transl: Public account of the Hogar de Cristo: “Dropped the contribution of the State to the most needy”

“have had difficult years. Today the Hogar de Cristo income being lower than costs. And the fall is in contributions from the State, not in the resources from donors, companies and solidarity. The latter have been growing every year to rates of 5, 6 per cent, which is very good. The strong deterioration comes from the State, that it has been decreasing their contributions in areas of older adult, school reintegration, people homeless, mental disability, by putting them in other also relevant theme, but we believe that you can not be at the expense of the most vulnerable. Doesn’t undress to a Saint to dress to another”, said Juan Cristóbal Romero, executive director of the Hogar de Cristo, in the public accounts of the institution which was attended by representatives of workers, foster children, directors, partners and organizations, among others.
Evaluation of management 2017 highlighted how the contributions of the State have gone down from 2014, when revenues exceeded 22 billion pesos. In 2017, resources by governmental agreement just reached 20 billion pesos. This performance contrasts with the increase which, in the same period, has been the contribution of partners and donors. “We want to thank the contribution of the community, because without the contribution of many people, we would be in a more difficult situation,” Romero added. During the year spent 44% of the resources came from members and donors, 41% of agreements with the State and 15% corresponded to income from own sources, as the funeral home of Christ.
Social management, 2017 the Hogar de Cristo welcomed more than 35 thousand people across the country, 65% of them are men, 95% are Chilean and 76% seniors. The area of homeless people is that leads with the largest number of men and women attended, exceeding the 15 thousand. In this matter, has special relevance the cost of care for each person. In the area of elderly care in residential mode cost $918.000 each; in initial education every child in room Cot and/or children’s garden had a cost of $167,000; in re-entry educational $390,000 by each student and in attention residential by consumption problem of alcohol and other drugs $887.000 by each person.
Accountability of results, was also underlined the importance of the partners, which at the level country exceeded 347 thousand persons, being the metropolitan, Valparaíso and Biobío regions which concentrated the largest number of donors. Volunteers also are a source of wealth for the home of Christ, therefore, executive director praised his performance. “They volunteered their time, shared his time and that’s impressive,” he said. During 2017 more than 37 thousand people participated across the country, both in volunteer group, corporate and individual.
During the public accounts are also highlighted the work of solidarity action, line of work of the Hogar de Cristo, which takes three years calling on the community to deploy its supportive capacity through initiatives, challenges and solidarity projects. In the 2017, this area had 3,200 volunteers, figure apart from the volunteers own of the home of Christ, and brought to 232 groupings. At the same time, highlighted the work of Fondo Esperanza – Hogar de Cristo is owner of the 49%-which at the end of last year helped more than 117 thousand entrepreneurs; In addition to the work done by the funeral home of Christ.
This is the second public account the Hogar de Cristo carried out this year. The first was developed in the platforms of the station, allowing any passer-by to consult about the work of the institution. These actions fall within the objectives of the institution, which seeks to make transparent the destination of the resources obtained primarily from donations and contributions from the State. Precisely, on 30 August the work of Alberto Hurtado priest held in the Auditorium of Telefónica and in conjunction with the Council for transparency, Fundación Lealtad and Universidad Católica, a seminar aimed at best practices in transparency in non-profit organizations. The current look of the business community against the accountability of NGOs will be analyzed by concept of donations and the way that these organizations must follow to achieve transparency in its activities.

Original source in Spanish