How Sponsorship Changed … My Family!

Oumarou and Asseta have endured great suffering.

The Burkinabe parents live with a chronic skin disease, which claimed the lives of their first two babies. On the dusty plains of Burkina Faso, where Oumarou and Asseta live in poverty, wind stirs up bacteria that leads to dangerous skin infections. Traveling to the nearest clinic was an unaffordable luxury, and the dermatosis medicine was too expensive.

So when Asseta learned she was pregnant for a third time, she dreaded that this baby would also suffer from dermatosis.

“It was painful to lose two children because of disease and a lack of resources for medical care,” says Oumarou.

But he and Asseta didn’t go through that pain a third time because they learned of a local Christian church that helps children, even unborn babies, who live in poverty.

Protecting the Most Vulnerable

The church’s Compassion center offered training, encouragement and medical care during Asseta’s pregnancy. When baby Awa was born, she was diagnosed with dermatosis like her parents. But unlike her siblings before her, she did not succumb to the disease.

“Thanks to the registration of Awa at the [Compassion] center, my family has been receiving medical care and ointment against dermatosis,” says Oumarou.

Awa began to grow up strong thanks to the lifesaving medication. Through the sponsorship program at the church, she also received help with school fees, health checkups, food packages and more. Soon Awa’s generous sponsors, Joe and Tanisha, began sending additional gifts, that were a huge blessing for the family, which was growing: When Awa was 4, her mother gave birth to a son, Ibrahim.

The Power of Sponsor Gifts

Awa’s sponsors sent several family gifts that drastically improved her family’s life. Awa no longer has to walk four miles daily to school or the Compassion center because she received a bicycle as one of her sponsors’ gifts.

“I am happy to carry Ibrahim on my bike. I keep my bag in the front basket, and we ride to school to be on time!” says Awa with a big smile.

The bicycle wasn’t the only gift her family received from her sponsors. Awa’s ethnic community is well-known for cattle herding, but her parents had no cattle because of generational poverty. Again, Joe and Tanisha blessed them by sending family gifts that enabled Awa’s family to become livestock owners for the first time.

“When the gifts arrived, I purchased a cow, then a second cow and a donkey. I am thrilled that my family now has four cows and a donkey,” says Oumarou.

Facing Hunger with Hope

A cow is the greatest treasure for families in Awa’s tribe — especially during the ongoing food crisis. Owning cows is like having gold.

“Owning cows means plowing and growing crops become easier and faster than working with bare hands,” Oumarou explains. “Cows also provide milk for our family and a milk business in the village. There is no waste because cows’ waste also fertilizes the land and increases my crops.

The income their animals provide allows Awa’s family to afford two daily meals and keep some millet in storage. Awa’s Compassion center continues to give food packs to her family and the families of other sponsored children facing hunger amid the global food crisis.

Awa’s life is a testimony of God’s excellent work through local churches, Compassion and sponsors. At the church and the Compassion center, she is learning how much God loves her, and she is determined to dream big dreams for her life.

Her entire family is receiving incredible support from the Compassion center, enabling them to thrive and reach their full potential despite their medical challenges and limited family income.