Annual Report 2020
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
IN MINISTRY TO CHILDREN 2019-2020
Our grateful thanks go to the team in Colombia, headed up by Director Nancy Centeno and Director of Programmes Carlos Forero, for their tremendous, faithful work. Their commitment over many years to the most vulnerable children in the Bogota, Fusagasugá and La Guajira areas remains undimmed.
Despite the 2016 peace deal between the government and FARC, Colombia’s social problems have deepened. Guerrilla activity and organised crime continue to fuel insecurity. The huge influx of migrants from Venezuela has only added to society’s problems. At the time of writing, the coronavirus pandemic threatens not just people’s health, but also their food security and livelihoods.
This year, before Covid-19 struck, IMiC was supporting 84 families and 249 children. That is a significant commitment.
Bogotá: 10 families, 26 children
Fusagasugá (La Independencia): 38 families, 97 children
Fusagasugá (Galán): 3 families, 6 children
La Guajira: 33 families, 120 children
Unfortunately, our feeding programme (comedor) in Fusagasugá closed on 16 March 2020, when the Covid-19 lockdown was enforced, soon after the first coronavirus cases were recorded in Colombia. IMiC has continued to provide food parcels to the most vulnerable families and maintained regular contact with them.
Our areas of focus continue to include:
• Food and nutrition
• Spiritual support
• Educational support
• Health and well-being
• Social and recreational activities
• Entrepreneurship and savings schemes
• Environmental care
• Special projects
Financially, the UK arm of IMC extends grateful thanks to the many loyal supporters who give regularly and fundraise. We continue to be grateful for the time and effort that go into both regular events such as our summer Fun Day in Petersfield, and one-off events such as a Latin dance night in Bristol.
Funds are transferred to Colombia each month. The monthly amounts vary, depending on the funding available, but the annual totals have remained fairly consistent over the years (see our Treasurer’s Report 2020 for more information).
2019 saw a major re-launch of the UK website and continued growth in our use of digital platforms such as Facebook to engage supporters. Our particular thanks go to trustee Leah Guzman Aldana for overseeing and implementing our new website project. We have also reviewed our policies and practices, with a particular focus on GDPR compliance and child protection. We are also in the process of reviewing our regular printed and digital communications with supporters (principally our newsletter), as well as some of our publicity materials. We have also tightened up some of our administrative processes, relieving Life Church Petersfield’s office of some administrative tasks.
Fund-raising events that happened during 2019 were: the annual Funday in Petersfield, a country garden barbeque, a dance evening in Bristol and a Christmas fair in Winchester.
Posted on the 22nd July 2020 at 9:33pm.