Compassion International, a Christian humanitarian aid child sponsorship organization dedicated to the long-term development of children living in poverty around the world since 1952 has announced that next week, it will close its doors in India for the first time in decades.
Christianity Today reports the charity has exhausted every effort to stay after the Indian government denied the group the ability to transfer funds into the country.
The move, according to CBN will leave more than 145,000 Indian children without aid. It will also shut down the 589 Indian-staffed development centers that care for them.
Compassion has provided child development aid to more than 2,000,000 children, and families in 25 countries. Each country’s office is staffed by local personnel.
In Uganda Compassion International has been operational since 1980 when the first children were registered in our program in Masaka. Since 1980 Compassion Uganda has been steadily growing.
Currently, they operate in over 75 districts, supporting over 88,000 children while working with 336 Implementing Church Partners.
Compassion International President and CEO Santiago “Jimmy” Mellado told Christianity Today “I feel frustrated.”
Mellado says that last February, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs put Compassion on a list of organizations needing government approval to transfer funds into the country. The government then denied approval to Compassion.
The move comes as Christians in India face growing hostility and violence from Hindu extremists. Open Doors has moved India to number 15 on its list of countries where it’s hardest to be a Christian, up from 31 in 2013.
Compassion says that about 40 percent of the local Indian churches that it has partnered with are still working with children, just without Compassion’s financial support.
cnakalungi@ugchristiannews.com
