Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation
logo
legal form society
founding 1955
Seat Zurich , Switzerland
motto Real change over generations
main emphasis Development cooperation , emergency aid
Action space 29 countries
Members 100,000
Website www.helvetas.org

Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation is a Swiss development organization and was created in 2011 from a merger of the organizations Helvetas (founded in 1955) and Intercooperation (founded in 1982).

The organization is active in 29 of the poorest countries in Africa , Asia , Latin America and Eastern Europe . It focuses on helping disadvantaged people and communities in rural regions to help themselves. The focus is on basic needs such as drinking water , food security, education and income generation. HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation is a politically and denominationally independent association, which is supported by around 100,000 members, sponsors and 12 voluntary regional groups. Around 130 employees work in Switzerland (Zurich, Bern, Lausanne and Balerna) and over 1,400 (mainly local) employees in the project countries.

history

In 1947, the head of the Swiss donation (from 1948 Schweizer Europahilfe (SEH) ), Rodolfo Olgiati , pointed out in their bulletin that it was time to move on from post-war aid to peace work. He recognized the support of economically less developed countries outside Europe as a new task for Swiss aid activities. Olgiati is considered the first Swiss who put international solidarity in a global framework and spoke of the well-being of all peoples. In 1954 a group of initiators was set up with the memorandum Switzerland helps economically disadvantaged countries , which in 1955, after the unsuccessful search for an existing agency among the aid organizations, decided to found an association itself. Rodolfo Olgiati and Regina Kägi-Fuchsmann can be seen as the two most important founding personalities of the aid organization. On June 18, 1955, around 70 people from various ideological backgrounds founded the Swiss Aid Organization for Non-European Areas (SHAG) in the Hotel Limmathaus, Zurich . In 1965 the name was changed to Helvetas . In 2011 the merger with Intercooperation to form HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation. The association is a member of the Swiss Climate Alliance .

literature

  • Thomas Möckli: 50 years of Helvetas. Inspirer of Swiss development cooperation in the area of ​​tension between structural dependence and development policy vision . Licentiate thesis submitted to the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Freiburg (CH) in contemporary history with Urs Altermatt, July 2004
  • Ruedi Brassel-Moser : Helvetas. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . December 5, 2007 .

Web links