We will then press on, one faithful step at a time.
Armi Martinez
CEO
Dear Friends,
Another year completed. Another year of experiencing God’s faithfulness.
The theme for FY 2022 was “With Us” – short for God is with us. We decided to intentionally declare and claim God’s prescence in our journey as He promised in Scriptures to remind ourselves especially when the going gets really tough. It was also an invitation for you and other people to journey with us in the new thing that God was birthing in our midst.
We tried to capture the objective for the next five years starting FY 2021 in three phrases: Prepare SAO. Present SAO. And Position SAO
Prepare SAO. To make SAO ready for accreditation and partnerships, we crafted needed policy manuals and reviewed existing ones. The final version the Diversity, Gender and Social Inclusion Statement; Fund Raising Policy Manual; Sexual Exploitation, Abuse & Harassment Allegation Management Procedure and the Corporate Governance Manual are still being reviewed by the Board. The Program Operations Manual and the Child Safeguarding Manual which went through significant revisions still have to be completed. We still have some grounds to cover but we hope to complete everything in time for the upcoming DSWD accreditation and hopefully, we could also apply for the renewal of our PCNC certification.
Present SAO. To present SAO to the public and engage it by establishing a functional fundraising unit. Apart from reviving our social media presence through regular Facebook and Instagram posts, we also started the monthly e-newsletter. Though we have increased the number of followers and ‘likes’ to our posts, we were not able to reach the target number of e-newsletter subscribers. Nonetheless, we have new partners such as the Center of Social Concern and Action of De La Salle University and VolNet.
Position SAO. To position SAO as a credible, trustworthy partner by achieving expected current project targets and finishing well. We implemented three (3) projects in FY 2021-22 – the Makabata Program which we implemented in all 5 ministry areas; CAPIN or Child Abuse Prevention Intervention Network and Project Champ or Championing Community Resilience through Children/Youth and Civil Society Engagement and Participation with Government in Typhoon Haiyan Affected Communities of Banate, Iloilo. Most of the pages of this report will provide you glimpses and highlights of our work on child safeguarding and inclusion and its initial impact to the community partners in Conception, Lemery and San Dionisio and Banate in Iloilo. And since we have wrapped up the 10-year Makabata Program, this issue will include a gist of its post project evaluation.
This annual report is the over “12 basketfuls of leftovers” from the 5 loaves and 2 fishes (Luke 9:10-17) we received from the God of Amazing Grace. God was in all these. God was with us.
We will then press on, one faithful step at a time.
When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”
He replied, “You give them something to eat.”
They answered, ” We have only five loaves of bread and two fish – unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” (About five thousand men were there)
But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” The disciples did so and everyone sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples pickedup twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
LUKE 9:10-17