Nearly $80,000 Donated To Help Poor

The 19 Genre-Defining Artists Featured on CompassionArt: Creating Freedom From
Poverty CD/DVD Provide First Wave of Funding

(Nashville, TN) December 22, 2009 – The award-winning CompassionArt charity announces its first grants to 16 charitable projects chosen by the CompassionArt songwriters. The four “headline” projects will each receive $9,944 (£6,000) and the 12 individual artist nominated projects will each receive $3,315 (£2,000) for a total of $79,556 (£48,000).
The grants come from personal gifts and proceeds being raised by the CompassionArt: Creating Freedom From Poverty CD and 50-minute DVD documentary, and its companion book, The Art of Compassion, written by the 12 world-acclaimed CompassionArt songwriters. In an unprecedented effort to engage people everywhere to help end world poverty, song and artist royalties received from these acclaimed projects will be donated to the poorest of the poor.

“It’s exciting to see the vision of CompassionArt and its songwriters coming to fruition; to see the labor of love that began with an unlikely gathering of songwriters almost two years ago now tangibly helping to ease the suffering for thousands in projects all over the world,” says CompassionArt founder Martin Smith. “The amazing thing is that this is only the beginning, as these CompassionArt songs take hold and inspire more and more people and worship leaders to get involved.”

Anyone can help support CompassionArt’s charitable efforts through purchasing the CompassionArt CD/DVD and book for themselves, family, friends or as Christmas gifts ( http://compassionart.tv/created/), as well as through personal donations ( http://compassionart.tv/donate/).

The following outlines where the initial grant money will be used:

FOUR HEADLINE PROJECTS

1) South America – Grants from CompassionArt will be used to help buy a boat to carry ministry teams, doctors, etc., to the sick and needy in places near Santa Isobella, Brazil that are only reachable by boat.

2) Worldwide – Grants will be used for “Start Freedom,” an education campaign for (continue reading…)

 A GivStory By Derri Smith | Not For Sale Tennessee

 Beyond my worst nightmares …

At 55, I am no stranger to suffering. I was regularly abused by my pastor father. I’ve walked intimately with loved ones through the trauma of rape, abuse, illness and divorce. But nothing in my past prepared me for what I encountered when I picked up a copy of  Not For Sale by David Batstone. I entered a world beyond my worst nightmares, where six year olds tout their sex trade skills to potential “customers”; thirteen year olds are sold in pairs to be raped at will and ten year old boys are made to club neighbors to death as initiation into forced “military” duty.

Only this wasn’t a nightmare, soon to be followed by a good morning. These stories are real and not just a few isolated cases of unspeakable horror; they are the plight of millions of children throughout the world. Commerce in human beings is, I learned, the second largest and fastest growing crime on the planet, affecting 27 million lives.

 In my own backyard?!

Desperation borne of such knowledge launched a quest to educate myself.  I was shocked to (continue reading…)

A few months ago we did a post about Not For Sales’s Slavery Map . If you didn’t get a chance to read it, you might want to check it out after you watch this video by Not For Sale Campaign .

Want to learn more about Human Trafficking? Not For Sale Campaign is hosting a global forum on Human Trafficking in Carlsbad, California October 8-9. They are giving a way a free audio book copy of Not For Sale, the book that began the movement if you register TODAY! Register at www.globalforumonhumantrafficking.org