Hagar’s mission statement is - “Whatever
it takes for as long as it takes to restore a broken life” and having now lived
here for some 8 months I can honestly say the staff truly live out this mission.
Some of the staff at Hagar were in Hagar's care as children and now mentor our clients. We also work with other ex-clients.
It’s amazing to witness first hand the miracle of healing and restoration in Hagar’s
staff and clients.
After 19 years of operation, Hagar has now become a mid-size international NGO, with program offices (offices providing
services and programs to care for exploited, abused women and children) in
Cambodia, Vietnam and Afghanistan, and support offices (fundraising, grant
writing and advocacy) in USA, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK and NZ.
Over the last 2 weeks we have had Hagar’s country
leaders and Hagar International board members here, and it has been an amazing
time of “coming together” to dream, inspire, plan, and discuss complexities
that can only be done face to face. Hagar has big plans and it’s exciting to be
a part of it.
As an organization like Hagar grows, new
challenges present themselves, like investing in global finance &
technology systems, recruiting new program specialists and complying with all the various
legal and aid requirements of specific countries - whilst endeavouring to
remain consistent with Hagar's mission and identity. Hagar needs skilled people to execute the future vision of the organization, to enable it to grow and continue to provide
excellent services, as well as move into new countries!
Catherine (Hagar Cambodia) and Harvey (HI board chair) |
Karen has been instrumental in developing Hagar's global governance structure to enable clearer decision making processes, and greater efficiency across the organisation (along with her recent legal protection work). My role is simply to build the brand globally and grow new revenue streams so Hagar can continue to restore broken lives and move into new areas such as providing services to the 90 kids living in prison with their mothers in Battambang.
I’m about to run a half marathon in 3 weeks at Angkor Wat, through 5 temples that make up one of the 7 wonders of the world. It’s going to be fun, but I am nervous as training has been difficult (especially in the heat)! The main reason I am doing it is to raise money and to research how “peer to peer” fundraising works. My friends and family sponsor me via my fundraising page (see blog below), and the money goes to Hagar. In 3 months, the next challenge is to run a 500km cycling event in SE Asia with 24 people doing the same thing, hopefully raising over USD50K - check it out here: http://hagarinternational.org/international/get-involved/awareness-events.
Bronwyn - fellow Kiwi and Hagar Afghanistan country leader |
- Logan