Hagar, a growing INGO...

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

Our hope is that Hagar continues to grow to serve more clients, and that the work we are doing here will contribute to that and be of lasting value. We can see some of the fruit of our work already… and we know that our relationship with Hagar will continue.

- Logan