The gross proceeds of the collection amount to €166,886.92. The cost of running the collection was 17.25 percent. The net proceeds of €138,092.58 are earmarked to provide more than 400 families with material, food and medical aid, and school supplies for educational and leisure activities for 2,000 children and young people, and to repair a bomb-damaged centre in Damascus.

The collection directly involved more than 106 kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and almost 68 youth and other organizations in villages and towns throughout Slovakia. All participating schools and organizations were sent promotional and background materials, which were used not only for the collection campaign but also as a basis for education and awareness-raising in the area of development aid. As part of the collection, with our consent, schools carried out their own activities that served its purpose.

From the net proceeds of the collection €138,092.58 the following activities were supported:

Humanitarian aid for displaced families in Kafroun, Damascus and Aleppo, Syria

Thanks to the funds from the collection, it was possible to provide aid to 81 internally displaced families in Damascus during the period from November 2016 to June 2017, as well as to 40 families in Kafroun and 136 families in Aleppo during the period from October 2016 to June 2017. Thanks to the collection it was possible to meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable families in three Syrian cities and to provide them with decent housing. The activities were implemented by the Salesians of Don Bosco, who personally identified the target group and drew up a detailed list of the final aid recipients. The aid took the form of financial contributions for accommodation and food for the selected families. The implementing team oversaw the use of the funds and monitored the improvement of the standard of living of the aid recipients. Coordination and monitoring on a monthly basis was provided by Alejandro José León Mendoza, the project coordinator. As part of the first stage of the project, it was thus possible to reduce poverty levels and the vulnerability of internally displaced Syrian families.

Activities for young people in the Salesian centres in Kafroun, Damascus and Aleppo, Syria

The proceeds of the collection helped to carry out numerous educational and leisure activities for children and young people in three Salesian centres in Kafroun, Damascus and Aleppo. The goal of the activities was to give local children and young people the opportunity for informal education and active rest in a safe environment, and to mitigate the negative impacts of the war on their mental health. The funds within these activities were used in particular for food, water, electricity, heating, medicines and clothing.

In Kafroun 2 six-day summer camps for children were held. In Kafroun and Aleppo catecheses were run focusing on the personal and spiritual growth of children and young people — because many children were unable to come to the centres on their own for security reasons, the Salesians of Don Bosco regularly provided them with bus transport. The centre in Aleppo was the venue for the sixth football tournament for peace in Aleppo as well as a smaller tournament for university youth. The centre also offered tutoring for children, which was led by university students. As part of informal education they helped the children with homework or with preparing for exams. Aleppo also offered children and young people the opportunity to take part in music and drama groups, where performances were rehearsed for the centre’s numerous cultural events. A market for children and parents was also held in Aleppo, focused on the distribution of food, drinks, clothing and handicrafts. The market had a strong turnout of hundreds of children and parents.

The centre in Damascus is visited every day by around 1,200 people aged 5–30, who take part in a spiritual programme, sports activities, art workshops in fine art, music and drama, as well as in charitable initiatives in nearby orphanages, hospitals, hospices and centres for people with disabilities. Thanks to Tehlička, informal education activities took place there, as part of which school supplies were distributed to children according to need. The centre organized 2 football tournaments attended by 17 teams from the capital. Around 1,000 children took part in the Don Bosco’s Got Talent event, where children and young people showed off their artistic, theatrical and musical skills. During the project, 4 one-day trips were organized for young people from Damascus, with each one attended by around 120 children. The centre also offered a rich Christmas and New Year programme; thanks to the financial support of the collection, it was possible to distribute Christmas gifts to around 1,150 children.

Repair of the roof of the Salesian centre in Kafroun, Syria

Kafroun is located in the Tarsous region, which is known as a summer holiday destination thanks to its beautiful nature, interesting architecture and places of pilgrimage. The Salesian centre in Kafroun is a sought-after location for local inhabitants and visitors alike, since it offers opportunities for activities for children and young people in a pleasant environment. Since the beginning of the war, the centre has become a refuge for many internally displaced families, who found temporary safe accommodation there; the number of children and young people coming into the safe environment of the centre to take part in sports, cultural and educational activities also rose. In order to improve the conditions for activities for children and young people, as well as the accommodation conditions for the internally displaced, it was essential to repair the roof of the centre’s main building, which — together with the ceilings — was in a very poor state due to the high level of air humidity. In the first phase the old roof was removed, after which the construction of the new roof began. Repairing the roof directly benefits, on average, 200–400 children aged 8 and over, 70 young people, Salesian youth and scouts from Kafroun, Damascus and Aleppo, youth groups from the surrounding villages, families living in Kafroun, 40 internally displaced families and poor families from Kafroun.

WE THANK ALL DONORS AND PARTICIPANTS FOR SUPPORTING TEHLIČKA 2016