Greetings from all of us at Child’s Dream and we truly hope that 2022 was a successful and rewarding year for you. We are looking back at the most demanding year ever in our history and some of us might even be happy that it’s over. We are used to solving problems and dealing with critical situations, but we could not have expected that 2022 would throw so many challenges at us. Still, looking back, exhausted, we realise that we managed to get through the year well and with very little damage. For most parts of the world, COVID-19 became manageable and life turned more or less back to normal. Not so for us. The economical and human harm triggered by COVID-19 and the tremendous damage inflicted on our educational systems will keep us busy for many years to come. In a ‘least developed’ country, switching to studying from home during the pandemic was rarely an option, because the necessary infrastructure, such as computers or even electricity, is often not available. However, dropping out of school and contributing to the family income became an unfortunate option. We are working hard to correct this since schooling is now possible again.

Another tragic development was the continuing war in Myanmar, which by now is a full-blown civil war. Evacuating our entire Myanmar-based team to safety in Thailand was another challenge, which we managed to overcome. Having our team now based in Mae Sot, Thailand, allows again for a scale up of our support inside Myanmar in the many months to come. An increase of support is urgently needed since most of our work in Myanmar continues, and never before have our educational offerings been in such big demand. A lot of money will be needed in the coming years to fulfil our mission and to keep on supporting our beneficiaries in Myanmar. The tragic war in the Ukraine comprehensibly shifted the focus of many European donors, so that we had to live with a slightly lower donation income in 2022. We truly hope to reverse this again in 2023 and for this we need your support.

But then we also had many highlights and, as written in the August newsletter, we will dedicate this issue to bringing you up to speed on our updated Vision, Mission, Culture and Values. We are getting ready for the next decade and have regrouped our work into 8 Strategic Goals. More to this further down.

Additionally, 2023 will be a very special year for us. Child’s Dream is turning 20 and, thanks to your trust and support, we are confidently looking into the next decade. There is still so much to accomplish and our tremendous impact over the last almost 20 years keeps us going and give us all the energy we need to keep on serving our beneficiaries.

With our big THANK YOU, we wish you now a wonderful festive season and all the very best in 2023 and beyond.