The foundation

The mission of ImpactHope is expressed and effectuated along three complementary, co-ordinated overlapping axes that constitute a single cohesive global project: 

1. We seek to support Christians and other minorities that are persecuted, discriminated against, impoverished, or in any way marginalized. We do this by mentoring development projects in a dynamic partnership process that is above all faithful to the Gospel and the Church's social teachings. 

2. Our particular focus is on assisting the Church in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Global South, especially those local churches that seek to develop broader relationships in a missionary spirit seeking integrated development. We aid them by providing consultation across the spectrum of expertise, as well as financial support.  

3. This specifically requires strengthening relationships and cooperation throughout the world between national churches, local dioceses; individual parishes, religious congregations and movements; as well as any other pertinent ecclesiastical, governmental and and non-governmental organizations; in ways that clearly advance Christian values.

THE MISSION OF IMPACTHOPE: TO SERVE CHRIST AND CHRISTIANS

We seek to assist priests, religious and engaged laity in the service of the Church; through financial, professional and technical support in the implementation of their goals. 

The Foundation is active wherever Christian communities are victims of discrimination, poverty and persecution. We contribute to their ongoing struggle to sustain their communities and contribute to the development of their homelands.

The Foundation relies upon the experience and the professionalism of its founders, of the members of its steering committee and other collaborators.

After studying with the Salesians of Don Bosco, Jean-Marie Jolly entered working life very early, while simultaneously completing his university studies and professional pilot’s license. An economist specializing in developing economies, with a license of theology (Facultés jésuites de Paris), he has closely participated in the launching of NGOs and foundations favoring integral development, such as ECPAT International (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) and TED (Tourism & Development), and Acting for Life. Father of two children and a grandfather, he continues his work in service of the poorest. He chairs the ImpactHope Foundation steering committee.

Father Nicolas Buttet is a lawyer by education, and former deputy in the Cantonal Parliament of Valais in Switzerland. He has collaborated with the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace in Rome. In 1992 he withdrew in solitude for five years, living as a hermit at Notre-Dame de Scex in Valais. Upon his return to society in 1997, he founded the Fraternity Eucharistein in Saint-Maurice-d'Agone. This is one of the many new ecclesial movements, fruits of the Second Vatican Council. He is cofounder and vice-president of ImpactHope, as well as a member of the steering committee.

Didier Rance is a deacon, and father of three children. Historian of education, writer and specialist on martyrs of the 20th Century. He has worked for more than 10 years in Africa and the Middle East for various international organizations. He has also served as executive director of Aid to the Church in Need in France. He is cofounder and vice-president of ImpactHope, and member of the steering committee.

Father Hany Bakhoum was born in Cairo in 1974. He received his Master's in Telecommunications in 1996, and worked in that field for two years. During this period, he discerned his vocation to the priesthood with the Neo-Catechumenal Way. In 1998, he began his studies toward the priesthood at their Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Rome. He completed his theological studies in 2002 at the Pontifical Gregorian University. After two years spent doing missionary work in the Sudan he was ordained to the priesthood in Coptic Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with Rome. He was then named vice-rector of the Interreligious Seminary of Beruit in 2006, and while serving in that capacity earned his doctorate in canon law. Recently, in 2010, he returned to Cairo to serve as secretary to the Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria, Antonios Cardinal Naguib.