How it all started Mission East was founded in 1991 by René Hartzner, a Danish businessman in an international company, and his son, medical doctor Kim Hartzner. A Christian, René and a friend had travelled around Eastern Europe for five weeks in 1968 to discover how life was for Christians under Communist rule. The conditions they encountered had such an impact on René that he started spending much of his spare time travelling in Eastern Europe. Kim Hartzner, then just a boy, heard his father tell about experiences in Eastern Europe and became very interested. As a teenager he began to study Russian and get involved in Eastern European countries. Before entering university, Kim spent a year with organisations in Denmark and the USA which aimed at supporting people in the Soviet Union. Later, while studying medicine in Copenhagen, Kim continued his travels through Eastern Europe and his studies of Eastern European languages.
Mission East is founded
In 1991 René concluded that the needs he saw in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet world were now so great that he had to make a choice: either to stop his travels altogether or to enter into the work full time. Kim, now a medical doctor, supported his father in starting up an organisation with the aim to aid these areas.
On November 18th, 1991, Mission Øst (Mission East) was founded in Denmark with an office in René’s home. René was the only employee; Kim was totally involved from the start though still a full time doctor. Others took time off from work when extra help was needed. The first assistance went to St. Petersburg, Russia, where a church doing social work needed medicine for diabetics in order to further its work in the city. The medicine was transported from Denmark, later followed by food for school children and medical equipment for children’s hospitals and prisons. Meanwhile requests came from the Ukraine for medical equipment, particularly for orphanages, following the Chernobyl accident. These were followed by requests from Albania, and then Armenia. October 19th 1992 – less than a year after Mission East was founded – an emergency hospital was flown to the poor southern part of Armenia. A couple of months later similar hospitals were flown to Moscow prisons. Mission East was up and running.
Mission East becomes international
In January 1994 the first major emergency aid transport took place. Sponsored by ECHO (the European Community Humanitarian Office) food was distributed in war-stricken Armenia with the aid of volunteers from many countries.
On September 1st, 1996, the Danish office moved out of René’s home. As the work of Mission East expanded more people from outside of Denmark joined the organisation, and field offices were started up in the project countries. With some key staff in Belgium, in 1999 an official office was also set up in Brussels. On November 1st of that year, Kim Hartzner took over the role of Managing Director of Mission East, and René became President. In 2001 Mission East split into two separate organisations – Mission East and Active Mission, each with its own mandate and mission statement. Mission East focuses entirely on projects within its humanitarian remit and is led by Kim Hartzner as Managing Director and a Board of Directors. The new sister organisation Active Mission, implements projects focusing on the support of churches in Eastern Europe and Asia.
Today
Mission East has grown rapidly in a short space of time and its interventions spread far beyond its original Eastern European focus. The initial emphasis on relief is increasingly balanced by development programmes, and the staff involved are literally from all around the world. The assistance offered by Mission East is supported by a range of private and public donors. The organisation’s ‘popular roots’ remain strongly Danish, with a valued base of private supporters continuing to complement the institutional funding (eg from governmental donors, EU etc). With continuing growth and experience, Mission East looks forwards to assisting ever-increasing number of people in need.
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