Louder Than The Music

CompassionArt, the charity founded by former Delirious? lead singer Martin Smith with his wife Anna, and supported by Christian artists including Paul Baloche, Steven Curtis Chapman, Stu G, Israel Houghton, Tim Hughes, Graham Kendrick, Andy Park, Matt Redman, Michael W.Smith, Chris Tomlin and Darlene Zschech, has revealed how its first wave of funding (£48,000) has helped the various projects it supports.

Brazil - At a total cost of £12,000, CompassionArt has contributed £6000 towards a boat purchased to support people living on remote islands situated on the banks of the river Amazon. The government in Brazil refer to these families as the forgotten people as no one really knows how many families and children exist on these islands. The waters are infested with piranha fish and tree stumps which makes it dangerous to reach these people. The CompassionArt boat will enable doctors, teachers and missionary’s to visit safely to provide much needed healthcare, education and pastoral care.

Rwanda (Darlene Zschech) - In the village of Hope based in Kigali (Gasabo) £2000 has been contributed towards the provision of 16 rainwater tanks. The rainfall in Rwanda is not a problem. Catching it and keeping it clean is. There is no underground water to be found in this area so women are currently walking two hours to the local, poor quality, community tank for 5 litres of water. The new water tanks will need little or no ongoing maintenance.

UK - Helping Ex-offenders (Tim Hughes) - A grant of £2000 has been used towards providing support to caring for ex-offenders registered churches as well as linking ex-offenders to these churches. Between January and June 2010, a total of 70 ex-offenders were helped due to improved relationships with chaplains, resettlement governors, probation services and community chaplains. During this reporting period 48 ex-offenders were linked to supportive churches. Future developments are taking place with preparations to deliver a 17 week pan addiction course based on a 12 step process, a 4 week money course for those struggling with their financial situation and production of a “so help me God” DVD.

China (Steven Curtis Chapman) - Marias big house of hope has received a £2000 contribution to continue with the daily care of special needs orphans in china. The money has done so much to provide for these children in the area of housing and food which in turn has further made it possible for doors to open in desperately needed areas such as medical care and surgeries. To date this money has supported the lives of 200 special needs orphans and in the last six months several have benefitted from a physical and occupational therapy programme. A medical team visited the home in March to perform the first round of cleft lip/palate surgeries for children awaiting these procedures. This is a picture of Clarissa when she was admitted to the centre and three months later after receiving physical and occupational therapy.

Manilla, Phillipines: Tondo Rubbish Dump (Martin & Anna Smith) - An investment of £2000 has been made into community healthcare training. Healthcare teaching and training was carried out in January over four sites, more than the original two envisaged - the Tondo dump clinic, Tondo dump school, Navotas cemetery and Baguio dump. The main focus of training was on simple infection control.

South Africa (Graham Kendrick) - Funds amounting to £2000 are helping children who find themselves caught up in the crime and gun culture on the streets of South Africa. A music teaching facility is being developed to shift the attention of these youngsters to give them the opportunity to learn a musical instrument leading to exams and certification. The school teaches music theory and practical and includes performing, arranging and recording of musical pieces. Life skills’ training is also built into the programme. The London College of Music and Yamaha are also helping to develop this facility.

Kenya (Israel Houghton) - The children’s Mosop orphanage based in Sotik, Kenya, has used their £2000 contribution from CompassionArt to restore and repair ceilings in their school classrooms. Fortunately this work has been completed just before the rainy season starts.

Other projects being supported:
£6000 supporting two buses regularly visiting a rubbish dump in Cambodia providing education food, showers and a place of shelter for children working in the area hoping to find food or earn a dollar a day.

£2000 is being held to start an animal husbandry programme starting later this year in south east Asia, primarily in India. The programme will help kids with HIV learn how to harvest milk, raise and breed animals and participate in their daily care. Buffalos, chickens and goats will provide food and milk to local communities. (Stu Garrard)

£6000 is helping to spread a global awareness campaign for young people called “Start Freedom.” School age kids all around the World are taught what trafficking is, how it affects their life, and what they should do to combat it. (Stop the Traffik)

£2000 to a Compassion church based child survival programme based in Uganda. The project is having a tangible and lasting impact on the lives of mothers and babies in need of support. (Matt Redman)

£6000 is in a reserve fund in an effort to help Watoto in their bid to raise $300,000 to build a creative centre in Kampala, Uganda. The centre will be a facility for orphaned children to learn to dance, sing, learn to play musical instruments, songwright, and learn production tools. The hope is to see future generations become worship leaders and teachers.

£2000 is supporting the on-going monthly costs of a baby centre situated in Kampala, Uganda. The rescue centre takes in abandoned babies needing urgent care and attention and looks after them until they are well and strong enough to live with a surrogate family. (Chris Tomlin)

£2000 is contributing to a life skills programme serving 766 HIV affected children per month in the townships of South Africa. Over the last six months Life skills educators have managed to reach a total of 4601 children needing urgent help in the areas of drug, alcohol, sexual abuse and Aids. (M W Smith)

£2000 has been sent to a very depressed area in Hong Kong where drug abuse and crime is a serious problem. Jackie Pullinger and her team are helping to provide food and education for children in need and are awaiting government authority to build a meeting shelter situated next to a big car park where a lot of the affected kids hang out, committing crimes and taking drugs. (Andy Park)

A £2000 contribution is being held to build a safe house in Texas later this year. There are 300,000 victims of child sexual exploitation in the United States, but only five specialised aftercare homes exist to meet their needs. Trafficking in the U.S. is growing much faster than our collective response to it. (Paul Baloche)

A further £32,000 is due to be released in the near future to further contribute to the projects mentioned above. This amount has been raised solely from income generated from, personal donations, royalties of the sale of the CompassionArt album and CCLI income received from churches supporting these songs in their weekly services.

The main area of focus in 2010 is to help Watoto in their bid to raise $300,000 to build a creative centre in Uganda. To date we have raised $50,000, including a $30,484 (£19,366) specific contribution from Family Christian Stores who donated an additional $1 for every album they sold through their stores.

"We are deeply thankful for your partnership in this work. It is only possible through the help, kindness and generous support of participants like you. Thank you for being on this journey with us", said Paul Smith, Charity Manager for CompassionArt on behalf of Martin & Anna Smith and the Trustees.

For more information about CompassionArt, including how you can purchase the multi-artist album, please visit: www.compassionart.tv