CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Christmas is coming and with it the last days of December. Consciously or unconsciously, we take stock of the year 2021, marked once again by the pandemic and its consequences, both health and economic. It has undoubtedly been a difficult year, in which the mistrust of some and the desperation of others have led to a generalised exhaustion from which no one knows when we will recover. However, all this should not prevent us from looking forward to 2022 with hope and excitement. Quite the contrary.

As I have stressed on previous occasions, I firmly believe that we must have (or develop) the capacity not only to be resilient, but also to overcome adversity. Take the example of GAM. In 2021 we had to cancel many of our activities and almost all of our scheduled events, except for the annual dinner, which finally took place on 13 November. We changed the date of two of our events several times in order to postpone them, but not to cancel them. However, in the end we had to exercise prudence and cancel them in the hope of finally being able to organise them in 2022.

However, despite the fact that we were not able to carry out most of what we had planned, it has been a fruitful year for our association. Both projects have been successfully completed and we have received generous enough donations and contributions from our benefactors to be able to meet the needs of all our beneficiaries. The support and dedication of GAM's friends, benefactors and volunteers (who by the way are becoming more and more numerous) has been impressive. We could not be more grateful. Solidarity and generosity have far outweighed selfishness and indifference.  And that is what we are left with.

Therefore, when we take stock of this year, a complicated one for all of us, let us not forget to do so by changing our perspective and transforming, as far as possible (although there will always be situations that are difficult to deal with) the negative into the positive and turning hate into love.

​To all a very Merry Christmas and may the year 2022 bring you light, health and hope.
 
Amílcar Ferro B.
President of GAM asbl