Dear friends and supporters,

With this newsletter we would like to inform you about the status of our Christmas campaign 2020 and thank you for your generous donations. We would also like to announce a change in the Executive Board team.

News from the Executive Board

On November 26, 2020, we held our annual general meeting of members – for the first time via video conference. This worked very well (just as the exchange with our partners in Lithuania works very well via the Zoom meetings). We said goodbye to our long-time board member and co-founder of the association, Susanne Welsch-Lehmann , who will, however, continue to support us in word and deed with marketing issues. We thanked Susanne very much for her dedicated work on the board since the founding year 2004. As a new member of the board we welcome Simone Graubner-Müller, who has been a committed sponsor and supporter of our Lithuania project for 15 years.

We are very pleased with the response to our 2020 Christmas campaign.

In mid-November we had asked you for a Christmas donation for the annual gift campaign for the 80 children and young people in Lithuania and for the renovation and equipment of the two Kaunas houses. We have already received 6,500 Euros in donations, with which we can well cover expenses for the Christmas campaign and also pay for the painting work for the Kaunas houses.

At the beginning of December, all hand-written Christmas cards for our protégés and the caregivers in the Children’s Village and at the PATRIA organization were sent to Lithuania. There the gifts (cuddly blankets for the children/young adults and vouchers for the employees) were already bought. At Christmas, the cards and gifts can be distributed to their surely lucky recipients. We will of course report on the Christmas activities in Lithuania in our next newsletter.

We thank all donors for their once again great support! We are very happy and grateful to have such a loyal group of donors as you, our corporate donor Cosnova and the Lions Club Vortaunus, who are always open to our requests for donations for important projects.

Despite the good willingness to donate, there is unfortunately still a gap in funding for the youth house project. We hope to close this via further donations for our 2020 Christmas campaign. The transformation of the two houses into the “PATRIA Youth Meeting House” has already begun with the necessary painting work. Now, above all, new furniture such as double-decker beds, tables, chairs and sofas must be purchased. A workroom is also to be built. At the beginning of the new year, the “PATRIA Youth House” is to be put into operation. We would be grateful for further donations.

Our account details are:

Children’s Villages in Lithuania e.V.

Frankfurter Sparkasse 1822

IBAN DE 14 5005 0201 1200 072 152

BIC HELADEF 1822

We wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

Christmas tree decorating in Marijampole Children’s Village

With warm regards

Your team from “Children’s Villages in Lithuania e.V.”.

Otmar Debald, Jurate Bogacz, Ingrid Debald, Christine Scheid, Verena Nacke, Simone Graubner-Müller