Annual Report 2025

To Him belongs our gratitude, because He is the source of hope, strength, and love from which our service grows. With deep gratitude, we thank all employees, officers, corps members, partners, donors, and supporters who stood by us during 2025. Their dedication, faithfulness, and willingness to serve were irreplaceable, especially in times of legislative changes, financial pressures, and societal challenges.

The biblical words remind us: “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1). We too confess that without God's help, our work would have neither a firm foundation nor true fruit. We believe that the Lord Jesus leads us to people who need help, acceptance, encouragement, and hope. At the same time, He teaches us to see the dignity and unique value in every human being.

Our community centers, corps, and social services continued to be places of help, acceptance, and hope for the most vulnerable in 2025. When we look at the past twelve months, we don't just see numbers, statistics, and reports. Behind every distributed food parcel, every bed provided in the shelter, every child accepted into our kindergarten, and every conversation, hides a specific human story. A story of struggle, pain, but also the restoration of dignity, return to society, and finding a new life and spiritual anchor.

Whether it was supporting people experiencing homelessness, serving marginalized communities, accompanying families, working with children, or maintaining and developing our services in difficult conditions, we could once again see that combining professional social work with sincere Christian faith brings real fruit. Our faith is not just a private conviction, but a motivation for concrete service. It leads us to stand by people in need, seek justice, bring practical help, and proclaim hope.

Above all, however, we thank the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that He was with us in joys and difficulties, opened doors, gave wisdom in decision-making, and strengthened us where our human strength was not enough. Therefore, we enter the next period with humility, faith, and the desire to remain faithful to the mission of The Salvation Army: to serve suffering humanity, bring help without discrimination, and point to the hope that has its source in God. May our service continue to be a testimony of God's love for humanity.

The Salvation Army operates in 134 countries worldwide. In Slovakia, we have been registered as a civic association since 2014. Our primary asset is connecting professional social services, humanitarian aid, and spiritual support, thereby addressing the complex needs of individuals on the margins of society.

Our Team
Our mission would not be possible without the dedicated work of our personnel. Currently, the organization consists of 29 employees who, with maximum commitment and expertise, ensure the daily operation of our social, educational, and community services directly in the field and at headquarters.

Currently, The Salvation Army in Slovakia is organizationally connected to a broader structure. The leadership of our territory (The Netherlands, Czech Republic, and Slovakia) is currently represented by Territorial Commander – Commissioner Bente Gundersen and National Commanders (Slovakia and Czech Republic) – Commissioners Alistair and Marieke Venter. The position of Regional Officer, responsible for direct management in Slovakia, is held by Major Petr Kováčik. This connection with international leadership provides us with strong organizational stability and sharing of best practices in social and spiritual work.

Maják Community Center
Maják CC operates daily as a registered social service provider. In the past year, the center distributed food aid worth an impressive €88,836, representing the distribution of 3,316 parcels with pastries, vegetables, and fruit. Clothing and footwear worth €400 helped 170 families. Professional staff conducted 137 individual counseling sessions and a total of 1,773 different activities. On a daily basis, hygiene (the personal hygiene center was used 578 times) and laundry facilities (laundry room used 472 times) were provided. As part of work therapies, clients participated in the maintenance of the center's exterior. The center's operation was supported by a subsidy from the MPSVaR SR in the amount of €62,487.23. Economically justified costs per social service recipient according to the type of social service provided per calendar year were €35.24. In the coming years, the center plans to build a community garden and ensure the operation of a night shelter at Dvor Garažd.

Galanta Corps
Spiritual support in Galanta was tightly linked to the community center, with up to 90% of service attendees being its direct clients. Sunday services were visited by a cumulative 878 people (averaging 16-20 people). Bible studies, held every Wednesday, were attended by 614 people. A significant success was the kids club, regularly attended by a total of 684 Ukrainian children, for whom a trip to the zoo and a first aid course were prepared. In the summer, we also organized a joint camp for 12 Roma and 22 Ukrainian children.

Men's Shelter in Hlohovec
The capacity of the shelter (19 beds) was fully and continuously occupied since August, which testifies to the high demand for this crisis service. A total of 31 clients passed through the facility during the year. The results of our reintegration efforts were very tangible: we helped eight clients find stable employment and three successfully moved into commercial rental housing. Clients actively participated in work therapy, from building maintenance to preparing food for the community.

The operation was financially and materially supported by: the Trnava Self-Governing Region (€83,000), the City of Hlohovec in the amount of €4,500, The Salvation Army in the Netherlands (€5,000), Tesco Slovakia (groceries worth €4,000), Texit (mattresses), and also precious contributions from dozens of anonymous donors. Economically justified costs per social service recipient according to the type of social service provided per calendar year were €395.24. A huge spiritual support was the launch of chaplaincy service, through which several men in difficult life situations accepted Jesus Christ and discovered new hope for life.

Pastoral Center in Trebišov
The project in Trebišov continued to systematically work with the local Roma community, directly reaching approximately 100 families (which represents roughly 450 people). The work of the pastoral center achieved massive attendance – for example, in July, up to 320 people participated in summer community activities. Special attention was paid to the education and support of women through a successful women's conference that attracted more than 50 women.

Children and families received daily food aid (in close cooperation with Caritas) and support in fulfilling compulsory school attendance. The organization also actively participated in preparing the building for the future community center and established strategic cooperation with the city of Trebišov in planning the construction of a new kindergarten and primary school directly in the locality.

Use of Assigned Tax Share (2%)
Funds obtained from the assigned share of income tax (2%) in 2025 were fully utilized exclusively to help people in need, exactly as we declared when receiving them. The finances were directly invested into the sustainability and improvement of our field social services, crisis intervention, and community programs.

During this year, we put great effort into public relations and building relationships with our supporters. We successfully implemented the PODO project, which was directly aimed at supporting our kindergarten in Plavecký Štvrtok, thereby securing better and more dignified conditions for the education of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In the pre-Christmas period, our traditional and publicly well-known Kettle Campaign took place. We are immensely grateful that thanks to donor solidarity, we recorded excellent proceeds, which we used exclusively for direct help to socially weaker people and individuals from marginalized groups during the coldest winter months.

In an effort to provide transparent information and bring our work closer to the modern world, we completely redesigned and successfully launched a new organizational website. Additionally, we managed to implement a new, much more efficient CRM system and payment gateway, which significantly facilitates our donation management and communication with supporters. Next year, we plan to further strengthen our presence in the online space and substantially develop our interaction with the public via social networks.