Compassion was one of the first non-government agencies to respond to the Rwandan genocide in 1994 , raising one million dollars to support the widows and orphans left traumatised by the civil war . In 2001 , Compassion Australia 's founding CEO , Laurie McCowan , retired and was superseded by Paul O'Rourke , who saw 90,000 children supported through Compassion Australia before retiring in 2010 . Dr Tim Hanna took the reins as CEO in June 2010 . Compassion Australia currently works with eleven partner countries : United States , Canada , The Netherlands , Germany , France , Switzerland , New Zealand , Italy , South Korea , Scandinavia and the United Kingdom
Rwandan genocide
Rwandan genocide
Compassion Australia