Europe
Germany
Child participants: N/A
War Child staff: 2,5 *
War Child volunteers: 14
Local partner organisations: 11
* Full-time employees (FTE)
2019 was a great year for our European operations - not least with the launch of War Child Germany. The year as a whole saw a wealth of promotional activity take place to garner public attention and put us on the map. We worked creatively to build a strong network of famous friends and ambassadors - marked by the success of more than eight music and arts events held across the country. A special gala headlined by German rock band - and new War Child ambassador - Revolverheld was a significant highlight, raising more than €20,000 in donations.
In addition, we succeeded in positioning ourselves as a key player in the field of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS). This resulted in an invitation to contribute to the Foreign Office’s (GFFO) 2020 Health Strategy, amongst other important donor opportunities.
The coming year will see us use this expert grounding to fast-track the development of a series of new programmes - designed to support an increasing number of refugee children across Germany.
Sweden
Child participants: 70
War Child staff: Seven (including interns)
Local partner organisations: Three
War Child Sweden is officially registered as a Swedish fundraising organisation - alongside four other members of the War Child family. 2019 saw the development of two programmes to meet the needs of refugee children in Sweden - Together and Naturkraft - with continued financial backing from automotive giant Scania and leading sports organisation Friskis & Svettis.
The year also saw the Swedish office establish a strong relationship with key government and civil society actors such as the Swedish National Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This had a number of important outcomes including the active participation of War Child Sweden in the International Conference on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Crisis Situations in Amsterdam and associated advocacy efforts in the Swedish parliament.
The Netherlands
Child participants: 4,344
War Child staff: 230
Local partner organisations: Four
War Child is part of the TeamUp coalition which was formed to meet the urgent needs of refugee children in the Netherlands. TeamUp was launched in 2016 as a collaboration between War Child, Save the Children and UNICEF Netherlands.
The programme - which works to uphold the social and emotional needs of refugee children - is active across the Netherlands and expanding rapidly on a global scale.
2019 saw some 27,000 refugees living in Dutch asylum centres - a steep rise on 2018. A new grant to facilitate expansion of our activities in response to the refugee influx was awarded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) with the support of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security.
The TeamUp methodology is also used to support new arrivals in Dutch schools. Over the course of the year - together with partner CED-Groep - we continued to expand our programme activities to meet the needs of refugee children at 17 schools across the country. All with the support of some 50 trained facilitators.