or fundraise for a specific cause in order to help others, they learn the important lesson of stewardship, generosity and money management. They learn that money is a tool that can advance the kingdom of God when used intentionally and ultimately, they are able to see the harvest of doing so.
Featured Stories of Kids Helping Kids
Kids helping kids isn’t just a neat idea. It’s actually happening! Here are some inspiring stories featuring kids helping kids through Compassion.
Meet Grace
As a 9-year old, Grace hosted a Compassion Sunday event at her local church and helped 56 kids get sponsored. That’s 56 children living in poverty who get help with meeting their most basic needs — nutritious food, education, medical attention — and more.
After her Compassion Sunday experience, Grace traveled to meet her own sponsored child and see firsthand the real impact child sponsorship has!
Meet the “Lemonade Boys”
Three brothers living in Denver, Ben (7), William (4) and Jonathan (2), set up a lemonade stand to raise money to help children living in poverty. The local police shut the stand down because the boys didn’t have the proper permit, but after the community rallied around the boys, they ended up raising over $8,000. That a sweet success story.
Meet Rodelin
Rodelin is a sponsored child in the Philippines and an agent of transformation in the lives of kids in her neighborhood. She’s a young leader teaching a Bible study to 10 to 15 children every weekend in her back yard.
It initially began as child’s play, teaching her friends songs she learned at the child development center, but soon she was telling the children Bible stories too. Rodelin has shared the good news with her friends and other kids for several years. She also hopes to help with school needs as her dream is to be a teacher.
Meet Evie
Five-year-old Evie’s heart was breaking at the challenges her sponsored child Maribela was experiencing in the Philippines.
“Let me tell you about Maribela’s year,” said Evie, “she had hurricanes, earthquakes and typhoons … on top of coronavirus! This is bananas!”
Evie decided to create and sell awesome “kid art” to provide critical food, health supplies and shelter to kids and their families during the pandemic. She set a goal of $500 and raised $610.
Meet Ian and Tava
Nine-year-old Ian and his 5-year-old sister Tava learned that clean water can be hard to find in poor countries. They wanted to provide children living in poverty with clean water, so they sold bottled water at their family’s garage sale. They raised almost $100, which was enough to provide a family with a water filter and through it clean water for life!
Meet Erin
After Erin read about the problem of child hunger, she felt compelled to do something to help. She organized events in which she and fellow high school students school skipped lunch one day and donated the money they would’ve spent on their food to help children in poverty. In total, she raised $1,050 for the benefit of children in need.