International Day of Charity

Solidarity and Compassion in the Face of Suffering

The International Day of Charity is celebrated annually on September 5. First observed in 2013, the International Day of Charity calls the world to act with solidarity and compassion in the face of human suffering. It promotes volunteer and philanthropic activities to mobilize people and bring resiliency and inclusiveness to society.

The International Day of Charity commemorates the anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace."

"When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed."
  — Mother Teresa, Roman Catholic nun

Charity and Sustainable Development

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations in 2015, also known as the Sustainable Development Goals, is the most comprehensive and ambitious anti-poverty plan the world community has embarked upon. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are the global community’s efforts to transform the world. Charity will play a pivotal role in the plan’s success.

Charity helps alleviate the suffering of natural disasters and international conflicts. It helps advance culture and science, helps protect the marginalized and underprivileged, and supplements research and services in health care, education and child protection.

For the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be reached, the global community must come together with charity in the heart and service on the mind.

"Charity is a contributor to the promotion of dialogue, solidarity and mutual understanding among people."  — UN Resolution 67/105

Charity That Makes a Difference

Child sponsorship is one of the best methods for helping people escape extreme poverty and suffering. In fact, it’s considered by some economists to be the most effective long-term development intervention for helping the poor.

Child sponsorship is not charity that creates dependence; it’s charity that directly contributes to sustainable development of individuals, communities and countries.

Our Child Sponsorship Program is implemented by the local church in the countries where we work. We have thousands of local church partners tailoring our holistic child development model to the contextualized needs of the children they serve.

The minimum standards for our program dictate that each child development center provide four to eight hours of programming each week, at least 48 weeks out of the year, and that individual child attendance be taken each time the center is open. The child development center workers and church leaders running the program know each and every child they serve, investing in the child personally and relationally, as friends and mentors.

Through our Child Sponsorship Program we address every major aspect of a child's well-being, every element that he or she needs to survive, develop and thrive. We work to address each child's spiritual, economic, social and physical needs. A child with unique needs will benefit from additional and specialized assistance provided by our initiatives to meet other critical needs.

We help a child grow physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually, while also providing economic assistance to the child’s family and offering a future of sustainable economic self-provision.