2023 CEO review

Dear all,  

I want to start this end of year letter by thanking absolutely everyone connected to the charity - supporters, staff, partners, friends and of course the communities we move in - for their contribution to what we are building, and managing to achieve, for children who really need our support. Street Child is a work of so many hands - and I am grateful to everyone involved, every day.  

In years gone by I would have tried to have captured everything in this letter. With the charity now active, in different ways, in over 30 countries that is manifestly (and happily) impossible these days. So here are ten of my highlights from the year. Needless to say, there are so many more that deserve to, but don’t, make this list: 

1. The Times

No surprise. If you are reading this message, I am certain that you are beyond aware that Street Child is incredibly excited, and proud, to be the international charity The Times and Sunday Times are supporting this Christmas. We are almost halfway through the appeal and have already had so many amazing articles written about our work - in Ukraine, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Uganda so far. If you have not been keeping up fully do  click here  to see all the pieces - but it is fair to say that seeing our work brought to life by amazingly skilled and famous journalists, knowing that these words will be read by hundreds of thousands of people who are likely to be learning of our work for the first time is pretty great. Plus, the donations!

2. Government matching

Street Child’s canny supporters have always loved a deal! It is hard to over-state the importance of the five Government-matched appeals Street Child had the chance to run between 2014 and 2020 in the development of our charity. Of course, the landscape of UK Aid has changed in very challenging ways since then - which makes this latest opportunity we have secured especially precious and exciting. We are enormously grateful to Rt. Hon. Andrew Mitchell MP, the Minister of State and everyone at FCDO who recognised the opportunity of Street Child’s participation in the Times’ Christmas appeal - and moved so quickly to get behind it with this brilliant offer: the UK Government will match 100% of all eligible donations, up to 500k, to Street Child’s Christmas Appeal until 31st January.* Of course, we gamely implore everyone to make the very best use of this wonderful opportunity - and help us at least double the impact of the brilliant platform The Times has given us!

3. Ghana

Thirteen months ago we had zero presence in Ghana. Today, 12,764 children are in learning who were previously out of school - and we have an active programme of school improvement underway in 200 rural schools. Drop the mic … 

4. Ukraine 

We have continued to deepen and grow our response to the horrific war in the country. We have now been able to extend our support to over forty local Ukrainian organisations - with a focus on those in the East and closest to the front-line and worst-affected, such as communities who lost everything when the Kakhovka Dam was blown-up in June. For a wonderful insight into our work in Ukraine please see Tom Ball’s  appeal piece  in The Times on how Street Child and partners are using football to help children heal in Bucha, the scene of some of the worst atrocities at the start of the war - or Marc Bennetts’ more panoramic article on our impact in Ukraine, entitled ‘The creche where Ukrainian children learn to laugh again’. 

5. Afghanistan

Honestly you could as easily include this paragraph in a ‘lowest of lowlights’ section. So much of our work has become progressively impossible - a ban on secondary school for females, followed by a ban on female staff working for international charities and then drastic restrictions on the involvement of international charities in the education sector - frankly has left our work in the country at its lowest ebb for several years. But here is the highlight - the absolute determination to keep going; and keep raising the situation of this tragic country. In 2024 we look forward to launching a new ‘at home’ education initiative that has been painfully negotiated with the de facto authorities, which has significant potential. Meanwhile, right now our teams are serving families affected by the earthquake that hit Herat in November; the hundreds of thousands of returnees who have been evicted from Iran and Pakistan in recent months; and delivering a substantial food and livelihoods project in several parts of the country. We were also incredibly grateful to Radio 4 and Christina Lamb for helping us raise the voice of Afghan girls with our special appeal in June. 

6. Rapid responses

Throughout 2023 Street Child supporters and teams came together far too often, but wonderfully, to create impact for communities affected by terrible events across the world. These included four new countries for us - Turkey and Syria after the horrific earthquakes at the start of the year; then after October’s earthquake in Morocco and shortly after in Libya, after the dam catastrophically failed above Derna. Our in-country teams have also responded to earthquakes in Nepal and Afghanistan. And finally, but foremost in many of our minds, we stand ready to make a humanitarian contribution in Gaza as soon as circumstance permit - a situation about which there are no words to adequately express our horror. 

