The Compassion International CEO and President, Wess Stafford, has spoken movingly of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his teachers and older pupils at the missionary school he attended in Africa as a child.

In an interview with Focus on the Family, Stafford went on to explain why child sponsorship has such a dramatic effect in reducing poverty and why every Christian should consider sponsoring a child with Compassion.

In particular, Stafford emphasised that by helping children develop financially, physically, socially and spiritually Compassion enables them to become adults who can make an impact on the world around them.

Stafford calls Compassion's children's ministry the 'Great Omission' because our little ones are often over-looked and seen as useless. In his new book 'Too Small to Ignore' he writes: "No matter what the ill of society, it tends to spiral downward and eventually land with its cruellest and most smothering impact on our littlest citizens."

One shocking fact that Compassion is highlighting is the desperate living conditions of nearly half of the 2.2 billion children in our world today.

|QUOTE|Stafford points out that psychologists have been telling us for years that it is the experiences we have as a child that shape us for life and that most committed Christians become so at a young age. The older people get the more unlikely it is that they will convert.

Stafford, however, also considers that children are powerful now, in their own right. In Compassion projects it is the children who go home and teach their families hygiene practices or diarrhoea cures that can save numerous lives. It is the children who go home with the beautiful simplicity of the gospel and share Christ with their parents and families. Children do not just enter the Kingdom of God; they also build it.

Stafford stated that: "Poverty is a large complex of issues - and Jesus spoke to every one of them. Our response must not be simplistic."

"Poverty is the cruel, destructive message that gets whispered into the ear of millions by the enemy Satan himself: 'Give up! You don't matter. Nobody cares about you. Look around you: Things are terrible. Always have been ... always will be'."

However, he concluded saying, "When a poor child comes to understand that God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, knows his or her name ... that God cares deeply about her ... that he knows how many hairs are on her little head ... that he etched the very unique design of her fingerprints ... that he gave her a unique and delightful way of laughing ... and he sent his own Son to die on the cross to save her ... that leads to an epiphany that changes everything. 'I guess I matter after all!'"