In 2021, in response to the Burmese crisis and the severity of the Covid pandemic, your donations were significantly higher than in previous years. Nevertheless, because of the multiple challenges to which our partner organisations responded, we gradually depleted our funds. By September 2021 we had only a reserve of €2,000 left in our accounts. Fortunately, many of you responded to our appeal in September, which enabled us to maintain our core financial support to our partners until the end of the year. Many of you have also responded to our end-of-year annual appeal to top up our Permanent Asia Solidarity Fund.

Thanks to our donors we have been able to resume our planned financial support to our Asian partners and also re-establish an emergency reserve of €7,000 so that we can respond to urgent situations.

We have just sent €3,000 to the Philippines, which was hit hard by the super typhoon Rai (Odette). We will provide an update via our website and Philippines newsletter shortly.

The production of our annual report and balance sheet is delayed by a few weeks this year. The delay is the result of some administrative challenges which have now been resolved.

As many of you know, ESSF does not receive any income except for your private donations. These are transferred in full to our Asian partners, with absolutely minimum bank and foreign exchange costs. The members of the association cover all other operating costs themselves. We continue to operate without paid staff.

Let us also recall some of our principles:

– We respond to the best of our ability to all humanitarian crises, whatever their origin: natural or man-made disasters, armed conflicts... We also contribute to the protection of “whistleblowers”, rights or environmental defenders, trade unionists, associations or political activists, who are persecuted and sometimes assassinated by the established powers.

– We conceive solidarity in the long term, because we know that a population only recovers slowly from a humanitarian disaster (such as the devastation caused by a violent typhoon), and only under certain conditions. Perhaps the most important of these conditions is that they themselves take charge of the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction of their living conditions (if possible on a new basis). For this they need unconditional support over several months or even years.

– We do not judge the priority needs and we do not finance “our” projects abroad. This is why we help local partners with social roots, which are often able to intervene in a range of fields that can go from health, social or ecological policies to the fight against gender inequalities, oppression, militarism... Our partners are networks and movements that are particularly able to facilitate the self-organisation of the populations concerned, with local communities, by respecting their free will instead of taking advantage of their vulnerability to aggravate their dependence, as the established powers do.

Our core partners in Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh are well established and experienced, and continue to respond creatively in extremely challenging situations.

The situation in Burma is particularly fluid. This is not one of our traditional partner countries but we were one of the first solidarity groups to provide financial support to the extraordinary popular mobilisation in response to the military coup. This is thanks to our core partners in the region who have the knowledge and contacts that enable us to ensure that the aid we send to this country is well allocated. We hope to be able to maintain our support for the resistance against Burma’s military dictatorship throughout the current year, but we are not yet able to guarantee this. Donations earmarked Burma (or indeed for any of our partner countries) are always welcome!)

In addition to financial support, ESSF works alongside other movements, in the multiform renewal of international solidarity. For example, wwe have actively participated in the launch of the campaign for the lifting of private patents on anti-Covid vaccines, in order to generalise their production in as many countries as possible.

In these times of crisis, the development of living international solidarity remains essential. Thanks for your continued engagement.

Adam Novak
Pierre Rousset
ESSF

To send donations

Cheques
cheques to ESSF in euros only, payable in France, to be sent to:
ESSF
2, rue Richard-Lenoir
93100 Montreuil
France

Bank Account:
Crédit lyonnais
Agence de la Croix-de-Chavaux (00525)
10 boulevard Chanzy
93100 Montreuil
France
ESSF, account number 445757C

International bank account details :
IBAN : FR85 3000 2005 2500 0044 5757 C12
BIC / SWIFT : CRLYFRPP
Account holder : ESSF

Through PayPal
You can send money through Paypal: see the PayPal button on ESSF English home page: http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?page=sommaire&lang=en

Through HelloAsso
You can also send money through the association HelloAsso: see its button on ESSF English home page: http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?page=sommaire&lang=en
Or go directly to:
https://www.helloasso.com/associations/europe-solidaire-sans-frontieres/formulaires/1/widget

We will keep you regularly informed via our website regarding the use of the solidarity fund.