Compassion Korea

Overview

Compassion Korea is the Korean sponsor-country branch of Compassion International. It matches impoverished children in Africa, Latin America, and Asia one-to-one with sponsors in Korea. Compassion was originally founded to help orphans during the Korean War. Korea received aid from the organization for some forty years as a recipient country. In 2003 it returned to the organization as a sponsor country. Compassion Korea is legally a social welfare corporation. Since its founding it has been led by Justin Suh (Seo Jeong-in), a pastor.

Founding and History

• 1952: During the Korean War, the American pastor Everett Swanson founded Compassion to care for and educate war orphans.
• 1993: Over forty-one years, Compassion had helped more than 100,000 children in Korea. Because the Korean economy had grown substantially, the organization concluded that its assistance was no longer needed and withdrew from the country. Wes Stafford, a pastor who became president of Compassion International that same year, is said to have been involved throughout the process that later led to the founding of Compassion Korea.
• 2003: About 350 people who had grown up with Compassion's help, including doctors, lawyers, and pastors, took the lead in founding Compassion Korea. This time Korea took part as a sponsor country rather than a recipient country.
• The number of children supported through Compassion Korea grew rapidly, from 220 in 2003 to more than 15,000 in 2006 and more than 45,000 in 2008. In 2023 the number was reported as about 140,000.
• November 2023: A service commemorating the organization's twentieth anniversary was held at SaRang Community Church. Former president Wes Stafford preached at the service.

Major Activities

• One-to-one sponsorship: Each sponsor is matched with one child and supports that child on an ongoing basis. The organization emphasizes "holistic child development," which aims to help children escape spiritual, economic, social-emotional, and physical poverty. In its organizational profile, Compassion International states that it serves more than 2.4 million children in 29 countries.
• Sponsor involvement: The actress Shin Ae-ra has served as a goodwill ambassador since 2005 and has publicized her own experience as a sponsor. The organization attributes its growth mainly to sponsors, rather than staff, who took the initiative to encourage others to sponsor children.
• Expansion of activities: In the late 2000s, the organization extended its work to the Korean American community. According to its head, in the 2010s the organization began developing a child development curriculum to prepare for a time when it might become possible to help children in North Korea.

Organization

Compassion Korea is not an interdenominational body and therefore has no member denominations. It operates as one of the sponsor countries within Compassion International. Its headquarters is in Hannam-dong, Yongsan District, Seoul. In 2009 it was reported to be the fourth-largest sponsor country in the world, after the United States, Canada, and Australia. By the mid-2010s it was described as the second-largest in terms of sponsorship.

Assessment

The sharp rise in the number of sponsored children within a few years of the organization's founding drew media attention. Justin Suh attributed this growth to the principle of one-to-one sponsorship, transparent operations, and the voluntary participation of sponsors. In a 2008 interview he stated that more than 85 percent of donations went to support children and that sponsors could review specific details of how their support was used. These statements reflect the organization's own account. Comparable organizations include World Vision and Korea Food for the Hungry International.