Partnering to build hope, capacity, and community

Dear friends of Operation Mercy, 

it is a difficult world we live in right now; my plans were to visit the projects in Afghanistan this summer instead we are talking online, monitor not only the COVID statistics but also the impact of the pandemic on our project participants and our partners around the world. 

We have started COVID 19 response projects in all our countries and if you want to give specific to that check out the project here on GlobalGiving. The pandemic is still heavily affecting our work and has arrived in our midst with people we know and love being sick and losing family members to the virus. 

The people we work with are some of the most vulnerable in countries with low capacity heath care. So is there anything good to report anything that gives hope? 

YES there certainly is - one of the most amazing things for me is how the pandemic has broken down silos in projects and the whole organisation that we have wanted to see disappear for a long time but it took pain to make things shift. 

For example the response to the pandemic has lead to a lot of cross programme and project work, in Afghanistan the staff of the Self-help group programme, the WASH programme and the Rahmat Good Books publishing project have created two booklets on COVID 19 together and are reaching all their previous project participants across the project boundaries with this important awareness lessons - the books have been distributed over 80,000 times in Afghanistan. 

We also have seen an amazing community among our country directors as we come together initially weekly and now every second week - learning from each other, building each other up, raising funds across country boundaries and seeing the others needs first. 

So while there are worries the community and communal capacity that is rooted in deep relationships across our projects and work has grown and is making us a stronger and more resilient organisation today then we were six months ago! 

You want to be part of that community? You can by giving but also by following us on Facebook or Instagram and spreading the hope, community and capacity we see develop in all our projects. 

I also want to invite you to celebrate with us the achievements for 2019 in our attached annual report, which also includes a finance and audit report for your information. 

https://www.instagram.com/opmercyint/  https://web.facebook.com/OpMercyInternational/

Yours Andrea 

Links:

• come and read more about our work on our website.