1. Introduction

2010 has been a year full of challenges. Having enjoyed a budget surplus for many years, Homeless Child was faced with higher outgoings than income in 2010. Child care provided by our main partner, Proniño, has greatly improved and this in turn has led to an increase in costs. In addition, there was a decrease in income due to reduced contributions from the American donors. Homeless Child has been able to compensate for part of this at the expense of its own capital.

Thanks to the dedication of the new volunteers who devote themselves specifically to fostering existing donors and attracting new donors, the Homeless Child Foundation is in a position to expand even further.

2. Objectives, strategy and policy

It is Homeless Child’s mission to contribute to the creation of more balance in the world between rich and poor. Moreover, our main objective is to provide opportunities to the most neglected and poverty-stricken women and children in Honduras, so that they can actively contribute to a worthwhile society.

Its strategy is to develop a complete and sustainable care programme that provides care to children of both sexes and all ages.

3. Organisation, decision-making and governance

3.1 Organisation

The organisation of Homeless Child consists of an unsalaried committee, an unsalaried director and a number of active volunteers.

Committee

On 1 January 2010 the committee consisted of the following members:

Chairman: Charles Duijne (retired pharmacist)

Secretary: Nicole van Rijmenam (tax lawyer)

Treasurer: Theo Zwart (retired businessman)

Committee: Ineke Wiersma (dental assistant)

Having been a member of the board for five years, Nicole van Rijmenam decided not to renew her committee membership, but to devote herself to voluntary work for the foundation.

Liduine Schönau (social worker) has joined the committee and holds the position of Secretary.

Volunteers

In addition to the committee and the director, Homeless Child depends on a number of active volunteers. The central group consists of the following volunteers:

• Christi Norde*: Fundraising
• Greet en Gerrit Klein Kranenbarg*:Fundraising
• Elly Zwart: Fundraising
• Bart Taelemans: Translations
• Claire Koers: Translations
• Gabriela Canseco: Translations
• Cesar Gomez Mora: Website
• Maarten Duijne: Website and Marketing

* Also active in Honduras.

In addition to this central group, there are a growing number of volunteers who work for Homeless Child on an occasional basis. All these volunteers also put themselves at the disposal of Homeless Child at their own expense.

3.2 Decision-making

The Homeless Child team prefers to communicate by e-mail, so that simple decisions can be made in an efficient manner. The most important decisions, however, are made during committee meetings.

In 2010 the committee met four times, three of them in the presence of the director. Important decisions that were made in 2010 are:

• The committee is going to investigate under which conditions it is possible to acquire the CBF mark of approval for small-scale good causes.
• The committee wishes to increase the membership to six.
• The committee wishes to accumulate sufficient funds within three years to open a care home for girls.
• The budget deficit brought about by the increased costs needs to be eliminated within two years.

3.3 Governance

The director of Homeless Child is self-employed and active in a seasonal line of business. Because of this, he is able to spend six to eight months of the year in Honduras at his own expense.

Giving account occurs in various ways:

At least one member of the committee goes on a working visit on a regular basis each year and checks that the director and the local management are abiding by the agreed arrangements and are implementing decisions adequately.

Each year, about ten to twenty Dutch volunteers and visitors also come to Honduras to work at the location, giving rise to an open and transparent culture. The frequent and almost continuous presence of the Dutch volunteers and visitors inspires everyone working at the location to continue working on further improvements and progress.

An external accountant checks Homeless Child’s books annually in order to guarantee that also in the Netherlands the administrative accounts of donations received and expenditures made have been executed correctly.

