“Discussing the achievements, the challenges, and the future of the humanitarian sector is the purpose of the European Humanitarian Forum, which takes place these two days in Brussels,” shares our colleague Thomas Petracek, Director of Programmes at ADRA Europe.
“Worldwide, we are struggling with an increasing number of crises and less funding, with increasing violence, fewer peace resolution efforts, more natural disasters, and insufficient preparedness. The participants at this forum work on solutions, and ADRA is a part of it. Our globalized world is becoming more complex, and therefore solutions require international dialog and adaptation to the new realities.
The congress center neighbors a church, and the plaza of both buildings is full of participants during the break time, sitting, walking, and speaking together. In a trembling world, we must return to values that make us human – values that Jesus Christ lived by serving people in his daily work. The church building represents them. Jesus became a humanitarian worker by caring for the most vulnerable among him. With his calm and gentle approach, he inspired thousands to follow him to serve humanity, including myself.
ADRA stands to His principles which brought hope to the poor again, Hope which our world needs by sharing compassion, Justice, and Love. This plaza symbolizes the international dialogue, the Congress Center stands for professionalism, and the church building for values. All three we need to make our world safer and more human again.”
Currently, colleagues from ADRA offices in Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Czech Republic, Indonesia and Germany participate in the European Humanitarian Forum 2024 in Brussels.
More about ADRA
ADRA delivers relief and development assistance to individuals in more than 118 countries—regardless of their ethnicity, political affiliation, gender, or religious association.
By partnering with local communities, organizations, and governments, ADRA is able to deliver culturally relevant programs and build local capability for sustainable change.
ADRA is the global humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church—part of the 20-million strong Adventist community, with hundreds of thousands of churches globally and the world’s largest integrated healthcare and education network.
In Europe ADRA is present in 30 countries.
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