Dear sponsors, friends and supporters!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT IN 2021 AND FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS DONATION!
We would like tothank you for your loyal and generoussupport in 2021 and for your Christmas donation . Thanks to your help we were able to effectively support the children in the Children’s Village Marijampole and the young people in the PATRIA program last year and also to carry out our popular Christmas campaign again. In total, we were pleased to receive donations for the Christmas campaign amounting to around 6,500 euros. We are very touched by the great commitment and loyalty of our friends and supporters as well as our corporate donor cosnova to our Lithuania project.
We will send the donation receipts by mail in the next few days, together with a postcard with which the PATRIA organization thanked our association for our commitment. Through our continuous support, we have been able to achieve a lot of good things with the young people in our care (such as building self-confidence and self-esteem and promoting education).
We look back on an eventful 2021, in which we were able to achieve quite a bit despite the Corona situation:
- The PATRIA “Youth Meeting House” (former Kaunas Houses) was ceremonially opened in July 2021 and immediately put into operation with weekend seminars and coaching sessions.
- In the children’s village Marijampole some repair works were carried out – here we could help with a financial injection.
- Three members of the board team – Ingrid, Otmar and Jurate – made a trip to Lithuania at the beginning of September 2021 and visited the children and caregivers in the Children’s Village Marijampole.
- For the first time, the PATRIA camp was held in the new Youth Meeting House. Twenty young people, some social workers and also Ingrid, Otmar and Jurate participated.
- The regularZOOM meetings for communication between PATRIA and the board team continue to work very well.
- Our Christmas gifts, warm quilts and comforter covers in bright colors, made all the recipients happy. Read on page 2 the descriptions of the Christmas celebrations in the Children’s Village Marijampole and at PATRIA in Kaunas.
We have some plans for 2022: in spring we are planning a “relaunch” of our association with a new website, new positioning, new name. Let us surprise you. Likewise we would like to carry out again a benefit event and with a sponsor group from 01. travel to Lithuania until 04 September 2022.
We wish you and your families all the best for 2022 – above all, stay healthy!
With warm regards
Yours Ingrid and Otmar Debald
and the team of “Children’s Villages in Lithuania e.V.”.
CHRISTMAS IN THE CHILDREN’S VILLAGE MARIJAMPOLE
At the end of 2021, there are only two small families left in Marijampole Children’s Village and the Christmas celebrations in both homes were very modest. On Christmas Eve, the children and social workers gathered around a beautifully set table to have dinner together.
The next day, Christmas Day, the children had a Christmas party and received their gifts.
They were very happy about all the gifts – sunglasses and notebooks sent from Germany, and the new sheets and blankets, which are really great!
Christmas in the Children’s Village Marijampole: Joy when unwrapping the presents from Germany
CHRISTMAS AT PATRIA PROGRAM (Report by Rita Skridaite, social worker at PATRIA)
On December 28, 2021, we had a Christmas meeting via Zoom with the young people and Ingrid, Otmar and Jurate. This meeting was filled with Christmas spirit. The young people unwrapped the gifts with joy. Together we talked about their goals for the coming year and their experiences in 2021. Some young people opened up and shared their experiences with us. We encouraged them to draw dream maps and look for their own career paths.
In the assisted living of PATRIA we spent pleasant moments with the young people. We made a Christmas wreath together with a young woman. So we could light a candle in the evening during Advent. And we also had a Christmas gathering with carols, joy, stories about Christmas and of course lots of salad and tangerines.
Merry hours at the Christmas party in PATRIA’s assisted living facility