FH Canada 2020 Annual Report

Communities of Resilience 2020 Annual Report

Thank you for your impact in 2020!

Thank you for your courageous support! You showed up in bigger ways than ever before, in a time where partner communities needed you most.

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns changed life for partner communities. Families needed help adapting to school closures. Parents lost jobs and food became scarce. Leaders had to cope with new restrictions. Health and hygiene education took top priority.

It was a challenging year, but communities continued to show their resilience. Thanks to a firm foundation you helped lay, families knew they had to farm food efficiently, care for their livestock, and grow their resources together in Savings and Loans groups.

What a privilege to see you ending poverty! Your gifts are working to help parents, leaders, and children carry on their journey from stuck to thriving. Amidst the challenges of COVID-19, your support continues to train leaders, help kids learn, and keep food on the table for families in partner communities.

Keep scrolling to see what these communities have accomplished in 2020!

Gratefully, Shawn Plummer President & CEO

Food for the Hungry (FH) is a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to ending poverty—one community at a time.

Who you walk with

With partners like you, FH walks alongside the most vulnerable families, leaders, and churches throughout the world as they journey toward sustainability. Over a 10 year partnership, donors like you support communities working to transform their physical, relational, and spiritual poverty into opportunities for flourishing.

In 2020, you walked with: 85 partner communities across Guatemala, Haiti, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Bangladesh, & Cambodia

178,887 people making up 38,218 households

8,767 sponsor children and their families supported by 7,135 Canadian sponsors

Our Purpose

To end poverty, one community at a time

Our Promise

To graduate communities from poverty in 10 years

Why our approach works

Each community faces different challenges and has unique advantages. By walking alongside families, together we find creative solutions to ending poverty. We call our model Child Focused Community Transformation (CFCT). When children thrive, the whole community thrives.

FH’s work focuses on a full spread, pursuing graduation with communities in four sectors:

Health Education Livelihoods Leadership

Emphasis is also given to disaster risk reduction, gender equality, environmental care, and a biblical worldview. It’s a lot, but poverty is not simple; an integrated approach leads to true resilience.

85 Communities On Their Way to Graduation

Uganda: Bukiende (4 communities)

Guatemala: Cotzal (9 communities)

Cambodia: Tropeang Prasat (17 communities) 2016

Guatemala: Acul (1 community)

Cambodia: Kantuot (6 communities) 2015

Burundi: Kabarore (20 communities)

Cambodia: Ta Siem (6 communities)

Cambodia: Boeng Mealea (6 communities)

Ethiopia: Sasiga Mid Highlands (9 communities)

Haiti: Mategouasse (1 community)

Bangladesh: Char Borobila (1 communities)

Rwanda: Busekera (1 community)

Haiti: Cachiman (1 community)

Guatemala: Nebaj (3 communities)

Helping communities struggling with school closures, job loss, and health issues required a thoughtful yet quick approach.

Navigating the pandemic

The global COVID-19 pandemic threatened health, jobs, schools, and more. Helping communities already struggling with so much required a thoughtful yet quick approach.

FH’s regular activities in communities pivoted to respond to the crisis through COVID-19 awareness mass messaging and prevention training, food and hygiene packs, at-home child education support, providing the tools for making a living (like sewing machines, livestocks, and more), and leadership training. As a result, many communities’ graduation dates have been extended by one year to allow for time to recover.

Responding to COVID-19

You supported a unified effort with FH Global to reach 2,570,000+ people with interventions to limit the spread of COVID-19 or address emerging needs including psychosocial support, help for students learning at home, and ways to keep food on the table.

During those first few months of pandemic lockdowns, FH distributed supplies to schools, health facilities, leaders, and families. Immediate needs were met with things like masks, gloves, soap and disinfectants, water barrels, disposal equipment, handwashing stations, educational leaflets and posters, garden seeds, chickens, and more!

226,000+

community members and neighbours directly communicated with about COVID-19 awareness and prevention

4000+

community members surveyed on the pandemic’s impact on their communities

1658

of the most vulnerable households given food or hygiene packs

FH globally established four guiding priorities so families would have what they need now, and support their ongoing needs even as a pandemic persists.

READ MORE ABOUT COVID-19 RESPONSE

Good health is the first step to a thriving daily life. Being free from illness gives people time and energy to move ahead.

Health

Staff and Cascade group members coached leaders, volunteers, and families on COVID-19 prevention through text messages, awareness posters, and physically distanced conversations. Public and family handwashing stations were set up and home gardens flourished, providing food to many families when the pandemic caused food shortages.

