Compassion UK announced recently that the number of children sponsored by people across the UK and Ireland has reached 30,000.

Compassion UK has been growing steadily as more and more people have become inspired after seeing the overwhelming effects of child sponsorship.

Sponsoring a child costs £18 a month, with funds providing them with the education and resources they need to be 'change-makers' in their communities. In addition, they teach children the good news of Christ.

In other news, Compassion International and Opportunity International recently announced a new joint effort to attack the economic burdens of the poor in Uganda.

Compassion Uganda currently serves nearly 42,000 children - many who are cared for by family, neighbors or church members who lack the financial means to adequately provide for them.

Compassion International and Opportunity International, a leading global provider of microfinance services to the poor, plan to change this reality by offering qualified caregivers a chance to receive loans and lines of credit that they can use to start up their own businesses, such as a small grocery, farming or handicrafts business.

Under the new joint project, Compassion International will fund loans totaling $180,000 (£95,000) through the Uganda for Development Agency (UGAFODE), a Christian micro business organization that has been a member of Opportunity International Network for the past 12 years working in 15 districts of Uganda.

The new programme will provide loans to 1,000 families in Bushenyi and Rukundiri districts. Opportunity International provided $3.5 million (£1.8 million) in loans to 12,817 poor entrepreneurs in Uganda in 2005.

Compassion is an evangelical Christian child sponsorship organisation who give Christians a chance to make a difference. Rather than being overwhelmed by the staggering statistics of poverty, the organisation believes it is their Christian responsibility to help the poor as Christ did.