The Making of Compassion Day

Compassion Day-Compassion Australia's biggest and busiest day of the year!

Preparations and planning for Compassion Day begin many months beforehand. However, on the actual day nearly all Compassion employees, as well as many volunteers, are involved in the action-answering phones; giving tally updates on live crosses to participating radio stations; organising catering, or making sure the technology and logistics are all running smoothly.

However, Compassion Day would not be possible without the enormous support of the staff and volunteers from the 42 Christian radio stations around Australia who dedicate an entire day's programming to Compassion Day, and work tirelessly with us to make it a success.

On Compassion Day-Thursday 15 May, keep checking the blog throughout the day for 'behind the scenes' info, news and updates as they happen!

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Compassion Day 08: Audio Clips

Listen to stories and interviews aired on Christian radio across Australia on Compassion Day 08.

• Child Stories
  Track 1 (1.6mb, mp3)
  Track 2 (1.5mb, mp3)
  Track 3 (1.6mb, mp3)
  Track 4 (1.4mb, mp3)
  Track 5 (2.2mb, mp3)
  Track 6 (1.5mb, mp3)
  Track 7 (2.1mb, mp3)
• Restavek Stories
  Track 1 (1.8mb, mp3)
  Track 2 (1.9mb, mp3)
  Track 3 (2.1mb, mp3)
  Track 4 (2.3mb, mp3)
• Parent Stories
  Track 1 (1.5mb, mp3)
  Track 2 (2.0mb, mp3)
  Track 3 (1.9mb, mp3)
  Track 4 (1.8mb, mp3)
  Track 5 (2.1mb, mp3)
  Track 6 (1.6mb, mp3)

• Tony Campolo interview (with Sheridan Voysey) (9.6mb, mp3)
• Nathan Tasker interview (with Sheridan Voysey) (7.9mb, mp3)
• Vaniza Apostol interview (1.8mb, mp3)
• Thankyou - from the children of Haiti and Dominican Republic (709kb, mp3)

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Compassion Day Host: Vaniza Apostol

When Vaniza (pronounced Vanessa) Apostol hosted Compassion Day for the first time last year, Australians fell in love with the eleven year old Filipino girl. Vaniza is a delightful young lady with infectious enthusiasm. She loves art, running, acting and reciting poetry, and her favourite school subject is science.

However, Vaniza has not always been as confident as she is now. When she first joined Compassion's child development program, Vaniza would sit alone in a corner, her humble background and lack of confidence masking her natural abilities and potential. Now, after three years in Compassion's program, Vaniza has risen to the top of her class, consistently featuring on the honour role at her school and excelling in literary contests.

Check out the video clips below to see Vaniza recording for Compassion Day!

• Meet host Vaniza

The real stars of Compassion Day are the children!

• How sweet are Haitian kids!
• Learning the ropes!
• Inspirational secondary school students
• The heart-wrenching story of Haiti's Restavek girls

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Radio Announcers

In January this year Compassion Day's Creative Director, Sheridan Voysey, along with Compassion Day coordinator, Narelle Taylor, Phil Edwards from Vision FM, and Luke Holt from Melbourne's Light FM visited Haiti and the Dominican Republic-this year's Compassion Day focus countries-to meet with Compassion sponsored children and to record the material to be used for Compassion Day.

In April, Daniel Widdowson from Sydney's 103.2, Az Hamilton from Brisbane's 96.5, Rodney Olsen from Perth's Sonshine FM and Jason Evans from Adelaide's Life FM were hosted in Haiti and the Dominican Republic by Compassion staff members, DJ Konz and Natalie Moses (read the blogs from their trip).

Check out the video clips below to share in on each of the radio announcers' journey in Haiti and Dominican Republic.

Compassion Day radio announcers visit to Compassion child development project HA-800

• Arriving at the project
• Children worshipping
• Children praying
• Jason does his Kangaroo impression for the kids
• Az and Dan teach the kids 'G'day, G'day'

Trouble hits - Compassion Day radio announcers caught in the Haitian riots (impacting viewing)

• God's in control
• Why it's difficult to help the children of Haiti
• Reasons for Haiti's food crisis and riots
• NBC reports on the Haiti crisis

Az Hamilton (96.5 Brisbane) diary entries

• Before leaving for Haiti
• First morning in Haiti (before visiting first Compassion child development centre and before the riots)
• Needing to flee Haiti (in light of riots - Az's reflection of Compassion)
• Az interviews Nancy
• Haitian girls love Az's hair!

Rodney Olsen (Sonshine FM Perth) diary entries

• Before leaving for Haiti
• Reflection on the economic crisis in Haiti

Jason Evans (Life FM Adelaide) diary entries

• Being flexible in an unstable Haiti
• Debriefing after fleeing Haiti riots (a dangerous trip to the airport trying to flee the Haiti riots)

Daniel Widdowson (103.2 Sydney) diary entries

• Debriefing after fleeing Haiti riots
• Dan meets his sponsored child, Henrri

Luke Holt (Light FM Melbourne) diary entry

• Luke teaches the kids how to dance!

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Creative Director of Compassion Day:
Sheridan Voysey

Compassion Day creative director, Sheridan Voysey is a Sydney-based writer, speaker, broadcaster, and host of Open House, a national talk-back radio show, which explores life, faith and culture from a Christian perspective.

Sheridan is the author of the award-winning book, Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life (Scripture Union, 2005), and is also a regular contributor to Christian newspapers and magazines both in Australia and overseas. His new book, Unveiled Faces is due for release in 2009.

For more information visit
www.thethoughtfactory.net

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Mercy Me

The song 'Hold fast' by US band, Mercy Me, has been chosen as the official song for Compassion Day 2008.

The lines 'Hold fast, help is on the way ...' perfectly capture this year's theme of bringing hope and help to the children of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, by encouraging Christian radio listeners across the country to sponsor a child.

Even after 13 years together as a band, Mercy Me are still as passionate about leading people in worship and hope that their music continues to direct people to Christ.

For the men of MercyMe-Barry Graul (guitar), Robby Shaffer (drums), Mike Scheuchzer (guitar), Nathan Cochran (bass), Jim Bryson (keys) and Bart Millard (vocals)-worshipping the Lord and leading others in His praise is very much a life-long calling. That commitment has guided the band through the creation of six independent projects as well as six albums as one of the flagship artists of INO Records.

Find out more:

• Mercy Me - Website
• Mercy Me - Blog
• Mercy Me - iTunes
• Mercy Me - MySpace
• Mercy Me - YouTube
• Story behind Hold Fast (INORecords)
• Hold Fast live performance (mercymevideo)
• Why Mercy Me supports Compassion (Compassion International)

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+ Audio Clips
+ Vaniza Apostol
+ Radio Announcers
+ Sheridan Voysey
+ Mercy Me