19,908

community members educated on health topics by 1,893 group leaders and staff

1353

42

people trained on nutrition and meal prep

clean water points (water wells, tanks, pipelines) established

911 clean latrines established

handwashing stations provided in schools, health facilities, homes, and markets

288 girls received sanitary materials

865

I became severely anemic. I was urgently hospitalized, my health condition was really poor. The spinach garden really helped me. I ate it almost every day, now I feel great!

— Rosemene, Haiti

Knowledge sets a foundation for children and adults alike. Child Sponsorship helps children stay in school while supporting their parents and teachers.

Education

Providing quality education and safe schools has been a long term priority. But when schools closed in 2020, many students stopped learning. FH created learning guides to help parents tutor their children at home. FH staff stayed in touch with families via text messaging, and when it was allowed, visited homes to encourage them.

2468 students received learning materials

people trained on the importance of education and how to teach at home

9199

106 active children’s clubs, including AWANA

100

classrooms built

9 local schools partnered with FH

I thank God that at least three of my children are being sponsored. They receive school uniforms which lift their self-esteem and I will be able to save some money to buy a goat and keep it for the future of my family,

— Grace, Uganda

Families thrive when they move beyond day-to-day survival, have access to income generating opportunities, and can save their money with their community.

Livelihoods

Savings and Loans groups supported families as they faced wage losses caused by COVID-19 lockdowns. FH provided more vegetable and grain seeds to farming families, introduced fruit tree saplings to provide long-term income, and distributed additional livestock for food, income, and long-term stability.

9309

members make up 390 Savings and Loans groups. Together they saved and loaned $1.1 million CAD and approved over 4,190 loans to each other

6798

569

1243

2159

people trained in improved agriculture techniques

farming families received training in livestock rearing and management

farming animals distributed

kitchen gardens established or supported with supplies and training

I [started with] a goat and bought a cow by rearing, breeding, and selling these goats. Now I have two cows and three goats as well as some chickens! My family is in good health and don’t need to worry about food or affording education. Both of my children are in school.

— Rakeya, Bangladesh

Dedicated community leaders work together to plan their future and find creative solutions to communal challenges.

Leadership

FH staff work and live alongside community members, walking closely with leaders. In the midst of COVID-19, staff continued nurturing these core relationships through calls, texts, and inperson when it was safe to return to the communities.

738 active leaders continuing to receive support 1091

129 leaders trained (on everything from COVID-19 support to Disaster Risk Reduction)

local churches partnered with FH

I feel very happy to contribute to benefit the families of my community, to ensure its development, and to be a blessing for the members of the church. I am very happy to see behaviour changes in my family and my neighbours.

— Miguel, Guatemala

READ MIGUEL’S STORY

The basic needs for survival must be tackled before families can begin to thrive.

Relief & Humanitarian Assistance

2.5 million individuals received deworming medication via mobile clinics, health centres, and home visits

20,000 vulnerable households received soup mix to supplement their diets and fight malnutrition

11 containers of life-saving resources shipped to Burundi, Guatemala, North Korea, and South Africa

households received emergency food aid due to natural disasters and the pandemic 1658

While coping with the effects of the pandemic, your support continued to help with ongoing refugee crises.

Food for South Sudanese Refugees

Sponsors have been rounding up their monthly support, contributing to a Children in Crisis Emergency Fund. This was tapped into to help refugees feed their families:

2,725 South Sudanese families in the Lamwo Refugee Camp in Northern Uganda

80 farmer groups and 25 Savings and Loans groups given training and seeds

10 women groups established Kitchen Gardens

Medical Support for Rohingya Refugees

FH, together with our partner Medical Teams International and FH Bangladesh, have been providing life-saving primary and clinical health care in the Cox’s Bazar refugee settlement in Bangladesh.

4 medical centres supporting 62,181 refugees

Retrofit medical clinics as COVID-19 isolation and treatment centres

For the Fiscal Year October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020

33.6% Child Sponsorship

41.8% GIK & Commodities

23.2% Program Donations

1.4% Other Income

Total FY 2020 Revenue: $11,418,937

81.3% Building Sustainable Communities

14.0% Invested to Generate Income

4.7% Administration & Operating Costs

Total FY 2020 Expenses: $11,357,625

We couldn’t do it without you! In 2021, there are health messages to share, teachers to train, businesses to spark, and leaders to invest in.

Thank you for partnering with families across the world to end poverty, one community at a time.