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The NGO Home of Hope is one of Lebanon’s only shelters for neglected, abandoned or orphaned children but, like its residents, it needs help. Tuesday, the organization held an event to show potential donors what the children they support, who often come from a background of violence, abuse and neglect, are in need of.
“We had several workshops, children were working on fixing broken toys, sewing ripped clothes, they painted the wall that was a little unpainted, and they were doing crafts,” Talina Khayat, project manager at War Child Holland, told The Daily Star.
“The idea behind it was to get potential donors visiting so they could see the help needed, and we were supposed to have a session with [the potential donors], but we skipped [it],” Khayat said. “Not many people showed up.”
The session was intended to be for brainstorming on how to ensure support for Home of Hope in the future, since War Child Holland is cutting its financial support in the New Year.
“We try to provide ourselves with funding from other places, knock on doors,” said Raghida al-Assal, the director of Home of Hope. “But in the form of financial support, [we don’t get] much.”
War Child Holland is no longer able to provide financial support because it is losing its funding for the Home of Hope from UNICEF, which is changing policy on the institutionalization of children. From now on they will focus on foster care because the “best interest for the children is to be with a family,” Khayat said.
Home of Hope will still receive alternative support from War Child Holland and it continues to receive financial support from the Lebanese Social Affairs Ministry, the director said.
“Financially it’s a burden, they were covering a large part of our expenses and those finances are no longer coming in,” Assal said, referring to War Child Holland. “But come 2018 we will still have technical support and they will help us with proposal writing [and] training and capacity building, [which is] really valuable.”
Source: The Daily Star
