Dear Friends and Supporters,
Although the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have still been evident across 2021, I am writing to you this Christmas after another successful year during which KHT has empowered over 3,000 Karen people to improve their lives through its projects!
By providing water systems, latrines, and hygiene education to improve community health, working with farmers to install irrigation systems to boost farming income and cut hunger rates, and increasing access to education to ensure Karen children can realise their potential, our support over the past 12 months will ensure immediate (health), medium (incomes), and long term (education) assistance has been provided, helping everyone we have reached in 2021 to achieve a more secure and sustainable future.
Key Achievements in 2021
Aside from the impact of our projects, we have also made other achievements in 2021. The first being our evaluation of our irrigation projects. Just this month, we finished collecting data from nine different communities and the results have been very promising – you can read more about the results in the attached newsletter. It is this kind of information that we have been seeking for the past few years and will allow us to confidently demonstrate exactly how we are helping people!
As mentioned in our last newsletter, another key achievement this year has been the disbursement of vital COVID-19 education to remote villages. We have found that understanding of COVID-19 is limited in Karen communities and so distributing educational materials and teaching community members about COVID-19 has been vital to increasing resilience to the pandemic! We have reached over 4,500 people through these activities this year and will continue to further scale in the next 12 months.
Changes & Future Strategic Direction
Unfortunately, I also have news of changes at KHT to share with you this Christmas. After over four years working with KHT, it is with a heavy heart that I have decided to step down as Director of KHT to pursue a new challenge leading of another UK registered charity. This decision has been a difficult one to make, as I have loved every second of my time with KHT. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed my personal circumstances and I have decided that now is the right time for me to hand over responsibility.
Leading KHT has been an amazing experience and I am very grateful for this opportunity. I would also just like to say thank you very much for all of your support during my time with KHT. I have been astonished by the help and dedication of KHT’s supporters over the years and cannot thank you enough for supporting KHT through what has been a difficult period for everyone worldwide.
In the immediate term, Matt Jenkins, who has been managing our livelihoods and education programmes since August 2021, will be stepping in as Interim Director. Matt has experience of charity sector management from previous roles with international organisations and will be leading KHT until September 2022 whilst the Board of Trustees conducts recruitment for our next permanent Director. We will also be recruiting a new Programmes Officer and Fundraising Manager to support Matt in the UK.
In this period, we will also be looking to develop and refine our next long-term strategy to lead us through the next three-to-five-year period and help KHT rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. With recent developments this is likely to be an extremely exciting stage for KHT, where we continue to add to the sound foundations that have been developed over the years.
“Whilst it’s bittersweet to say goodbye to Billy, I’m excited to work with the teams in Thailand and the UK to maintain our current progress. I’m sure in the next nine months we’ll continue to reach more Karen communities and set KHT up for long-term success.”
Matt Jenkins
Our Activities in 2022
Besides the strategic work and changes, we are most importantly still planning to reach a further 3,000 Karen people through our projects in 2022. We have multiple projects already lined up and will be working hard to secure funding for even more in the coming months. However, we are always in need of support.
If you can offer a donation of any size this Christmas to help us through this transition period, it would be greatly appreciated, and you can be sure that it will contribute directly towards achieving this goal and continuing the development of KHT – please see the enclosed donation form to make a donation.
I would just like to end by saying thank you again to everyone. I will no doubt be keeping in close touch with KHT and I am excited to see the organisation continue to go from strength to strength.
We wish you a very Merry Christmas, from everyone at KHT!
Yours sincerely,
Billy Curryer, Director of KHT
