F4L: Syria - Restore hope and dignity to Children

Dear Supporter,

Thank you for your patience. We apologise for the delay in sending you our updates, but we didn't want to keep using different words to say the same thing.

Due to a lot of difficulties in sending and/or receiving money overseas in certain countries, we have only managed to send over a USD 2,000 donation to our Lebanon Partner 14th Sept 2018.

We are hopeful this will be enough to provide training shoes to 200 children living in refugee camps across Northern Lebanon. For now, all we can show is the bank transfer confirmation. We are waiting to receive proof of receipt by our local partner.

On the next update, we hope to share pictures and full details of the donation being received by children.

In all honesty, we have found the coordination process very difficult and has put on a huge strain on our small organisation, but we remain committed to ensuring all donations find it's way to offering the most value to affected children.

We hope the next news we send are more pictures than words!

Thank you again for all your support,
Marko

Dear Supporters,

We are very pleased to announce that we have selected the first beneficiaries to receive F4L Support! 

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit several refugee camps across Lebanon and see first hand the conditions and many challenges Syrian refugees face on a daily basis. With support from War Child Lebanon, I was able to visit the refugee camp of Bebnine located in Northern Lebanon and also the predominately Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, located some 20 kilometres outside of Tripoli.

Unfortunately, I was not able to visit personally the camps located in Akkar, where the most vulnerable children are, due to not being granted a security clearance, as my visit fell a few days after the British airstrikes in Syria. The trip affirmed what we long believed; the disbanded make-up of refugees is far too great for a holistic approach. The only way we are able to make a sizable difference is through a concentrated focus on a few communities.

War Child, our local partner currently reach 1,515 children through sports based programmes across 14 different communities. The reality is that it's almost impossible to distinguish which children we can select for much needed football equipment, as so we have asked War Child to select approx. 200 children as our first recipients of football shoes and football clothing.

As this process is currently taking place in Lebanon, we are also in discussions with World Refugee School about launching a sports-based programme in Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan. Both Jordan and Lebanon provide an opportunity for us to reach children living in appalling conditions and support them through, both football equipment and sports programming. 

At this stage, we are not seeking further funding until the process of selection is made. We remain grateful for your on-going support and are committed to sharing positive outcomes in the report.

Due to War Child Protection Policies and Security advice, I was not able to take any photographs during my trip to the camps. We are sharing some factsheets highlighting the communities we will be supporting and current situational context in Lebanon.

Thank you, sincerely,
Marko

• Overview of Akkar (PDF)
  
• Syrian Refugees in Lebanon (PDF)
  
• Map of most vulnerable children in Lebanon (PDF)
  

Dear Supporter,

Firstly, a very happy new year to you from FundLife! 

We welcome our new supporters and thank you for the trust you have put in us. Our entire team was blown away at a significantly generous gift that arrived at the start of the year. This, alongside all the donations we've received, reaffirmed our commitment to fight to launch F4L Syria as quickly as possible. 

Despite some very challenging months trying to gain traction with partners working on the ground, I am delighted to share some very exciting news that arrived earlier this month. Thanks to our friends at Street Football World, we have identified and made contact with 3 prospective partners doing amazing work to help Syrian refugee children In Lebanon. There are; Anera, War Child and Reclaim Childhood.

All of these organisations are working on the front-line of helping Syrian refugees in Lebanon and have expressed a keen interest to use Football as a way to increase and deepen their support of child refugees. We are having final discussions this month with these organisations with a view to make our final decision of who to partner with in February. 

We've come to the decision that we can no longer wait and want to enter as quickly as we can to start making a difference to the thousands of children not receiving any kind of psychosocial support.

Although we are still some 50% short of our intended target, we are optimistic that we can finally enter Lebanon by the 2nd quarter of this year and begin with the hugely important work of engaging and assisting Syrian refugee children through the introduction of the F4L programme.

We will keep you updated on our progress and will have an extensive report on any assessment we undertake in Lebanon. Moreover, we have received positive news that our work in the Philippines has meant we can take a small delegation to Russia for a special FIFA Football for Hope Festival. Although it is not yet confirmed, we are hopeful we can use this global stage to show solidarity for children who are still suffering from the chronic conflict that has plighted them for almost 7 years.

For those who may not have received it, I also share with you our most recent newsletter that sums up our work in 2017. Our hope is that 2018 will see even greater impact and less injustice. 

Thank you for caring and standing with us.

Sincerely,

Marko 

Links:

• FundLife Newsletter - 2017 in review

Dear Supporter,

Since our previous update report, which was sent in July, we have seen much attention given to the need to increase psychosocial support for refugee children. 

In September, UNHCR released their damming report that 3.5 Million children affected by conflict did not receive a single day's education last academic year. In the same month, a report showed that Syrian refugees in Jordan missed over 16.6 Million school days since the world Humanitarian Summit in 2016.

Such reports further highlight the need to do more through non-formal and play based learning. 

In July we had raised USD 2,228 for F4L Syria. At time of writing today, this has only been increased to USD 2,325. The amount is simply not enough for FundLife to go alone. 

We need to find partners who can help us not only in reaching the financial targets for the project, but in mobilising resources on the ground. In November, FundLife will be joining the WISE Summit in Qatar, where we will be sharing our innovative play platform to leaders from the development and education sector. Our aim will be to raise awareness and explore opportunities to collaborate with partners willing to share resources. 

We will share more on the back of this gathering and assess over coming weeks viability for the F4L project, or if existing funds can be used to support existing on-ground delivery agents.     

For any further information or feedback, you may contact me directly via marko@fundlife.org

Thank you for your support and care to advance our work,
Marko

July 17th 2017,

Dear Supporters,

Good morning from Tacloban, Philippines - I hope this mail finds you safe and well.

As I write this note, we currently have raised USD 2,286 from the generosity of suppers such as you. Our target is to raise USD 10,000 so that we can deliver a six-month F4L programme to Syrian Refugees living in Refugee, and who are devoid of support.

Although we are still some short of this desired target, our very small team has already made great efforts to ensure we are able to have maximum impact with very little resources. We have made several attempts to engage with organisations working in camps, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, UNHCR, Save the Children, UNICEF and many others.

I will be personally travelling to Syrian refugee camps, located in Jordan, this coming September to make direct contact with localised partners and conduct a ocular inspection on how best we are able to make best use of our resources so that they can reach as many children as possible.

It is my sincere hope and belief that in the next update I share, the programme would have been mapped out and partners identified. Our aim is that, regardless of how much we have raised, we will begin our programme before November 2017.

In the meantime, I welcome and encourage all supporters to contact me directly should you have any questions or would like more information on our plan and impact models. You may reach me on +63 53 523 1160 or via email on marko@fundlife.org

For your reference, I have attached our recently finished Annual Report for 2016, which I hope offers an insignt into the kind of impact our work has had in the Philippines and beyond - and how we use sport to go beyond play, to deliver education to children. 

Thank you for your on-going support, belief and heartfelt compassion that allows us to conduct our work and that gives back hope, joy, identity and belonging to so many children affected by conflict and political chauvinism. 

Sincerely,

Marko Kasic
Founder - FundLife International

• FL_INT_Annual_Report_2016_LOW.pdf (PDF)