Christian organization forced to leave India

"We want to be honest with you, there is very little hope.”

This was the message Compassion International sent to 130,000 sponsors of Indian children last week.

“Since we can no longer distribute funds to our field offices, we have just had to notify our India country staff that we must formally close our field offices in India by March 15,” Compassion told sponsors by email. “Should nothing change, that means an end to our sponsorship program in India in the next 60 days.”

Compassion International has helped children in need in India since 1968 by operating 580 Indian-staffed child development centers. The centers care for more than 145,000 children.

At almost every center, children enjoy a nutritious meal once or twice a week. A typical meal consists of local grains, cereals, vegetables, eggs or meat and fruit. Most of the children get only two meals a day at home and the meals are usually not nutritious.

All adolescent children receive some type of vocational training in addition to life skills and English education. The vocational skills offered include carpentry, welding, electronics repair, mechanics, driving, plumbing and electrical work.

Parents' meetings are organized in all the child development centers on a monthly basis. Information on topics such as parenting, social issues, the importance of education and child rearing is shared. Self-help programs also exist at most of the child development centers, and these meet more often.

Recent changes to the Indian government’s interpretation and application of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) has prevented Compassion from sending funds to its 580 local child development centers in India.

The FCRA controls the way charitable organizations inside India can receive funds from foreign sources. The new rules required each of Compassion’s 580 child development centers to submit an application (Form FC-3) to the Indian government by October 31, 2016. Sixty-three of Compassion’s partners were denied FCRA approval. Despite repeated requests, the Indian government has not provided an explanation for these denials. Compassion made the difficult decision to end its partnership with the 63 centers, impacting more than 14,500 Compassion children in India.

Compassion is also unable to fund any of the remaining partners that received FCRA approval. Nor has the organization been able to provide funds to its two branch offices in India—again, with no government explanation. These decisions by the Indian government put Compassion in jeopardy of having to shut down all of its operations in India.

“Since the start of its humanitarian work in India in 1968, more than a quarter-million Indian children and their families have benefited from Compassion’s programs,” said Compassion president and CEO, Santiago Jimmy Mellado, “ Our desire to continue serving these children has led us to encourage our supporters to request the help of their congressional representatives. We want nothing more than to comply with Indian law and find favor in the eyes of those with the power to authorize our ongoing care to these children who are suffering in extreme poverty.”

On December 6, 2016, Compassion’s Senior Vice President of General Counsel will testify on this situation before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with key officials in India on behalf of Compassion. Still, Compassion has been unable to provide funds to continue its child development programs in India.

About Compassion International:

Founded in 1952, Compassion International is a Christian child development organization that works to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. Compassion revolutionized the fight against global poverty by working exclusively with the Church to lift children out of spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty. Compassion partners with more than 7,000 churches in 26 countries to deliver its holistic child development program to over 1.9 million babies, children and young adults. It is the only child sponsorship program to be validated through independent, empirical research. For more about the ministry, visit compassion.com or follow them on Twitter @compassion.