Latin America Center

Latin America Center eV
purpose	Development cooperation with a focus on Latin America
Chair:	Dr. Helmut Hoffmann (Executive President)
Establishment date:	December 10, 1961
Seat :	Bonn (Germany)
Website:	www.lateinamerikazentrum.de

The Latin America Center eV (LAZ) in Bonn is a non-profit association for development cooperation . It was founded in 1961 by Hermann M. Görgen , who fled to Brazil with a group of regime opponents and people of Jewish faith during the Second World War . After his return it was his concern to help needy people in Latin America . In this sense, the LAZ promotes aid projects in Latin America and thereby supports the work of local partner organizations. With more than 1000 aid projects in 17 Latin American countries, the LAZ was able to help people to help themselves and, together with its partners, to create long-term and sustainable structures to combat poverty . The association is neither politically nor religiously bound. The aim is to strengthen the partners and enable them to continue the work on their own after the financing has been completed. Therefore, the support of the projects by the LAZ is limited in time.

Fields of work

In Europe

The LAZ provides development education in Europe . The association sees its task in informing the people in Europe about the living conditions in Latin America and to sensitize them to problems and injustices. On the other hand, the association tries to convey the cultural richness and creative diversity of the region. One example of this is the traveling exhibition "The One World in the Seeker", for which young people from various Latin American countries and Germany documented their everyday lives.

Over the years, the LAZ has built up a dense regional network . There are contacts to numerous civil society organizations as well as to governmental and non-governmental organizations involved in development cooperation and to regionally based companies with a connection to Latin America .

In Latin America

The Latin America Center works locally with non - profit, non - governmental organizations . The focus is on the need of the people, the effectiveness of the projects and the competence of the partner. The LAZ only supports projects that have arisen through the initiative of a trustworthy local partner and in which the idea of helping people to help themselves is pursued. The projects must be adapted to the local social, cultural and ecological environment and ensure a participatory approach. The focus is on the sustainability of the projects, they should lead to a permanent improvement in the living situation of the target group.

Project areas and goals

The Latin America Center supports projects to reduce poverty and improve the living conditions of needy population groups in Latin America in various areas . The projects are located both in rural areas and in large cities. In its cooperation with local partners, the LAZ pursues the following goals:

• Improvement of the educational situation of needy children and young people from rural areas or from the slums of big cities.
• Promotion of street children
• Establishment and implementation of training courses for needy adolescents and young adults in the fields of agriculture , handicrafts , housekeeping , office administration and the service sector
• Advancement of women through professional training, health and nutrition counseling, and preparation to run small businesses
• Promotion of micro-entrepreneurs through further training in business and administrative topics
• Strengthening rural development to reduce rural-to-urban migration and improve the living conditions of smallholders
• Building health centers and running health education campaigns
• Environmental and climate protection
• Promotion of indigenous communities in accordance with their own ideas and needs

financing

The funded projects are financed with public funds ( EU , BMZ , InWEnt ), donations and other private funds.

literature

• Görgen, Hermann M .: A life against Hitler. History and rescue of the "Görgen Group". Autobiographical sketches. Lit-Verlag 1997, ISBN 3-8258-3457-3
• Prutsch, Ursula: Hermann Mathias Görgens fleeing Austria 1935-1938. Aperçu on the anti-Nazi resistance of Catholic-conservative immigrants in Austria. In: With the accordion. Journal for Literature of Exile and Resistance (1999), Issue 2, pp. 29–34.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ LAZ News , in: Tópicos 2/2005, p. 59 ( Web document  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )  
2. ↑ Cf. Latin America Center (ed.): The Latin America Center , in: The Latin America Center shows: The One World in the Seeker. A photo exhibition with works by young people from Latin America and Germany, Bonn (undated), p. 4.
3. ↑ See u. a. Latin America Center: Public Relations , in: Annual Report 2008, p. 9 ff. ( PDF web document ( Memento of the original dated December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and Archive link according to instructions and then remove this note. ) 
4. ↑ The One World in the Seeker , online at: http://www.eine-welt-im-sucher.de/
5. ↑ Latin America Center: About Us , online at: Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Latin America Center: The Mission Statement , online at: Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Cf. Latin America Center (ed.): The Latin America Center , in: The Latin America Center shows: The One World in the Seeker. A photo exhibition with works by young people from Latin America and Germany, Bonn (undated), p. 4 f.
8. ↑ See: Statutes of the LAZ (especially §2) ( web document ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and remove then this note. ) 
9. ↑ Cf. Latin America Center (ed.): The Latin America Center , in: The Latin America Center shows: The One World in the Seeker. A photo exhibition with works by young people from Latin America and Germany, Bonn (undated), p. 5.

Web links

• Latin America Center eV
• "Projeto Saúde e Alegria" (Brazil): LAZ-funded project to set up telecentres in the Brazilian Amazon region
• "Solidaridad en Marcha" (Peru): The LAZ project partner is a non-governmental organization committed to the Christian values ​​of charity
• "Movimiento Acción Social Arequipa" (Peru): The LAZ project partner builds and looks after schools, kindergartens, old people's homes and clinics.
• "Asociación Alma Capác" (Peru): The LAZ project partner pursues the goal of improving the social and economic conditions of the poorest sections of the population in Peru
• "Asociación Patuca" (Honduras): The LAZ project partner and its German sister organization Patuca eV promote projects for the sustainable use of environmental resources