Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
30 December 2020
Post No. 176
The New Year’s Eve Contents
• Year in Review Recap
• End of year Fundraising Campaign
• End of Year Advice-giving Service
…. and much more!
The New Year’s Eve Key Messages
• Year in Review Recap
The first New Year’s Eve Key Message of this year-end post is about covering the events of the year 2020 from the perspective of recapping the year for CENFACS’ followers and supporters as well as from the point of view of CENFACS’ contribution to poverty reduction and sustainable development.
Under the Main Development section of this post you will find CENFACS’ year-end review.
• End of year Fundraising Campaign
Our End of Year Fundraising Campaign continues until the last day and hour of 2020. For those who would like to donate to our End-of-year Support, Festive Gift Set and any other festive projects or campaigns or even causes before 2020 ends, please do not hesitate to donate. You can still make a helpful difference before 31/12/2020.
To donate, just contact CENFACS with your donation by any of these means of communications: text, phone, email and contact form on this website.
• End of Year Advice-giving Service
As we informed you in our last post on this platform, we are in holiday break until the 5th of January 2021. However, some of our projects and campaigns are either self-running or designed to run throughout the holiday season like the festive holiday. One of these holiday projects is the Advice-giving one.
Indeed, during the festive period not everybody or member of our community can afford to celebrate on the New Year’s Eve. There are people who still need accommodation, food, income, guidance, support against the new COVID-19 variant, help against loneliness, etc. They may also need life-saving support of various kinds to cope and survive while other people, the lucky ones, are busy preparing themselves for the New Year’s Eve festivities.
Because of this on-going need and demand within the community, we have maintained a minimum level of advice-giving service to e-work with those who desperately need advice to reduce poverty or any type of hardships they are facing and do not have anywhere else to ask for help and advice, especially at this time of the tier four of COVID-19 system of restrictions.
If you are one of our members and facing serious hardship during the festive period, you can e-contact CENFACS for advice, guidance and support. If you are not one of our members and would like to discuss this year-in-review project, please still e-contact CENFACS.
The New Year’s Eve Extra Messages
• Charity e-Store: Recycle and or Give away your Unwanted or Unneeded Presents
You can recycle and or give away your unwanted or unneeded presents during this festive period. In doing so, one will not only support the good cause of poverty reduction, but also will contribute to the Upkeep of the Nature while maintaining a fair balance between nature and festive presents, between climate and the season’s gifts.
To recycle and or give any unwanted or unneeded festive presents, please talk to CENFACS to discuss the reuse of your items since we are under the constraint of tier four of COVID-19 system of restrictions.
• Help for your “Year in review” Accounts
How to successfully close your end-of-year personal or family accounts and get prepared for the New Year accounts before the end of financial year
It is theoretically known that the financial year closes in April and the State budget starts in April of each year. For example, the 2020-21 tax Year will end on 5 April 2021 in the UK. Understandably, the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns may have impact on everybody’s financial calendar and deadlines. Despite that it is a good practice to use the opportunity of the end of the civil year to start to work out the balances of one’s personal or family accounts.
To help those who are struggling to close their year-end accounts of 2020, we will be looking at from the start of January 2021 when we return on how to successfully close your personal or family financial accounts and prepare your new accounts in the New Year.
It is always a good practice to start early before the deadlines of the financial year!
It is wise to work out your year-end accounts early so that you could enter the New Year with a good understanding of your financial position while keeping financial control on accounts. In doing so, one can know areas of financial improvement to sort out their financial situation in the New Year.
This year-end financial control project or exercise includes income boost and other elements making our campaign to reduce and end income poverty.
For those who may be interested in this year-end financial control project, they can contact CENFACS in the New Year.
• COVID-19 Campaign over the Festive Holiday
COVID-19 Floor Signs and Symbols for Coronavirus-induced Poverty Relief in 2021
Following the floor signs and symbols of protection against the coronavirus pandemic can help to reduce coronavirus-induced poverty now and in 2021. The problem is that not many people do follow the signs and symbols that meant to guide and help them. As we move into 2021 and there is a new COVID-19 variant, how do we make sure to follow the signs and symbols that are meant to protect us and others, especially if you are in need of relief from health and economic hardships?
It is life-saving to follow the floor markings designed to protect everybody against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. This issue of COVID-19 floor signs and symbols is part of our COVID-19 Campaign, which is still active during the festive holiday.
For any enquiries and or queries about this part of our COVID-19 Campaign, please e-contact CENFACS.
