November Update: the Lord has helped us to this point
Dear friends and partners,
Warm greetings to you from Bulawayo!
I write to you with many thoughts on my mind, and with many things I think to share with you about… However, I believe what is important I share, not to mention overdue, is that I spend a good portion of this email updating you with our recent financial reports, and sharing about our financial position in general. I’ve never been the best at doing this, I’m sorry 🙈, nor at ensuring financial reports are sent out as often as they should be. I do sincerely apologise for this, and will do better.
Firstly though, let me share a few super brief ‘snippets’ from some of the other things on my mind to share with you, then I’ll get onto the finances:
It continues to be heart-breaking to hear of the situations that people face here. We had a lady and her children who we met a while ago. As we got to know them, and visited where they stay, a bathroom of about 1m by 1.5m that her, her husband, and her 4 kids stayed in, we also heard of devastating domestic violence and abuse. On one night it became so horrific that she became unconscious and the kids and neighbours had to seek to help her regain consciousness, before her son called one of our team at 5am. Thankfully, we now have a home we can use for crisis accommodation, and we were able to place her there with her kids for now, and seek to love and support them in her heart-wrenching situation (the other ministry that used to help victims of domestic violence here in Bulawayo is facing significant problems, and can’t offer the services they used to unfortunately, so that wasn’t an option any more).
Recently, at our Strategic Planning Meeting of the ONM Board and Management Committee, one of the Board members from Australia asked “how is the situation in Zimbabwe now, say compared to 5 years ago, when we had our last Strategic Planning Meeting”. Two of our ministry leaders, who work out in the communities etc the most, thought for quite a while, before sharing that “it’s worse, 10 fold”.
You may have heard we had elections here a few months ago. I’ll not say what I want to about that election, or about other horrific events currently happening in Zimbabwe, partly to avoid any potential implications if the wrong people get hold of what I say. But suffice to say, things look like continuing to get worse and worse for the foreseeable future here. This, and many other things happening around the world currently, clearly show us the fallen world we live in hey!
The precious little ones at Isaiah’s Babies Home continue to be doing well 😊. We have been running a bit above capacity for quite a while now (ideally we can accommodate up to 20 little ones. Currently we have 21, but recently we had 26). This is particularly due to increased cases of extreme poverty, and mental health issues, within the community. And when the babies/children have known extended families, usually the Department of Social Development don’t allow adoptions. This, combined with some of the organisations who provide ‘homes for life’ for children in need also significantly struggling at this time, means we are having some children stay at Isaiah’s longer than we want them to, in terms of what is best for them. So we are seeking God, and the best way forward, in these circumstances.
Now, let me share some financial updates and information with you friends:
Firstly, please click on this link to download our ONM Financial Summary Report for January to September 2023. You can also see the various worksheets in this spreadsheet, for further breakdowns of the expenses per ministry area.
You will notice that there is a surplus balance at the end of September of US$17,790. We should have had US$21,500 as a surplus. This is because this was the total that we should have had put aside for specific projects or things at the end of September (this amount included US$12,000 for an upgraded vehicle for the Hearts of Love team). However, we had to borrow almost US$4,000 of this to cover some key basic expenses we needed to at this time, hence the surplus of US$17,790.
As I write, our position is really not good financially. It’s as bad as it’s been for a few years unfortunately. We have had to not pay a number of outstanding bills, to pay staff salaries in instalments, and to delay some ministry things we would have wanted to do. Three specifics will give you a bit of a summary picture of our current financial position:
- we’ve borrowed US$14,193 at present from money that should be put aside for specific projects in the future, or for the upgraded vehicle for Hearts of Love (which is needed ASAP), given very significant needs we felt we needed to do this for;
- only on 14 November did we essentially finish paying all of the outstanding October staff salaries; and
- we owe the tax office (re staff salary tax contributions) and superannuation authority US$8,349 currently (this is 2 and a bit months worth).For your information, we get twice monthly transfers from WorldShare/Action on Poverty in Australia, which is where the bulk of our financial support comes from (through individuals, etc, donating to us via our partnership with WorldShare and Action on Poverty).
We were aware in advance that this year would likely be harder than last year financially, given adjustments we made with partnerships, which meant some additional fees to help ONM grow our capacity and professionalism etc for the future.
Please also click on this link to download our audited statement of accounts for 2022.
So, given the above financial situation, let me share a few thoughts on where I believe we’re at as ONM, what we are doing about the situation, and what we see as the way forward:
Firstly, as we recently shared as a team, we need to start by saying Ebenezer, ‘the Lord has helped us to this point’, and we are so thankful!!🙏 It was really nice to recently spend some time reflecting on some of the things ONM has done over the last 18 years, and some of the people’s lives who’ve been changed and impacted.
Also, in saying the above, a big thank you must be given to ALL of the individuals and partners that have made possible what ONM has done over the last 18 years, and continue to enable what is happening here in Bulawayo!!
Given our current ONM financial position, if people would like to particularly help at this time, or additionally help at this time, that’d be wonderful! If you are in Australia, you can click on the following two links to get the required information on how to do this link 1 link 2 . If you are elsewhere, and don’t know how to support ONM from where you are, please email Belinda on isaiahs@yoafrica.com .
Also, we are really hoping to increase the support we get on a ‘month by month’ basis, that is, through regular monthly gifts. This will help us achieve more consistent monthly cash flows, which will in turn help us to operate in the best way possible. If this is an option for you, as a current partner who gives occasionally or annually etc, or any new partners, we’d really appreciate this consideration. And if you’d like your monthly support to go to particularly areas within ONM, please let me know, as we love to facilitate this for people, and give you specific feedback on the area you are supporting!
We are most definitely aware we haven’t done our part as well as we could and should have over the last couple of years, in terms of sharing, and raising awareness, of what ONM is doing or seeking to do, and I take the key responsibility for this. This includes the level of feedback we should have given to you, our partners. We have specific plans to do much better in this regard going forward.
We are really excited about the direction we believe ONM is heading in, over the next 3-5 years, in terms of growth in how we are operating as a team, growth in the long-term impact of what we do (including significant growth in sustainable empowerment of individuals and families), and growth in the amount of babies/children/people that we are able to love and impact.
We are also looking at any areas we can trim our expenses currently.
So, I think I’ve covered all the key things I wanted to share at this time. I don’t like to share of specific financial needs, as those who know me well will attest 🙈. One person, knowing me, encouraged me to ensure I put specific financial needs and details in this update 😅.
Thank you SOOOOO MUCH to you all for your love and partnership with ONM! Please know what you are a part of, and what you are enabling!
Whilst this update has had a financial focus, I’m looking forward to sharing more on all the babies, children and adults that ONM is loving and serving in my next update, in the near future.
Much love,
Martin and the ONM team
