Hope and Healing

Our new, hot off the press, 2019 Impact Report is finished!

Numbers are important in impact reports. They show how many surgeries happened, what kind of medical care was given, how much funding was raised.

However, it’s looking beyond the raw numbers that always gets me thinking. Let me explain.

First, these aren’t just numbers – they’re lives.

Each of these numbers has a face, a family, neighbours, school buddies, villagers around them – communities watching and participating in this impact. These communities are also benefiting from this impact. Each of these numbers is a life compounded by other lives.

These numbers represent girls or boys, mothers or grandmothers – the numbers speak of lives saved, hope given, futures promised, health restored.

Each person matters.

That’s why we don’t round off numbers in this report. One of our board members, Harry, commented on this and said he wanted every life counted because every life is important. God loves every one – not “over 2,000”.

To me, impact reports are about looking backward and also looking forward. Numbers like 200,729 girls and boys receiving medical interventions make me wonder what child would have been number 200,730. Why were we not able to reach that child last year? What is their family thinking, hoping for, praying for today? This new year, we want to reach them.

This report reminds me of the amazing work we do – you and Hope and Healing and our partners. It also highlights the opportunities ahead. How do we reach more girls and boys in 2020? We don’t want to rest on past numbers. Instead, we’ll use this impact as a foundation to bring hope and healing to many more children and their families in the days ahead.