One more year is coming to an end. As our Christmas Calendar brought us 24 stories that marked our year, I am tasked to bring a final one.
This is the time of year for reflection and gratitude. And the more I reflect on it, the more grateful I am. What an amazing year you brought to ALG!
This was a year of growth – growth in our team, growth in our projects, growth in our amazing donor base. We continue to spread our wings and test new ideas with one thing in mind – the children. I am so proud!
- In our Sponsoring program, we continued to raise the quality of the monthly basket and we are continuously finding ways to create opportunities and support the path of the older children as they finish school;
- In our Education programs, the school feeding program continues to provide a daily meal to 900 children, and our preschools are giving a first start in life to 199 children. After school, 380 of our children are receiving extra tuition to help them break out the lack of study habits. We were proud to see Julio end his Uni Scholarship and get a job as an engineer that he never dreamed of before;
- In our Poverty relief program, the HIV program, change continues to happen. We were saddened by the loss of Belide but we deepened our intervention work achieved thanks to the work of a new psychologist working at the centre with each child;
- We did 7 family houses this year. This is a challenging implementation area, very resource intensive on the ground and we continue to provide better living conditions for our children and their families. The change you can see is just extraordinary!
- The Technical Education area is the one where the delta was more marked. We used the space of our pre school ESC to offer sewing and cooking courses to the young mothers of the community, we partnered with the local technical education institute to provide certified courses to 80 children across 3 schools;
- The Income Generation area is one where we continue to test new projects, ensuring we keep our motto of personalised work, identifying opportunities for a young mother or groups in the community to launch activities to help them break out of poverty, such as the new Wesley Saloon!
All this was possible thanks to the hard work of our amazing partners and local technicians on the ground, and the fabulous team of 7 we have at headquarters in Lisbon and 3 in London. The daily job is a never ending dedication to the children, to each single child and how to attend to them at any point in time that they need us. I admit it, it is sometimes operationally complicated to keep dealing with the daily ‘emergencies’ that come to us. But no-one hesitates to step up and go out of their way to be there.
A final and most important note goes to you, our supporters. Between all the choices you could make in your daily life, you have chosen to support the ALG children. Between all the good causes you could find, you chose to help us break the cycle of poverty in the south of Mozambique.
We are grateful you are part of us. We are grateful we are together, for the children.
Thank you all, let’s cheer this year with a smile. Happy holidays wherever you are!
Sara