Main Development
• Year in Review Recap
This review is about telling the story about what went on within and around CENFACS from the beginning to the end of 2020. To be fair with readers of this review, we did not plan from the onset some of the events and campaigns which occurred and shaped the running of the year 2020. Amongst these events is the coronavirus pandemic which in fact changes the year for us to becoming almost a pandemic year.
In 2020, there have been many episodes that made these year-end review events which are: the coronavirus pandemic, lockdowns, the reconnection to the essential economy, the revalorisation of health economics, the growing uncertainty linked to the UK’s changing trade ties with the EU, the progress in African continental free trade integration, transitional democratic process in Africa, etc.
Amongst the above mentioned events or factors, the coronavirus pandemic has been a dominant one and continues to dictate the performance of many of our actions. It carries on in shaping up the poverty reduction agenda and policy. In face of this dominance and disturbance of the COVID-19, we had to react and find creative and innovative ways to meet users’ needs in this development landscape. Before going further in this review, let us start from the beginning to the end of the year 2020.
• • How did we start the year 2020?
We started the year 2020 with Energy for the Poor and energy projects to deal with energy poverty. It was about how to help poor people to help themselves in meeting their sustainable energy needs in a changing climate. This starter was part of the discussions we had with stakeholders and of the debate to reduce the adverse effects of climate change. In addition to this, we dedicated year 2020 as a “Mission” Year. As a result of this dedication, we set up a “Mission” Project to deliver this mission.
As the coronavirus pandemic broke out and influenced our direction of travel, we had to adjust our plans and thinking to deal with this health emergency and urgency which has become the dominant feature of 2020. 2020 which was supposed to be partly of sustainable energy has entirely become a pandemic year for us. This dominant feature has been coupled with other features as the following shows about how the year 2020 went for CENFACS.
• • How did the year 2020 go through within and around CENFACS?
To underline the way in which the year 2020 went within and around CENFACS, we are going to highlight the essential features of 2020 and the contributions we made.
• • • Year 2020 in features
There are several features in the way 2020 went for CENFACS which are as follows.
• • • • 2020 as a “Mission” Year
CENFACS “Mission” Year is a coordinated plan by CENFACS to provide what is needed and necessary to support any efforts of poverty reduction. CENFACS “Mission” Year is a sequence of tasks and activities undertaken as monthly operations in order to deliver the year 2020 dedication. It is finally a specific task of the year 2020 or way of putting into practice poverty reduction. In total, we had 12 acts to accomplish and fuel our “Mission” Year campaign.
• • • • 2020 as a pandemic year
The most dominant feature of 2020 is of a pandemic year. Due to the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, we had together with stakeholders to respond in developing projects, programmes and activities to deal with life-threatening and –destroying impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Amongst these projects and programmes include the Cube of Protection against the Coronavirus Pandemic; cube which has many projects in it to protect the community. We also set up a Campaign of Resilience against the Coronavirus Pandemic.
We had to deal with the implications of COVID-19 for poverty reduction work. One of the implications was altering the contents of projects (for example our Happiness projects became Healthiness projects). Briefly, we worked to adapt to COVID-19 environment while continuing to help to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development.
• • • • 2020 as an economic lockdown year
Over 2020, we experienced two lockdowns of the non-essential economy. During the lockdowns, the help of supporters for us to adjust and develop e-services and e-activities to deal with the situation has been instrumental. They motivated us to distance work and redevelop our advice-giving service to cope with new demand of advice and the unprecedented challenge we faced in the COVID-19 lockdowns.
• • • • 2020 as a year of essential economy
2020 has been a year of recognition of essential economy as an economy that serves the poor and does not leave anyone behind since it is an economy for everybody. Essential economy has the capacity to pull out people out of poverty.
To put into practice essential economy, we set up CENFACS “Essentia” Project, which is an example or model of working together so that no one is left behind. The “Essentia” project is indeed a poverty-relieving initiative that uses the tenets and attributes of the essential economy in order to help people and communities in need to escape from poverty and hardships. The project connects these people and communities to essential activities while motivating them to use non-polluting ways of resolving their long standing problems of poverty and hardships.
• • • • 2020 as a year of health economics
2020 has been as well of the study of the supply and demand of healthcare resources and the impact of healthcare resources on a population, especially the poor and vulnerable ones.
As far as CENFACS is concerned, it has been about how this study can be correlated with measures to reduce the state of this population having little or lacking money or material possession. Through our virtual festival of thoughts on health economics, participants tried to learn how to make health economics work for the poor and the neediest.
