WHO IS AVAID
AVAID – Association de Volontaires pour l’Aide au Développement – Volunteers Association for Development Aid – is a Swiss NGO (non-governmental organization) active for twenty years in international cooperation interventions. AVAID’s mission is to support the dignity of the person in the most difficult contexts through development aid projects. AVAID, with offices in Lugano and Bellinzona, is officially recognized as a public utility by the authorities of the Canton of Ticino and is a member of FOSIT, the Federation of NGOs of Italian-speaking Switzerland.
AVAID’s activity focuses on aid for children, young people and their families and has a significant presence in Kenya, Uganda, Haiti, Lebanon. AVAID also supports several projects in various other countries such as Ecuador, Brazil, Sierra Leone, Jordan and intervenes in humanitarian emergency situations.
AVAID is a founding member of the AVSI Foundation (www.avsi.org), a network of NGOs from the North and South of the world based in Italy. The network aims to qualify the interventions, ensure sustainability and strengthen the reliability of the project partners.
AVAID’s interventions are carried out through donations from individuals and companies, with fund raising initiatives and through the Distance Support program in which several hundred Swiss families have participated for years. Public funds from some Ticino municipalities, such as Sorengo and Lugano, have also contributed to various projects. Each year, the financial statements of AVAID are checked and certified by independent auditors and forwarded to the cantonal tax authority.
http://www.avaid.ch/