During three days of conversations about partnership, faith and the future of ADRA in Europe, one word kept coming back.
Joao Martins, the Regional Director of ADRA Europe, looks back: Last week, European ADRA directors gathered in Fribourg, Switzerland, for the European ADRA Forum, joined by colleagues from ADRA International, ADRA Canada, Ukraine and Moldova.
We were also glad to also welcome leaders from the Adventist Church, including General Conference President Erton Köhler and the presidents of the two European Divisions. Their presence was particularly meaningful as we talked about ADRA’s identity, our relationship with the Church and how we can work more closely together while respecting the particular role ADRA has been given.
Looking back at the three days, I could give you a list of everything we discussed. Private-sector partnerships. Fundraising. Social business. Our relationship and collaboration with the Adventist Church. Digital tools. Peacebuilding. Our next European strategy. OneVoice27.
It was a full programme with many side discussions starting already during breakfast and lasting late into the evenings. But a list would miss what made the Forum valuable. Some of the most interesting and impactful moments came when there wasn’t an easy answer, when we could sit together and discuss thoughts through.
There were questions about how we fund our work in the future, in a world where humanitarian needs increase, while governments across Europe and the Globe decrease their contributions to international development cooperation. About how we approach businesses and foundations in the right way. About what it really means to be a faith-based humanitarian organisation today. About how ADRA and the Church should work together while respecting the particular role ADRA has been given.
Looking beyond the cheque
One conversation particularly interesting was about working with businesses. For this discussion, we were joined by two representatives of ASI Europe, Carlos Dias and Michael Garkov, bringing their business perspective into the group. Rather than only talking among ourselves about what businesses might want from ADRA, we could listen, ask questions and explore what collaboration may actually look like.
When we have a project, we need funding, we look for someone who might support it, including potential business partners. But what if that is too narrow? A company may have engineers, accountants, logistics experts or technology specialists. It may have warehouse space, networks or particular knowledge that ADRA does not have. And ADRA brings things a company often cannot create for itself: trusted far reaching relationships with communities, local presence in 120 countries, humanitarian experience and an understanding of where help or a product is really needed.
That doesn’t mean funding is unimportant, it matters of course. But a better starting point for a true partnership is to ask what problem we could solve together.
We heard examples of what this can look like. In Ghana, work around cashew production is helping farmers access more stable markets and better prices, while more processing can happen locally. The aim is not to create a business for the sake of having a business, but to provide dignified jobs that a family can live on. The question – and that is an important distinction – has to remain: Does this improve people’s lives?
The timing of this conversation was fitting, as the ASI Europe Convention began in Fribourg during our Forum. On Wednesday evening, we joined its opening ceremony. It was another opportunity to connect with Adventist businesspeople and professionals, and to continue thinking about how different skills, networks and resources can come together for the common good.
We also talked about faith engagement
The second day started with a presentation and round table discussion covering our reaching out to foundations as well as new audiences of private supporters. In the afternoon, we then focused on:
What does it mean that ADRA is the Adventist humanitarian agency?
This is not a theoretical question for us. It affects how we understand our mission, how we work with the Church and how we explain who we are to governments, institutional donors, partners and the people we serve.
Daniel Duda’s reflection on the Good Samaritan stayed with us. He reminded us that the neighbour in Jesus’ story was the person who showed mercy.
Barna Magyarosi mentioned, how the church needs to integrate in the overall society, and ADRA has a key role to play here, seeking the well being and dignity of all human beings.
There was also a very clear emphasis from all sides that our humanitarian work must never turn someone’s vulnerability into a religious transaction. We help because a person needs help. We protect dignity and give people choices because that is how we believe people should be treated.
This was also reflected in Erton Köhler’s address to the Forum. He emphasized not to expect every part of the Church and its institutions to do the same thing. ADRA has its own role and expertise. But that does not mean working separately. His invitation was towards greater integration: moving in the same direction, even when our roles and ways of working are different.
At the same time, we needn’t be embarrassed about what motivates us – or about having a global Church community behind us. That connection gives ADRA a global distinction: long-term presence and relationships in communities around the world. Adding to that a big network of schools, hospital, clinics and health food factories.
Our faith tells us that hunger is not how the world was meant to be. War is not how the world was meant to be. A child being trafficked, an older person being forgotten, or someone being excluded because they live with a disability or in poverty should never become normal to us.
That is where our humanitarian work and our faith meet: Not in imposing belief, but in the conviction that every person matters and that suffering does not have the final word.
The word we ended with
On Thursday, we moved into conversations about ADRA Europe’s upcoming next strategy period. Integrated programmes, funding, people and systems, faith engagement, innovation and stronger relationships with partners are all going to be part of that discussion.
Then, during the closing session, someone reflected on a word that had been present throughout the Forum: Trust.
ADRA is built on trust in ways we sometimes take for granted. Communities trust our teams enough to let us into their lives. Donors trust us with their money. Institutional funders trust us with public resources. Businesses and other organisations trust us when they enter a partnership with us. And across the ADRA network, we have to trust colleagues thousands of kilometres away, in different cultures, to do their work with care. None of that trust is automatic. It has to be earned. And kept.
For those of you who donate to ADRA, fund our programmes, work alongside us or simply follow what we do, thank you for the trust you place in us. We know that trust comes with responsibility.
Whatever new approaches will be in the changing world we live in: As we begin shaping the next chapter for ADRA in Europe, we will keep asking ourselves a simple question: Will this help us take better care of people?
Photos: (c) ADRA Europe, Jose Herranz