4. Activities and fundraising in the Netherlands

Here is an outline of the most important fundraising activities in 2010:

• 11 February 2010: Information day, Fontys High School, Sittard
• 9 April 2010: Sponsored walk, Egbertus Primary School, Vianen
• June 2010: Auction Zoover
• 24 April 2010: Dance Classics Evening Stichting Heeren van Barca
• Summer 2010: Children’s Party, Camp Site “de Twee Bruggen”
• 11 September 2010: Volunteers’ day
• 17 September 2010: Opening new premises Lesli Vuurwerk
• 21 September 2010: Fundraising exploitation costs with Wilde Ganzen
• September 2010: Open day Cramignon Primary School, Eijsden
• Autumn 2010: Various activities at schools performed by Greet and Gerrit Klein Kranenbarg
• 7 December 2010: Information day and fundraising Stichting Groenenscheldt
• 15 December 2010: Collaboration with Join!forkids for education on location
• December 2010: Fundraising activity DHL
• December 2010: Christmas activity Christelijke College Schaersvoorde
• December 2010: Fundraising activity Radboud Hospital

The collaboration with Wilde Ganzen, which started in September, embraces a series of fundraising activities which will continue until the end of 2011. Wilde Ganzen will increase all income by 60% which strongly motivates the supporters of Homeless Child in their work.

Since the summer of 2010, Elly Zwart, a volunteer of the Foundation, has been making an active contribution to fundraising. Elly contacts foundations and funds who can make a contribution and can help by making suggestions for projects and evaluations. Her work has clearly contributed to the improvement in contacts and the rise in the donations from corporate donors.

5. Communication

The website is an important (and free!) means of communication which is continually being put to better use. Since 2009, the Foundation also has a YouTube channel and is much more active on the Internet than it was in previous years.

At the end of November 2009, a Facebook page was opened and at the end of 2010 the page had 420 friends.

Events are important in making new alliances and in strengthening existing ones. Thanks to combined efforts in 2010 we have been able to increase the number of events and also the contacts with corporate donors.

A digital newsletter is sent to about 400 subscribers several times a year. These subscribers consist of donors and other interested parties as well.

A flyer, DVD, picture postcards and a calendar with photos and explanatory notes have also been used in support during communications and promotion. Jewellery and other items made by the children in Honduras are also sold during events.

6. Financial results

Because we saw a decrease in contributions in 2009, partly because of the recession, we have decided to work even harder in 2010 in order to increase the contributions. This led to a slightly larger number of contributors and of the number of people contributing through annuity. The revenue out of events and activities has increased particularly.

The total revenue in 2010 was of €116,000 or $162,068 (compared to €64,000 or $89,414 in 2009), which is a significant increase. The global project expenditure was almost €130,000 or $181,622, of which the better part (being €117,000 or $163,460) was spent on projects for Proniño.

You can find more details on the specific financial results on our website (www.homelesschild.org/en/about/yearly-figures/).

7. Results in Honduras

7.1 Asociación Hondureña de la Mujer y Familia (AHMF)

7.1.1 Activities

In 2007, with the assistance of Homeless Child, AHMF has started a program of education on women’s rights, sex education and family planning for the poorest women of the community.

7.1.2 Expenditures

In 2010, our contribution to the operational costs of the AHMF program was €6,628 or $9,263.

7.1.3 Results and preview

In 2010 following educational meetings and workshops were held.

Educational meetings:

• Family planning
• HIV/STD and condom use
• Breast cancer
• Self-esteem
• Family communication
• Values and standards / Positive thinking
• Leadership
• Group dynamics and functions
• Teamwork and team spirit

Workshops:

• Cooking and baking
• Pastry cooking

Here are some results in numbers.

• 175 women are participating in the program for family planning for a longer period
• 105 women in nine groups have participated in different educational activities
• 87 women in ten groups have participated in the workshops of pastry cooking, dessert cooking, etc.
• 74 women have participated in the first part of the cooking and baking workshop and 68 in the second part of this workshop
• Four of the ten groups of participating women already have started on their own initiative to gather income out of production and sales of goods they learned to make during their workshop

7.2 Hogar Suyapa

7.2.1 Activities

Hogar Suyapa consists of a nutrition center and an orphanage. The organization is part of the local Catholic church and as such has access to all neighborhoods and neighborhood chapels. Because of this close contact to the residents there is a certain mutual confidence and cases of seriously malnourished babies and toddlers are easily noticed. After allocation by a magistrate of a juvenile court they are placed in the nutrition center for six months on average, if necessary after an admission into hospital.