7. Cameroon

I’ve picked Cameroon but equally could have gone for DRC or Mozambique, as great examples of countries we have been in for a while but made real progress in this year! We finally got a formal registration here, which has allowed us to formalise a latent partnership with UNICEF. We are presently leading a fantastic ‘snap' initiative, involving fourteen local partner charities, to help at least 5,000 children enrol in schools in the Anglophone region of the country where one of the world’s nastiest, and to an extent strangest and ‘under-the-radar’ conflicts has deliberately kept most children out of school since 2016 - but where conditions in some of the towns are starting to stabilise. We are proud to be there for children in these situations - as much as we are for the children whose situations are more commonly on our TV screens. 

8. Uganda localisation unit

anyone familiar with Street Child, knows that a belief in the power of local organisations and strategies focused on harnessing them are at the heart of everything we do (and I have loved seeing our local parties being openly credited in all The Times pieces so far), but this piece in Uganda is especially great. Street Child Uganda have persuaded Education Cannot Wait (the UN’s fund for ‘education in emergencies’ and one of our largest global funding partners) to allocate at least 25% of its budget to us - for the very specific purpose of channelling it to local charities who have great skills and attributes, but who would be unlikely to be successful in compiling a successful funding application when head-to-head against international charities. We are running open selection processes and so far have funded 7 outstanding and inspiring Ugandan charities who we are supporting in their delivery for refugee children. (It is not about the localisation initiative in particular but you can learn more about the extraordinary story of ‘from tennis club ball-boy to Street Child Country Director in Uganda’  - do read this wonderful Times piece.

9. Events

From the beauty of this week’s annual carol service at The Tower of London; to the colour, chaos and joy of May's Sierra Leone Marathon (including its first ever bike ride offering!); to the FIFTEEN exhibition or our female-first Spring gala on International Women’s Day; to the scale and energy of our flagship ‘Big Ride’ and annual gala with Liberty Global and friends … it is very hard indeed to pick a favourite. But I will go out on a limb and say that playing ‘walking touch rugby’ against world-cup winning and 3rd highest ever England try-scorer Will Greenwood on the beach after the Sierra Leone Marathon - may well be the moment that lives longest in the memory from our 2023 event series! 

10. FIFTEEN

As many of you know, especially those who, like Penny Lancaster and Rod Stewart (!), joined us for our wonderful photo exhibition, Street Child turned fifteen just a few days ago. It was December 2008 when the first four Street Child workers took to the streets of Makeni with that initial plan to help 100 street-connected children. It is a natural moment of reflection - we’ve come from there to this point where we are helping in over 20 countries and will shortly have gone past the point where we can confidently say we have made an impact on the education of a million children. So it won't surprise anyone that The Times article that most moved me was first Sierra Leone piece from Anthony Loyd (who I remember interviewing my Dad in Bosnia in the 1990s!) centred on those first 100 children, and the harrowing but ultimately uplifting story of Alima . Looking back is one thing but the bigger thought however is this - if we achieved this, from a standing start and knowing not much about anything, fifteen years ago - if we really go for it, what might we be able to achieve for children in the next fifteen years?

Let me end where I began - with enormous thanks to everyone who is part of Street Child in any way, shape, or form - together we make the difference! Thank you so very much. 

If you are reading this in the days before Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful time (and if you are reading to after Christmas, well, I hope it was great) 

And for everyone … wishing you all the best for 2024! 

Best wishes,  

Tom 

*Every eligible pound donated to Street Child’s Christmas Appeal between 15th December and 31st January will be matched by the UK government up to £500,000. 100% of eligible match funding from the UK government will go directly toward a Street Child project in Sierra Leone, which will help thousands of vulnerable children attend and stay in school. Public donations will go toward Street Child’s work around the world to see children safe, in school and learning.