Communication with Stakeholders

To further enhance our expert credentials, we worked to maintain a close dialogue with our external stakeholders in 2023. The aim of all our communications activities remained the same as it's always been - to position War Child as an internationally acknowledged expert in psychosocial support for children affected by war and increase awareness and drive funds about our mission and work.

A handful of highlights throughout the year:

• In February, within 48 hours of the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and northwest Syria, we had launched an online campaign and direct mailing generating funding for our emergency response in the immediate aftermath. War Child also became a guest member of SHO/Giro 555 which allowed us to significantly scale up the response. An interview on Al Jazeera with Lukas van Trier, Country Director for our Syria Response  positioned us further as an expert in mental health and psychosocial support.

• In May, a prime-time TV series focused on interviews with prominent Dutch figures, generated headlines in the largest Dutch newspaper, Algemeen Dagblaad and a whole host of top-tier media. 990,000 people watched at least one episode, with replays later in the year engaging 467,000 more viewers.

• In October, we immediately reached out to our "Friends" base when children in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory experienced the worst escalation in violence in their lifetime. Ernst Suur, Managing Director of War Child Netherlands appeared on major Dutch talk show Khalid & Sophie, along with several others, to push for children's right to an immediate and sustained ceasefire.

• In November, we collaborated once again with long-standing retail partner, HEMA with our annual festive season campaign. This saw HEMA sell pyjamas for the whole family with 25% of the proceeds going straight to War Child. This included the "wear your PJs to work" day at the headquarters of partner Rituals and a PJ day at different schools under the motto “stand up for children in war.” The campaign saw 20 million people tune in to a variety of media coverage and the sale of the pyjamas generated a €473,500 towards our programmes.

• In December, we ended the year with a big bang by collaborating with 22 Dutch artists to deliver The Streamers, a free online concert on Boxing Day. The event was a way for these famous faces to show their solidarity with children spending the holidays in the midst of war.

Samenwerkende hulporganisaties (SHO)

War Child participated in the SHO action “Help slachtoffers aardbeving” which supported the victims of the early 2023 earthquake in Syria and Turkey. The financial overview of this action can be summarized as per below:

The grant value amounts to € 1.0m of which € 0.9 million was received in 2023. The difference between the amount received and amount spent is recorded as liability on the balance sheet.