As a prelude to the publication of our Annual Report 2017-18, we feature from it a message from the Chief Executive of Survivors Fund (SURF), Samuel Munderere:
During the year 2017, Survivors Fund (SURF) helped improve the lives of hundreds of survivors young and old. From access to microfinance loans, psychosocial support, to successfully completing our Empowering Vulnerable Young Survivors who have left Secondary School to Create, Secure and Sustain Employment (ELE) project, funded by the UK Department for International Development.
Building on yet another successful year at Survivors Fund, our thoughts turn to the future and the presentation of our new strategic plan for 2018 to 2020 which sets out our ambitions for the next three-year period of the organisation, which straddles the all-important 25th Anniversary of the Genocide against the Tutsi in April 2019. With your sustained support we will be positioned to continue to transform the lives of survivors and related vulnerable persons in Rwanda to ensure their sustainable integration.
It’s also been a year for celebrations, as 2017 marked twenty years of the work of Survivors Fund (SURF) empowering survivors of genocide against the Tutsi. Since our establishment as a charity in 1997, we have always strived to respond to the best of our abilities to help address the needs and challenges of survivors. While the funding landscape has changed over that time, our commitment to supporting survivors has remained constant. As such, we are no less focused today as we were twenty years ago in continuing to ensure that we reflect the interest of survivors in all work that we undertake and prioritising our support accordingly.
Finally, I would like to thank you, our supporters, our partners and colleagues for your continuous engagement and support. Without you our success today would not be possible.
An accompanying note in the Annual Report from the Chair of Survivors Fund (SURF), Sam Hunt, is extracted here.