SEPTEMBER 2024 MONTHLY REPORT

In September 2024, we at Wave served 2346 hot meals, distributed 146 clothing items and 680 hygiene items, ran 140 showers, charged 194 phones and powerbanks and washed 31 laundry loads.

September Updates

This month we welcomed Stichting Vluchteling for their first visit to our project! Without the support of SV, we would struggle to operate so we were delighted to show Sofie and Sam our community space and the services we provide. They joined the team for the day and got stuck in helping with food preparation and distribution. Project Elpida kindly sent us a donation so we could buy boxers and socks for our community as we have been struggling to source these in donations and have had to buy the supplies for our community, which can be costly. Additionally, we received a generous donation from a private donor so we could buy some furnishings to make our space more homely and comfortable for our community. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to our donors for their ongoing support and for stepping in during challenging periods. We also appreciated the support from IHA and LHI during times when we were low on volunteers. Due to a shortage of team members, we’ve had to reduce our operating hours. As of the end of September, we now close on Tuesdays and Thursdays, operating four days a week. Thankfully, we’ve been able to refer our community members to other services in the city for food on the days we’re closed. This has of course been a big change for our community and we hope to return to our normal schedule once we have full capacity again.

Although we’ve recently faced capacity challenges, there’s been an uplifting sense of community spirit in the centre. Many community members got involved with cooking, food preparation and cleaning. It’s been heartening to see so many community members willing to help us – their involvement means a lot to us! We were also pleased to welcome three new visiting volunteers to the team. Working with a larger team not only allows us to interact with our community more but also gives us the chance to try out new things – like making lots of chapatis and experimenting with pickled radish!

On the 11th of September, we celebrated a special occasion — Ethiopian New Year, marking the start of 2017. We wish all our Ethiopian community members a happy and healthy New Year!