Compassion International's 'Change the Story: The Compassion Experience' Is Coming To North Georgia State Fair

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Sept. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Compassion International, a leading authority on child sponsorship which releases children from poverty globally, will be bringing its Change the Story: The Compassion Experience tour to the Atlanta area Sept. 20-24. The tour will educate local residents about the realities of life in poverty as well as provide an international experience to visitors who may not ever have the opportunity to travel abroad to a developing country.

The Compassion Experience 
The five-day tour stop will be held at the North Georgia State Fair at the Jim R. Miller Park (2245 Callaway Rd. SW in Marietta) Sept. 20-24. There, visitors will be invited on a 20-minute, self-guided journey where they will be immersed in the lives and stories of one of three children living in India, Uganda or Bolivia. Each child's story starts in hardship but ends in hope. The experience includes 3,100 square feet of exhibit space, featuring exact replicas of the homes and environments of these three children who were previously sponsored by Compassion. The event is family-friendly and transformative. 

"The stories are true and take you deeper than just visiting another country. You will walk in the very footprints of poverty and of hope," said Wess Stafford, president emeritus, Compassion International.

"We built 'The Compassion Experience' in order to really bring the developing world to America," said Mark Hanlon, senior vice president of USA Group, Compassion International.

The Poverty Problem 
The tour is highly interactive, using individual iPods and headsets, offering visitors a sense of what life is like in extremely poverty-stricken areas of developing countries where more than 1.4 billion people are living on less than $1.25 per day¹ (USD). In the areas Compassion serves, one in five children die before the age of five², mostly from preventable causes, and 101 million³ children worldwide do not attend school. Tour goers will have the opportunity to "change the story" of children living in poverty by learning more about the issue, as well as Compassion International's child sponsorship program, which tackles global poverty one child at a time, serving more than 1.4 million children in 26 of the world's most impoverished countries.

For more information about "Change the Story: The Compassion Experience", visit www.compassion.com/change, @ChangeTour on Twitter, and www.facebook.com/changetour on Facebook.

Tour visitors are encouraged to make a reservation by visiting Compassion.com/change, however, walk-ins are welcome. Groups of 20 or more should email [email protected] to reserve their space. The cross-country tour will stop at more than 35 locations and travel 65,000 miles across the United States this year.

About Compassion International  
Compassion International is the world's leading authority in child sponsorship. Compassion revolutionized the fight against global poverty by equipping the Church to develop children out of poverty to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults. It is the only child sponsorship program to be validated through independent, empirical research. Today, Compassion partners with more than 6,000 Christian churches in 26 countries to release more than 1.4 million babies, children and students from poverty in Jesus' name. Compassion has been awarded the highest rating for financial stewardship and transparency for 12 consecutive years by Charity Navigator, America's largest charity evaluator. For more information on the ministry, visit Compassion.com or follow them on Twitter at @compassion.

¹ Worldbank.org

² Unicef.org

³ Unicef.org

SOURCE Compassion International