Dear friends and supporters of the Bondhu Project ❤️
Thank you, thank you, thank you 🙏
You have made this year a record year. Although the documentary film WAS TUN is no longer shown in cinemas or on TV (it is, however, still available in the ARD Mediathek until 21 November at 0:50 a.m.), the project has never had as many donors as this year!
This support is especially important right now, because we are currently also supporting the Shapla Girls' Home for girls who would otherwise grow up in the highly abusive brothel environment. At the moment, the Bondhu Home is covering all salaries there, along with several additional expenses.
A bit of background: the Bondhu Boys' Home was founded because there was already support for the girls at the time, but none for the boys. We helped the girls in certain ways back then too, but when the donors for the girls' home recently dropped away, we stepped in so the girls would not have to return to the brothel. Thanks to your support, we are able to carry this responsibility right now. We use this growing responsibility to improve the care in the girls' home even further, and it is wonderful to see how much progress is happening there.
Since the girls' home is larger than the boys' home, we continue to rely on your donations to ensure long-term quality care. So please feel free to spread the word, set up a donation box at your Christmas party, or whatever else you can think of ... ❤️💫
Another strength of the Bondhu Project - besides the fact that we have almost no administrative costs - is that we can provide individual help quickly and without bureaucracy. This year, we were able to free two more girls from the government home. M. and S. had been locked up there for eight and ten years. Unimaginable. They now live temporarily in rooms at the Bondhu Home until we can place them in a vocational training program, which will finally allow them to live a free and self-determined life.
There would be much more to report - new children are joining the project, mothers' meetings are being held, illnesses treated, exams taken and - as happened again today - birthdays celebrated. As is customary in Bangladesh, with a small party, feeding each other cake and table fireworks. And I was able to join via Skype.
But to keep this message from getting too long, just this:
Things are going well. And that means a lot in times like these.
Thank you all so much again ❤️
Michael
(Not the best quality, but the spirit comes through, and it's very, very fresh - not even ten minutes old 🎂)
