As a humanitarian and development organisation, we honour the principle of transparency and respect everyone's freedom to express their opinion.
However, we are surprised at the way in which some facts about humanitarian and development aid have been misinterpreted in the „Over the Line“ programme. We have decided to respond to the misleading claims that have been made about our work and set the record straight.
Questioning the advisability of building a water reservoir in Lebanon, as there is already a water supply system in the area, is not based on facts. Although there is a water supply network in Hay El Shaab Wal Zahraa, Baalbek, it has been using a local spring as a source, which does not provide a steady supply of water due to frequent drying up. ADRA has therefore built a 500m water tank in the village3, connected it to a well drawing water from a depth of 400m and to the aforementioned water supply network. This has provided a permanent source of drinking water for an area that is home to 21 000 Lebanese and 8 000 Syrian refugees.
The donor (SAMRS) sets a limit for project management costs (personal costs of ADRA Slovakia and partner organisation + monitoring trips) at maximum 20% of the total budget. Of the total value of our project, management costs were 17.98%. The donor also defines the relevant positions and sets the salary assessment for them according to the price of labour that is common in the non-profit sector. The budget for the humanitarian project to assist Lebanon was drawn up in accordance with the following rules and does not contain no overestimated project management costs nor duplicate Positions.
The author of the session based his thesis on information that was part of the internal evaluation process of our project application by SAMRS and its external evaluators and by the nature of this process was not accessible to us. We provided assistance to the SAMRS agency during the application evaluation stage and responded to any ambiguities in the project plan. The project was approved and thus we conclude that the doubts raised by the evaluators were clarified and the construction of the water tank was considered a necessary and economically spent humanitarian assistance. You can read more about the appraisal process on the SAMRS Agency website.
The claim that some „Slovak organisations in fact humanitarian and development do not provide assistance and grant money from the Slovak state budget only forwarded by partner organisations abroad and part of the will keep“, is not true. Any organisation implementing a humanitarian project works with a local partner, which implements the assistance on the ground, while the Slovak organisation is responsible for administration, project and financial management and reporting to the donor. All budget lines are subject to to substantiate and subsequent audit, it is therefore not possible for an organisation to „keep“ part of the money without properly documenting all expenditure.
While we are pleased that the media and the public are interested in humanitarian and development aid, we are sorry that our work remains misunderstood. The unprofessional and unfair handling of information calls into question and denigrates humanitarian and development aid and undermines trust in the work of the non-profit organisations that focus on this complex and often dangerous service.
In this case, we particularly regret the disparagement of the intention of the project, which we managed to complete with the joint involvement of you, our individual donors. Your financial support was crucial in the last phase of the project when the local water company was unable to meet its commitment. We have kept you openly and regularly informed about the successes and the hardships of this project. on our website a social media. We will continue to use all available means to communicate our work and funding sources in a responsible, timely and transparent manner.
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