The war in Ukraine had a major impact on donations in Switzerland in 2022. Works collecting for those affected by the war achieved record amounts. This is shown in an article on ref.ch. Mission 21, which supports projects in other crisis areas, recorded a decline in donations.
Solidarity and willingness to donate are high in Switzerland. According to an article on the Internet portal ref.ch record sums were collected in Switzerland last year to support the disadvantaged. The three large works Caritas, Heks and the Swiss Red Cross collected a total of almost 160 million francs in 2022. All three works support projects related to Ukraine. Caritas, for example, received more than half of the donations in favor of these projects.
Mission 21 does not maintain any projects in Ukraine and is not active in refugee work in Switzerland. This is one of the reasons why donations fell by about ten percent to 11.3 million Swiss francs last year. In the article on ref.ch, we come up with another fact: The steady decline in church membership leads to lower income from church taxes and thus lower contributions from the cantonal churches.
Higher contributions and collections from parishes
What is not mentioned in the article on ref.ch is the increasing interest and willingness to donate to Mission 21 projects in parishes. Whether it is support for basic health care in Tanzania, help for women affected by violence in Asia or the expansion of the urgently needed midwifery school in South Sudan: last year, parishes donated more than 3.6 million for disadvantaged people who receive help in Mission 21 projects. Support from church congregations thus increased by five percent. Bazaar groups even collected ten percent more donations.
We are pleased about this great solidarity in the parishes for people in crisis regions, some of whom are out of the media spotlight. We will continue to work persistently to help these vulnerable population groups to lead a life in dignity.
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â–º The projects of Mission 21 worldwide
