Immersive poverty experience to be hosted at Surge Event, Glasgow, 1-2 July

Next weekend visitors to the Surge conference will have the unique opportunity to encounter what life is like for some of the most vulnerable children in the world.

Destiny Church, usually based at Cathedral Street, are due to host Surge 17 conference in partnership with Elim, Queen’s Park Baptist Church and TBN Christian Media group, at the Armadillo, SEC Glasgow on the 1st and 2nd of July.

The Compassion Experience, a mobile trailer space created by child development charity, Compassion UK, is new to Scotland and will be available to delegates of the conference.
The trailer houses the interactive, tactile, audio and visual stories of Sameson, a boy from Ethiopia and Shamim, a girl from Uganda. Both Sameson and Shamim grew up experiencing the vulnerability, restrictions and dangers that poverty brings in their respective cultures and contexts.

Don Esson, Compassion’s Partnerships Director for the Scotland says, “We are really excited about our partnership with Destiny Church. It will be the first time that the Compassion Experience will be in Scotland and it’s a great opportunity for visitors to experience poverty without having to leave the UK.”

Compassion is an international child development charity with more than 60 years experience working with some of the world’s poorest children. At present more than 1.8 million children attend Compassion’s church-based projects in 25 of the world’s poorest countries.

Justin Dowds, CEO of Compassion UK explains, “We brought the Compassion Experience to the UK to bring the developing world to our doorsteps. When people think of poverty, they often think of the lack of material things, but actually poverty is the lack of freedom to make meaningful choices. Poverty narrows children’s horizons and undermines their ambitions. Through our holistic child development program Compassion stirs hope in children. You can witness that hope coming to life through the Compassion Experience.”

“The Compassion Experience will enable visitors to experience another world without leaving their own,” explains Compassion UK’s Caroline Cameron. “Most importantly the presentation will offer a message of hope for children sponsored through our world-class child development programme.