2023
The vpmk 2023 donation goes to Blue Dragon, Vietnam for their actiivites against Scam Compounds and Human Trafficking
“Hello Mom, I have lost my phone, this is my new WhatsApp…”
This is the beginning of one of the most common internet scams, one of many. Even at Christmas, we’re getting swamped with fake e-mail and fraud attempts that make you stop and wonder, “Who are all these terrible people, who do nothing in their lives other than trying to lure people? How can they be so good at portraying themselves as just like you and me?”
Well, they might be pretty much like you and me, but they are often in a very bad position:
Many of these scams come from “Scam compounds”. This is an unsettling new combination of human trafficking, basically kidnapping well-educated young people who are traveling for work or leisure and forcing them to work in scam compounds, where their work is to trick people like you and me.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20221109-inside-the-living-hell-of-cambodia-s-scam-operations
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/17/world/asia/myanmar-cyber-scam.html
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20221109-inside-the-living-hell-of-cambodia-s-scam-operations https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/17/world/asia/myanmar-cyber-scam.html To help slow down or even end this new trend, our annual holiday donations will go to Blue Dragon, a foundation in Vietnam originally intended to help street children, but now also active in the fight against human trafficking. You can find more information about their work and how to support them under: https://www.bluedragon.org/
We hope that you will have happy holidays with your loved ones and wish you a healthy, happy and peaceful new year 2024.
2017
OHS
We dedicated our 2017 Christmas donation to OHS-Initiative in Dhaka/Bangladesh.
The Initiative Project started its journey in 2016 aiming to Human capacity development using the “train the trainer” model.
The project mission is to support the formation of worker advocates through participatory, accessible training in occupational health and safety, gender equality and human rights.
Main objective is to generate a cadre of OHS trainers in worker and community organization.
2018
Jorori education project
Our Christmas donation went to the NGO Initiative Leben leben e.V. for the support of education and vocational training of orphans in Kenya.
Since 2007, Initiative Leben leben e.V. has been helping orphans and half-orphans as well as very poor families in Kenya. The focus is on the school education of the children and later also on the vocational training of the teenagers.
Since the children and teenagers mainly have their family home far away from the educational institutions, they need accommodation nearby for the time of their education.
Many primary/secondary and vocational schools do not offer boarding school accommodation, and housing is expensive and difficult to obtain. Therefore, the NGO Inititative Leben leben e.V. is building a boarding house for 30 children and young people. The boarding house shall be operating by the beginning of next semester, in January 2019.
With our Christmas donation of 2018 we supported the equipment and furnishing of the Boarding House and are happy that we can make it possible for many children in Kenya to receive schooling and vocational training with our donation. The picture on our Advent calendar was painted this year by Joyce Uchi Rai.
Joyce is a half-orphan from Jorori, Kenya, who is supported by the Initiative Leben leben together with her mother and siblings. Thanks to this support, she is able to attend school for the first time in her life. Joyce is one of 29 children from the Primary School in Jorori who – in a school project for us – have thought about how they imagine Christmas in Europe. Their ideas have all been put on paper with a lot of creativity and great ideas.
Further information about this great organization can be found at www.initiative-leben-leben.de. information brochure on sponsorships can be found here.
2019
Recycle Rebuild
Our annual donation went to the non-profit-organisation “Recycle Rebuild” from Scotland for the purchase of a recycling machine.
Recycle Rebuild helps to protect the environment, to create jobs at the project site – a refugees shelter in Greece – and to help communities to produce 100% recycled waste products. By selling these products, a region can sustainably be supported.
You can find more information about the organization here.
2020
Jorori
We were happy to support the children in Jorori, Kenya, with our Christmas donation again. Due to the Corona pandemic, food has become unaffordable for the families of the project. This year our donation is therefore needed for food. Hopefully soon we will be able to support vocational and school education again.
Further information about this great organization can be found atwww.initiative-leben-leben.de.
2021
Centre St. Augustin
Our donation in 2021 went to the “Centre St. Augustin”, a boarding school for the blind children in Lomé/Togo.
The “Centre St. Augustin” is one of the few institutions in Togo that offers a perspective for blind children. Not only the students, but also all the teachers and even the school director are blind. Many children come specially from the village to Lomé or attend a normal school for years before they get a place in the boarding school for the blind.
The Corona pandemic has hit West African countries badly. In Togo, many public funds have been cut and unemployment was spreading more and more.