In order to execute health economics from our perspective, we designed the Project of Sanitation Relief or Health Economics for the Poor to help improve the cost-effectiveness of healthcare provision to the poor in terms of positive health outcomes at the level of organisations that implement this project.
This project reflects the circumstances of the time of the coronavirus pandemic. From its various components, the project seeks to address sanitation poverty not only now, but also in the post-pandemic period.
• • • • 2020 as a year of economic uncertainty linked to exit economy
What we do as an organisation depends on the economic environment in which we operate. Since the economic uncertainty around changing nature of trade ties of the UK with the EU was pending, we had to work with many assumptions or models revolving around or between trade deal and no trade deal. This economic uncertainty meant that we had to be cautious in taking any commitments in terms of resources and capacities until this uncertainty will be resolved.
• • • • 2020 as a year of transitional development programme
Our Africa-based Sister Organisations did continue to work with those places in Africa where democratic transition was happening like in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Together with them through a transitional development programme we gave our hands in helping the happening transition to mature and work for those in most need.
• • • • 2020 as a year of impact monitoring and evaluation
2020 has been the year that we have tried to monitor and evaluate the causal effects of COVID-19 and the exited/transitional economy on CENFACS’ system of poverty reduction. In other words, we looked at causality and attribution on CENFACS, if the cofactors (that is, COVID-19 and exited/transitional economy) could have causal effects on CENFACS.
Besides the above features of 2020, there are some achievements that we would like to mention.
• • • 2020 Key Achievements/Contributions
2020 has also been a year of accomplishments. After doing a round-up of all efforts we made to support the causes of those in need, we could name the following contributions:
√ Further to advice received from some of our followers and supporters, we brought and lighted a Blaze of Hope for the Victims of Armed Attacks and Conflicts in Burkina Faso.
√ Through an open dialogue, consultation and inputs of stakeholders, users and supporters we were able to develop CENFACS’ 2020s Development Agenda and Poverty Reduction Programme.
√ To help reduce poverty in 2020, we developed together with the community a Box of Poverty Reduction Tools. Thanks to the eight tools that it contains, we were able to use some of them to reach out to those in need before and during the coronavirus pandemic.
√ To support children in Africa, we asked for the halving of poverty for and with the Educationally Needy Congolese children. As a result of this ask, a number of children received some support until the COVID-19 broke out to change the educational dynamics there on the ground where support is still mostly needed.
√ We could not be insensitive about what was happening in the African Sahel where innocent lives were unnecessary taken since armed attacks and violence were mounted against civilians. Together with our supporters, we launched the African Sahel Peace Appeal to end insecurity and violence there in 2020.
√ Likewise, to raise awareness about the effect of COVID-19 on the African Sahel, we advocated through the African Sahel Humanitarian Corridors Appeal to end food insecurity, water shortage and income decline exacerbated by COVID-19.
√ We carried out a Peace Appeal 2020 for the Horn of Africa, and the African Sahel and Lake Chad Basin Appeal against Extreme Poverty to support those in need in these two regions of Africa.
The above are just the few selected accomplishments we wanted to share with readers and stakeholders in this year in review campaign. However, for those who would like get more insights into them and other achievements of the year 2020, they can still let us know.
• • How the year 2020 has ended
In the process of ending the year 2020, there was a need since Autumn to accept and integrate the coronavirus pandemic factor in our mind set and work with others in order to build back better by the end of the year and from the New Year. This need has led to a build back better campaign for both our work in the UK and Africa.
Additionally, there is no a better way of ending any year than by appealing for peace and wishing hope for those living in poverty and hardships; as well as by thanking all those who produced poverty reduction with us and those who made poverty reduction possible for those in need and for us throughout 2020.
2020 was a memorable year for CENFACS for those who inspired us in responding to local needs at the challenging time of the coronavirus pandemic. We could not do it without their support.
To end this year-in-review report, we would like to continue to thank them as we did in last week’s post. We thank them for making possible 2020 as another year of poverty reduction and of sustainable development.
For further information or a full story of 2020 and to discuss any issues regarding this essential review of 2020, please do not hesitate to contact CENFACS.
Help CENFACS keep the Poverty Relief work going this Festive Season.
We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis. Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work, which is currently offered as a free service.
One could consider a recurring donation to CENFACS in the future.
Donate to support CENFACS!
FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/
Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.
Thank you as well to those who made or make comments about our weekly posts.
We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support throughout 2020 and beyond.
With many thanks.
