Annual Report 2022

In the 3rd year of a global pandemic, many things have changed. The team has been fully remote for a while now, making it difficult to restart activities in-person in Stockholm, such as meetings and events. Working with partners in Uganda has also become more challenging since we have not had the chance to meet face-to-face for three years now. Remote work tiredness started to kick in, because if it is true that online platforms help us to go over borders without taking a plane, it is also true that talking to people in-person gives you an energy that online methods can just partially help you to achieve. In addition, many of our more senior managers had considerably big changes in their lives (e.g. new jobs, moving country, etc.) making it more difficult for them to actively engage with SOGH. It is the nature of volunteer-based work, some years are more challenging than others when
several things comes together. However, we did not stop in front of such challenges but simply continue with what was possible within the availability we had as a team (including giving time and space to new members to adjust, since we recruited quite a few in the second half on 2022).

Change is generally seen as dangerous, especially when that means slowing down and do less than what you are used to do. We think the contrary is true. Real change, systemic change that improves things for the better, requires slowing down, understanding the current situation and planning for the next phase. Perhaps 2022 was not full of activities and achievements in the usual sense of the words, but it gave us the opportunity to reflect and come up with what we needed to do next – see four points above. We owe this to our supporters, our partners, but also, and mostly, to ourselves as SOGH team members. Being part of SOGH should add something positive to our lives and the world, so slowing down to find how to get there is our greatest 2022 achievement.

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