Tour Brings Lives of Children In Poverty To Alpharetta, Milton

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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 Alpharetta area March 20-23.

The event will educate visitors 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, according to Compassion International’s press release.

The four-day event will be set up in the parking lot of Stonecreek Church at 13540 Highway 9 North in Milton.

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, respectively. Each child’s story starts in hardship but ends in hope.

The experience includes 3,100 square feet of exhibit space, featuring replicas of the homes and environments of the three children. The event is free and family-friendly.

“We built The Compassion Experience in order to really bring the developing world to America,” said Mark Hanlon, Compassion International’s senior vice president of global marketing and engagement. “When people think of poverty, they often think of the lack of things, the lack of stuff, the lack of money. Those are all symptoms of poverty. The real issue of poverty is the lack of hope. Through our holistic child development program, Compassion stirs hope in children. And you’ll see that hope come to life at this event.”

The tour is highly interactive, using individual Apple iPods and headsets to offer visitors a sense of what life is like in extremely poverty-stricken areas around the world. Visitors will have the opportunity to “change the story” of children living in poverty by learning more about the issue, as well as Compassion’s child sponsorship program, which tackles global poverty one child at a time. Compassion currently serves 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 its website, Twitter stream or its Facebook page.

Photo: a family takes part in the tour. Credit: Compassion International