Great Bay (DCOMM):--- On Friday at the Government Administration Building, Minister of Health, Labor, and Social Affairs Cornelius de Weever met with the AMFO, a funding agency, to discuss current issues and future developments, in terms of financing of programs and projects.
The Minister said that we discussed several important issues meant to improve the working relationship between Government and AMFO, and by extension Non-Government Organizations (NGOs).
These organizations serve a great purpose in society, and I urge the community to continue supporting these organizations.
The main issues during the meeting were to synchronize funding with government policies. One of the reasons Director of AMFO Reinoudt Karsdorp said is that at the end of 2012, to no fault of their own, there will be no more funding of new projects, only the monitoring of such. Therefore the organization is seriously looking for alternative funding.
Therefore, there needs to be continuity of existing projects through different means of funding, so that once AMFO pulls out, these projects have a chance of survival. If they are in line with current governmental policies they have a better chance of being funded. But this is not guaranteed, so we have to prepare organizations for the transition, Minister De Weever said.
Because of the critical circumstances in terms of finances and the need to distinguish among the different projects and programs, there needs to be a more focused approach to the selection of projects for funding.
The aims and objectives of AMFO are indeed beneficial; to not only reduce poverty, but also to serve a good purpose in society, through the funding of these NGOs, which originates most of the time, from a bottoms-up approach. However, there needs to be a more structured approach, the Director pointed out.
NGOs have to work closer together, share experiences and ideas, share knowledge, and in turn, the operations will be smoother and the community will benefit more.
Some of the projects that AMFO has assisted are: No Kidding with our Kids Foundation, Helping Hands Foundation, Maximizing Pupils Changes Foundation, St Maarten Independent Theatre Foundation, Jewel, St Maarten Star Foundation, among others.
