Samuel Orlando

Samuel Orlando was born in a very poor province of the Dominican Republic called Luperon, Puerto Plata. He had slim possibilities of gaining a decent education due to extreme poverty within the community. His parents were missionaries in Luperon where most children didn’t have the possibility of regular meals much less the resources to obtain an education. At 25 his father first heard of Compassion International, and he immediately started the process to launch this program in Luperon. He saw it as a blessing that would help his son and other children in the community to obtain an education; his father knew that education was one of the keys to overcoming poverty. Unfortunately Samuels’s father passed away, but the vision was planted and five years later his mother married another pastor and returned to Luperon to continue the work that was already begun there.

Thanks to Compassion, Samuel was one of the first children sponsored in that area. A humble family from North America planted a seed and provided him the opportunity to graduate from high school, receive a healthy breakfast, a clean uniform and school supplies, thus changing the course of his life forever. He was able to obtain an education, become a recording engineer, a musician, and a Christian singer. According to Samuel, “One of the greatest things is that now I am able to give to others a similar opportunity that was provided for me!”