Woord en Daad boosts employment possibilities for young people
We published our Annual Report 2018 with the theme ‘Boost’. The projects to create work and income for young people clearly reveal the impact of our new market oriented approach. It resulted in an increase of more than 50% (from 3,823 to 5,783) in the numbers of young people that found employment in 2018. We attracted a wide range of partners with this approach as well.
Rina Molenaar, CEO of Woord en Daad: ‘Our actions are always determined by our Christian identity. We choose an entrepreneurial approach, and we seek the best possible outcomes for our fellow human beings far away. We have large ambitions concerning the lasting impact that we wish to achieve. Therefore, we form consortia in which each participant contributes expertise and has its own added value.’ These consortia contain both Dutch and local parties. ‘We especially want to be present at difficult locations, to offer choices to the poor in order to escape poverty.’
Jobs for young people
In 2018, 5,783 young people found a job or started their own company. This ‘Job Booster programme’, which addresses root causes of migration, matches the local demand for suitable personnel to (vocational) training courses. Rina Molenaar: ‘A consortium in which government bodies and local entrepreneurs participate, enables us to give a boost to an entire sector, and change this sector sustainably.’ Besides young people, 14,740 entrepreneurs (including farmers) also received training and advice. Many young people who found a job had previously followed the Educational Programme of Woord en Daad, with which 36,744 children were reached.
Sustainable water: clean and affordable
Another example of Woord en Daad’s market-oriented approach is the realisation of a large-scale water project in Ethiopia to provide more than 1 million people with sustainable access to clean drinking water. ‘We are realising this project with new partners’, says Molenaar. ‘Examples are water boards and local maintenance companies for the water supply as well as Dutch partners like AFAS Foundation. Woord en Daad is usually the leading party in such a partnership.’
Strong commitment of our supporter base
We have also seen a boost from our supporter base in the Netherlands, which provided most of the total income (€ 29,387,092). 15% of the income came from grants. The donors feel strongly committed to the identity and work of Woord en Daad. This strong commitment was underlined in 2018 when Woord en Daad became the first NGO to receive the Erkenning van het Gouden Oor [Golden Ear Certification] for listening to the client. The increase in the number of active volunteers also confirms the strong commitment of our supporter base.