Annual Report Project Hero 2020:
Number of projects: 21 Number of countries: 9
Number of sponsored children January 2020: 553
Number of sponsored children December 2020: 556
Number of children not yet sponsored December 2020: 122
2020, a year of ups and downs for Project Held. In March 2020, Covid-19 entered the Netherlands and at the same time also Africa, Asia and Europe. This with major consequences.
Everything that seemed so certain and obvious suddenly wasn't anymore. There was also a lot of uncertainty in the Netherlands. For many people this meant uncertainty about your job and income. Due to the lockdown, the children were at home and, if possible, the parents were also working at home as much as possible. So big changes for many.
This also had major consequences for Project Held. Instead of brainstorming, consulting and making plans together in the office, this now happened from home. Instead of having a booth during Sunday services and conferences, which has helped us recruit most of our sponsors, that was no longer possible and only online services and no conferences were possible.
After recovering from the initial shock, we noticed that it had an even greater impact on our projects! For example, food became three to four times more expensive. Even more people lost their jobs so that our projects received even more requests for help to help people in their vicinity. This was complicated by the high cost of the food and made it almost impossible to help these people, a painful situation you might say.
In addition, traveling was also prohibited, so visiting our projects to encourage them or to come with a team to help was not an option either. In short, a year with a black edge.
But during this difficult period we saw God's hand in everything. We decided to look at the possibilities and not at the impossibilities. We started Held@Home in September! What we do during our travels, encourage people, help, show that they are seen and loved, we now decided to do in our own little country.
We had the privilege of helping out at a nursing home on several occasions. These people had to stay in their own room for a longer period of time because joint activities were no longer allowed. This caused a lot of extra loneliness. We helped with a team to hang up the Christmas decorations, we distributed oliebollen to the residents and of course we had a chat with them. In addition, we visited to hand out tulips and they were allowed to enjoy delicious orange Tomcats.
In addition to the help we were able to offer at the nursing home, we were able to contribute with Held@Home to a school for non-Dutch speaking children by means of educational assistance. There was a great need at this school, because of corona many colleagues were sick and the children were often educated at home. These children often did not have a laptop and as a result they fell behind considerably. Thanks to the educational assistance, many children have been able to catch up again. We are grateful to have been able to do this for these children.
In addition, we have been able to work on our website in the past year. In addition to the information and child sponsorship that can be found there, a webshop has also been added! This makes it possible to provide the projects with practical help in addition to child sponsorship by buying a goat, chickens, a sewing machine for a widow or a tricycle for the disabled, etc.
Due to the circumstances, some sponsors had to cancel their sponsorship with the result that our projects could buy even less food. In addition, recruiting new sponsors is difficult because no services and conferences were held. Yet during this period we saw the incredible loyalty of our sponsors and we were blessed with some beautiful gifts for our projects, which allowed us to have hundreds of hot meals distributed and packages with disinfection and protection. Despite this difficult period, the work was able to continue amply and the extra need that arose could be met. God is faithful and never leaves the orphans, widows, poor and oppressed!
Project Held has surrendered office costs, transport costs and storage costs, this is because we work from home as long as this is still possible and will be necessary. With this we limit the costs and we can support and assist our projects even more where it is really needed!
All in all, another beautiful and valuable year in which we were able to support more than 500 children every day through the four most important necessities, namely: food, shelter, education and medication if necessary. Of course the children in our projects grow up with the gospel and help each other with school and other needs.
The loyalty of the sponsors has more than encouraged us and shows that God is faithful.
• The direction we have taken with Project Held is starting to take shape. Where Project Held really existed in the beginning to sponsor as many children as possible and offer help, you see that there is a nice addition to also offer the projects and the environment where the projects are located. For example, last year we were able to financially help some of our projects with an agricultural project to become self-sufficient, we were able to distribute several goats, chickens, Bibles and firewood to our projects. Our sponsors and supporters are very loyal to support and we are very grateful for that!
Through this road we would like to thank all involved, sponsors, investors and prayers who made this possible for our brothers and sisters all over the world!
Together we make the difference!
