Year-end Message from Jeffrey Behr (2025)

Dear HOPE Japan Supporters,

As we close the chapter on 2025 and look ahead to a new year filled with promise, I am deeply humbled by the unwavering dedication of our donor and volunteer community. Your continued generosity over these 24 years has been the cornerstone of our mission: Helping the Neglected Poor become Self-Reliant. Together, we have driven meaningful progress against the enduring challenges of extreme poverty.

Our friends in Cambodia, Ethiopia, and the Philippines continue to face daily hardships, especially the lack of safe drinking water that affects health, livelihoods, and opportunity. In response, HOPE’s work starts with water, moves into education, and grows into programs that build practical skills, confidence, and genuine independence. Through your support, HOPE has been able to install wells and water systems, provide sanitation and hygiene education, and strengthen women’s leadership through health initiatives and income-generating activities, helping thousands of people in these three countries move out of ultra-poverty toward healthier and more hopeful lives.

Our integrated community development work in Dei Kraw Horm, Ankrong and other villages in Pursat Province, Cambodia, continues to advance alongside our efforts at the Pamulaan Center in the Philippines to nurture indigenous student’s success. Meanwhile, our Ethiopian programs, supported by corporate partners, individual donors, and Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have strengthened access to clean water and hygiene infrastructure with vital WaSH projects at schools and communities. These interventions align powerfully with the UN Sustainable Development Goals we champion - SDG 1 to eradicate poverty, SDG 4 for quality education, and SDG 6 to ensure clean water and sanitation.

Every well and water system installed, every school supported, every hygiene lesson taught through HOPE’s programs is a vital step in empowering communities to break the cycle of poverty and build resilient futures. Your compassion fuels this journey from access to basic needs toward sustainable self-reliance and dignity. As we celebrate another year of partnership, I extend my deepest gratitude to each of you who make this life-changing work possible.

May this festive season inspire renewed hope and solidarity as we join hands to uplift the vulnerable and forge pathways of opportunity for those often forgotten. Together, let us continue to transform lives and communities, affirming our commitment to a world where no one is left behind.

With heartfelt thanks,

Jeffrey S. Behr

Executive Director

HOPE International Development Agency Japan