By Andrea Vogt | International Director Operation Mercy
Dear friends of Operation Mercy
a final greeting from me to you before the holiday season. A special welcome to all new members of this community - who joined the updates through the recent Advent Calendar fundraiser - thanks for participating so generously!
I will update you on Operation Mercy's work and how we build hope, capacity and community about every three month through these newsletters.
The year 2025 was special in many ways we had struggles especially with funding for North Macedonia and our international functions but we also saw amazing breakthroughs, a string community of learning and new steps in being and promoting the type of community we want to see.
The final highlight of the year was a in-depth project evaluation in North Macedonia where after 8 years we are shifting gears and are asking the community and ourselves what is next.
Our newest Team member in the international office focusing on monitoring and evaluation went to visit the team and met with current and former staff, project participants, community members ...
It is amazing to see the deeper impact the projects have made - we already knew that many women had found work through the STEP training, and had less back pain due to Hope and health, that came out of the annual reporting clearly.
But what we heard now really encouraged us:
Because of you the community has more hope - you are a shining light, a star, the sun for women in this community. - was a recurring theme. Wow talk about restoring hope - we are so thankful to get this climbs into the long term change we are part of.
One former staff we had not seen for years, shared that the lessons learned in the Operation Mercy Team, carried her through the hardest time of her life and are now foundations for the future. We had no idea what was going on in this woman's life, but the hope and community she experienced the capacity we build in her, the values she learned - carried her through.
Sometimes change happens in a place we don't even see it. Sometimes it takes a long time - but it is there and it will break through.
With this I wish you a blessed Christmas season and happy new year - a personal experience of Light and new hope breaking through where ever you are.
Yours Andrea
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