Partnering to build hope, capacity, and community

Dear friends of Operation Mercy,

two weeks ago we had our annual members meeting 2023, where we presented our annual report for 2022.

At the end of 2022 we had 55 international volunteers and 298 local employees around the world (including local implementing partners and branch offices), who delivered high quality project work, improving the lives of over 398,721 project beneficiaries in 10 countries.

They were involved in an array of community development projects focusing on people with disabilities, women, community health, sustainable agriculture, vocational training, and literacy, as well as sport. Approximately 78% of our direct project participants were women or girls.

Read more about the work done by #operationmercy in our 2022 Annual report, available on our website now! https://mercy.se/about/resources/

Stories from our return to Afghanistan as well as many other countries were taken in my our members.

here a little taste from a project in Iraq: 

“A moment in my life, where I felt very weak?” Dilcan looked at me and the ladies at the end of our fitness session in Northern Iraq. And then she started to tell us about her dream as a child: “I always wanted to become an architect. But the financial situation of our family forced me to work early in the morning, before going to school. Actually, I was supposed to be at school at 7, but because of my work I was late every morning, sometimes I wasn’t able to come until 9.30. The teacher then was already waiting at the door with a stick in her hand in order to beat my hands. I felt so helpless and weak every time and nobody cared.”

She had hidden this painful memory until now. She shared that for her, this Women's Fitness program has become a place where she finally feels seen and is able to share what’s inside of her. She now feels connected to and emotionally supported by the community through the project in a physically active and fun way."

At the same meeting we were proud to announce our new partnership in Niger, something we have worked towards for the last 2 years, and is now happening. The first project here will be an agriculture project! 

In August we will visit the new partners to conduct more trainings and visit the community where the farming will be happening. I am looking forward to sharing more about this here soon. 

Let us know what stories from the annual report you enjoyed! Leave us a note on Facebook or Instagram. 

Yours Andrea

Links:

• find our annual reports from the last years
• follow us on facebook for updates 3x a week!