By Jen Naskov | Executive Director
News! News! News!
YAY!!!! The JOY Home is completely done! Now the real fun begins!
We contacted the orphanage director to tell her we are ready to open as a Day Center for special needs orphans. She was super excited and encouraging and immediately had a meeting with the Ministry of Social Policy in Skopje to tell them of our plans.
Last week, Zo spoke to the head of de-institutionalization (you should have seen how many times I had to retype that word to spell it correctly), and he emailed us the list of requirements to become a licensed day center for orphans.
The timing has been amazing! These regulations and licensing procedures were just created last year - meaning we couldn't have started any sooner than we are, even if we had finished The JOY Home faster. Pretty cool!
A few days ago, we received 32 pages of regulations and requirements for licensing and forwarded them to our attorney to find out what steps need to be taken. Today we met with the LOH team and have made a plan.
We are super excited to be at this stage of the work in Macedonia. We were told that, realistically, it will take 2-3 months for the licensing commission to meet and grant us the license. We're ok with that, as long as we are moving forward!! :) I'll be sure to keep you updated as we work toward licensing.
As a very exciting side note - the orphange director mentioned seven children, in particular, that she wants us to start working with and I already knew four of them (they were children that I worked with when we volunteered at the orphanage from 2017-2019). How awesome! I can't wait!
Welcome Angela and Ana!
We're excited to have two new team members, working with us! Ana is helping organize all necessary paperwork, grant proposals, financial reports etc. and Angela is helping with administrative work and translation. I am also training Angela in the TBRI (Trust-Based Relational Interventions) model, so that she can assist me with the children when we open the day center. I am so happy to have both of these amazing ladies on the team!
2020 Annual Report
I was somewhat wary about working on the 2020 Annual Report this year, as I thought it would be empty and discouraging due to the Covid pandemic. However, I was so surprised when I sat down and looked back at all the things we accomplished together, even in the midst of the mess! I've attached the 2020 Annual Report, if you would like to take a look.
I hope you have an awesome February, and we look forward to updating you as we get closer and closer to opening the doors of The JOY Home! We are so thankful for you!!!Check Out the LOH 2020 Annual Report
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