‘The greatest gift we can give them is to let them keep their parents for as long as possible', says Britto, our project partner from SSH in India. I'm looking at Jegatheswaran. His father has already died of AIDS. His mother is also infected, and can only perform light labour. With the support of SSH, Jega can attend school and build his own future. He also learns how to prevent becoming infected himself. Jega is doing well at school. Despite the huge taboo that still surrounds AIDS, he is part of the community. 'We're breaking the chain here', I think to myself. 'Give these children an opportunity and they'll grasp it'.

Net4kids exists to give children that opportunity. There is no doubt that our own opportunities to help more children are countless. Using our model, we reach people who are otherwise left by the wayside. We serve critical donors who want to choose for themselves, who are looking for involvement and transparency when it comes to the aid made possible thanks to them. We are clear about the investments, but also about the so-called 'social return on investment', the results of the support. We provide this clarity on an organisational level, with our annual report, but also on an individual level, with personalised reports. That we are meeting a market demand is not only reflected by our growth figures, but also in the feedback we receive from our donors.

Because our opportunities are so great, it was difficult to accept that our organisation was stretching the limits of its growth potential. We work with fantastic professionals who – one and all – work for Net4kids without pay, but who also have other responsibilities to tend from time to time. This makes the organisation vulnerable, with long throughput times. Without volunteers, Net4kids cannot exist. But we need to ensure that the core positions are manned by (partially) paid employees.

We continued to grow in 2007, although we feel the growth was less than it could have been due to the internal limitations within Net4kids. We have since taken the first steps to remove these limitations. Despite this, we were once more able to facilitate the most fantastic projects in 2007. We helped Jegatheswaran, and 16,193 other children along with him. This is an honour and a privilege. As it is an honour to share the results with such special project partners, such passionate employees and such involved donors.

I wish to thank you for this. On behalf of the children, who we help together, on behalf of the board, and, on a more personal note, on behalf of my wife Anke and myself, as founders of Net4kids.

Loek van den Boog

June 2008

Net4kids © June 2008