Despite emerging from under the yoke of communist governments more than a decade ago, there are still many thousands of families in Eastern Europe who subsist below the United Nations poverty level.

What is the F2F Programme?

Mission Without Borders has a programme named Family to Family (F2F). This is a pledge sponsorship programme. For each family we are helping in Eastern Europe we need to raise $NZ160 a month. While a few donors give this whole amount to support “their” family, we usually have up to four sponsors each giving $40 a month in support.

What does F2F do?

Every month the families registered in F2F receive a parcel containing either food items or hygiene items. As well as this the children are entitled to come to summer camp, they all receive regular visits from our workers who offer a listening ear, advise and counsel and offer the family Christian literature and spiritual support. We add to the gifts made possible by sponsors from our Gifts in Kind donations so that they may be given household needs like furniture, additional food supplies, shoes and so on. We also have an Urgent Needs fund to help in emergencies. In Albania we supply free medicines to all who are in need of this. In Albania and Ukraine mothers-to-be are helped with MotherCare parcels.

The goal is to assist each family to become self-sufficient. For some families who may have disabled children or parents, this goal may be difficult to reach.

The grinding poverty found in all our field countries means that it is really important to provide emotional and spiritual support to these families. In many cases the father is absent, either working abroad or he has abandoned his family because caring for them was too difficult, or he may have died.

Sponsors receive annual updates showing their family, and also several communications from the family each year. You are able to send up to 4 communications (e.g. postcard, short letter, photos, or small gift) a year.

Become a sponsor

To learn about some of the families waiting to receive a sponsor, please phone our office. You can also watch this short movie: