Dear friends and supporters,
We have just received the wonderful news that our partner organization PATRIA has been awarded an important prize by the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance for its great achievements in supporting disadvantaged young people. We are deeply touched by this appreciation of PATRIA’s work, which also applies to our team, as we developed the PATRIA project together with PATRIA and supported it financially. Please read more about this special award in the text below. We would also like to draw your attention once again to our 2023 Christmas campaign – we would like to thank you for the donations we have received so far and would be delighted to receive further support.
AWARD CEREMONY FOR PATRIA
A few days ago, the PATRIA organization received an important award from the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance in recognition of PATRIA’s comprehensive work to support young people without an intact parental home in Lithuania. We are deeply touched by this special event. This recognition of the work that PATRIA has done and that we as the team of “Kinder- und Jugendförderung in Litauen e.V.” have accompanied and supported from day one feels very good. We would like to take this opportunity to thank PATRIA for the great cooperation and our corporate sponsor cosnova, without whose generous initial donation the PATRIA program could not have started. Cosnova is still a reliable and generous sponsor of this work today.
In the annual award for the most innovative projects that contribute to strengthening Lithuania as a location and society, PATRIA won in the “Investing in people” category. 130 projects were nominated for this award! 3 young people whom we have supported over many years (Akvilé, Ema and Rimtautas), who were also all present at the last PATRIA camp, were able to accept the award on behalf of the many young people and the PATRIA team.
Remigius Skilandis, Chancellor of the Ministry of Finance, presented the prize to the leaders of the ACTIO CATOLICA PATRIA organization as an award for “empowering young people who have grown up in foster care to lead independent lives and integrate into the labour market”. The representatives of the PATRIA team expressed their sincere thanks for this appreciation of their work. They explained that the PATRIA support program is designed to help former pupils from children’s social homes aged between 16 and 29 to prepare for integration into the job market and independent living. 52 young people were involved in the project.
PHOTOS FROM THE AWARD CEREMONY
FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN FOR CHRISTMAS 2023
We kindly ask you for a Christmas donation for our annual gift campaign for the 50 children and young people in Lithuania who take part in our programs. This year we have chosen the following gifts:
- For the teenagers and young adults in the PATRIA program and in the Marijampole children’s village: they can choose between a smartwatch sports watch with fitness and sports functions or a Bluetooth speaker for use with a computer or cell phone. Both are useful appliances that fit within our budget.
- For the children in Sonata’s house: we received an individual wish list from them with small wishes such as gloves, a soccer or a hairdryer that we would like to fulfill.
- For the hard-working caregivers: a voucher for cosmetic products in recognition of their valuable work
- For the PATRIA groups and the families in the Children’s Village and at Sonata: financial support for the Christmas parties
We will make sure that all Christmas presents reach their recipients on time for Christmas. We will order the smartwatches and speakers in Germany and send them together with our Christmas cards from Frankfurt to Lithuania. Our request now is as follows:
- Please sponsor a gift for your godchild or for a young adult in the PATRIA program and donate 30 euros.
- Please write a Christmas card to your sponsored child or to a young person in the PATRIA program ( “Dear friend in the PATRIA-program”…), gladly with photo, in English or German. The children and young people are always very happy to receive personal mail from their German sponsors or supporters.
- Support the Christmas parties in the two families and at PATRIA or the gift campaign for the social workers with a general donation of your choice .
Ingrid Debald has taken over the coordination of the Christmas campaign. Please let us know by December 10, 2023 whether you would like to support our 2023 Christmas campaign.
Ingrid Debald can be contacted at ingrid.debald@web.de or Tel: 069/74309064.
Please send the personal Christmas letter for the sponsored child or young person in the PATRIA program to Ingrid Debald, Lerchesbergring 107, 60598 Frankfurt/Main, Germany) by 12 December 2023 at the latest so that we can send the letters to Lithuania by post in good time
Our account details are:
Kinder- und Jugendförderung in Litauen e.V.
Frankfurter Sparkasse 1822
IBAN DE14 5005 0201 1200 072 152
BIC HELADEF 1822
We would be VERY pleased to receive broad support for our fundraising campaign for our 2023 Christmas campaign.
We wish you a peaceful Advent season.
Best regards
Yours Ingrid and Otmar Debald
And the team from “Kinder- und Jugendförderung in Litauen e.V.”