Annual Report 2023
16-year-old Bianka from Topoľčany. Spending time with her volunteer on a park bench. It feels like the world is standing still in this moment, with everything condensed into it. Acceptance, comfort, trust. Laughter. Being together is so ordinary and yet so extraordinary. Breathing the same crisp spring air. Just because they can. Time. Together. Love. Being. Life.
Thank you, my friends, for your time. For your love in a thousand guises: volunteers, donors, therapists, the selection team, graphic designers and illustrators, marketers and managers, journalists, and participating centres for children and families. All of you who help us. 2023 was a beautiful year. But it was also one of the most challenging years for us. It tested our love and patience. One of our colleagues had a very difficult medical crisis to deal with. Things are much better now.
We had love, patience, peace and wisdom on our side. We bonded. Some plans were pushed back, and we adjusted the tempo and working hours. For 21 children, we may have found someone who will be dear to them for a lifetime, someone they can trust. We also secured new donors and recruits.
Thank you.
Thank you for your trust and love. We are patiently doing our best to conjure up that same love and trust for children in every corner of our beautiful Slovakia. For children who won’t get the time, attention or acceptance they need from their parents, either today or tomorrow. But they do have us. And even if they don’t know us by name, and even if you don’t know their names, there’s one thing we do know: we know they can feel our support. They can see and experience love every week in its thousand glorious forms, in a thousand and one beautiful places.
Just as it is. A couple of hours together a week. A few hours of joy. And in those hours the wonder and awe of all life.
My heartfelt thanks on behalf of the entire BUDDY team,
Laci Kossár,
founder