Children who cannot return to their families or who do not have a family anymore are sheltered in the orphanage, if necessary after a stay in the nutrition center.

7.2.2 Expenditures

Because Homeless Child had a budget deficit in 2010 and the priority was to improve the quality of care at partner Proniño, in 2010 the contribution for Hogar Suyapa was decreased from $9,000/€6,371 to $7,000/€4,955, in consultation with the committee of this organization.

7.2.3 Results and preview

Because of the bad economic situation in Honduras 2010 was a busy year for Hogar Suyapa and the nutrition center. There were a lot of needy children and the maximum capacity was reached on several occasions throughout the year.

The nutrition center has sheltered some 85 children in the course of the year. Most of them were able to return to their families six months later. A number of children ended up at Hogar Suyapa because of neglect by their parents.

The population of Hogar Suyapa has increased from 29 to 43. Four of the regular residents who were abandoned by their families came from the nutrition center. Two young girls who were taken away from their mothers arrived in July. They all lived in one of the parks of Progreso. Three other children ended up here when they were taken away from their birth homes, where their parents dealt and used drugs. Two babies were saved from a situation of domestic violence. A three-year-old boy arrived at Hogar Suyapa after he was abandoned in a mall in a city nearby. Two other children were brought in after a court judged them socially endangered by the criminal activities of their parents.

It is expected the number of children will increase further in 2011, albeit somewhat less. The socio-economic circumstances in Honduras force an increasing number of very young children to suffer from hunger, while the capacity of Hogar Suyapa will not increase in 2011, which can cause a discrepancy between the number of children needing care and the number of children actually getting this care.

7.3 Proniño

7.3.1 Activities

Proniño welcomes children from 7 to 14, who can stay until they can participate in society as independent adults.

7.3.2. Expenditures

In 2010 about €94,646 or $133,656 has been contributed to operational costs for Proniño. This is a massive increase compared to the €50,000 or $70,603 in 2009. The major reasons for this are the strongly improved care as well as the compensation for the loss of an American contributor.

Furthermore a number of projects have been realized, being:

• Several smaller projects, the purchase of material to manufacture jewelry: €1,300 or $1,836.
• School scholarships: €1,538 or $2,172
• Social security / employment insurance personnel: €2,077 or $2,933
• Job training: €6,731 or $9,506
• Theatre, arts and music through partner organization Ubuntu: €3,355 or $4,739

7.3.3 Results and preview

After the change of management of Proniño in 2009, in October 2009 a president was hired who had eleven years of experience as a psychologist working with street children and young gang members.

Furthermore an educator was hired full-time as well as a coordinator for the four residences. The team of counselors was expanded to improve the child-counselor ratio.

The team as a whole was able to improve the quality of the care greatly in 2010.

Early 2010 workshops were started for electrical engineering, metalworking and woodworking, each with their own instructors.

More than 20 youngsters have participated in these workshops and all have graduated them in December.

65 children and youngsters have had an education in 2010, four of them at a private school thanks to local, American and Dutch scholarships. Two of them have been accepted in an even better high school for 2011.

With the extra investments we can further improve the Proniño organization in 2011 and have better quality of support for the children and youngsters.

8. Looking ahead

Despite some financial troubles we can safely say 2010 was a good year for Homeless Child. The budget deficit the foundation suffered led to a continued and strengthened engagement to combine forces and make sure the children whose well-being is in our hands are looking ahead to a bright future.

The result is that the foundation has been looking for more co-operations with other organizations and is therefore gathering more financial support on a long term.

Consequently, in 2011 the foundation will continue to work on expanding and intensifying contacts and co-operations with other organizations in order to create a steady financial basis for growth. Through improved communication with our supporters we can also improve our connections with private contributors.

Support where needed is good, independence where possible is even better!