Our why?

Our mission: «The Future starts with Education»

The only sustainable help for developping countries is education. That is why our association’s strongest beliefe is that we have to educate youth for a better future. This includes rather practical areas like farming, health and nutrition or newer topics like the prevention of our ecological system.

Our four guiding principles:

  • “Every penny counts.”
    We appreciate every single penny. As fund raising is extremely difficult – even for good causes like our meaningful projects in The Gambia – all donations from our dear members, friends, public bodies or charitable institutions are treated and invested with extreme care. And every partner involved in our projects must be aware of that fact.
  • “Our projects never end.”
    We always plan our projects on long terms. Everything we do for our projects is durable. Especially in an ever changing and challenging world it’s important to plan and act properly so we don’t have to re-act.
  • “We only have this one planet.”
    We contribute to a better ecosystem by reducing our environmental footprints through cutting energy and a improved water management. By-products, waste materials, useless or unwanted products are transformed into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.
  • “More nature, no chemicals.”
    We believe in the power of Natural Farming: A system that works along with the natural biodiversity of each farmed area, encouraging the complexity of living organisms—both plant and animal—that shape each particular ecosystem to thrive along with food plants.


About Förderverein Humanitas
+

Förderverein Humanitas FVH was founded in Switzerland in 1998 as a charitable organisation and registered in The Gambia in 2013 to develop, support and maintain projects in the range of education, agriculture and health.  FVH is an association with more than 140 members trusting in the organization and supporting its projects in The Gambia – everything the association does, it does it in the name of its dear members.

History

The corner stone of today’s FVH were laid in 1997 by Christoph Umbricht while he was working in The Gambia, and where he commenced the construction of the fist school building in Kunkujang Keitaya. In August 1998, FVH was officially entered in the commercial register of Switzerland as a non-profi organisation. Since April 2013, FVH has also been registered in The Gambia and it has been officially represented in The Gambia since 2014. Since its founding, CHF 2 millions have been invested in sustainable projects in The Gambia. Since 2020, the FVH has concentrated all activities and commitments on the Tanji Education Center for Permaculture (TEC), which began operations in 2020 as a centre of excellence for nature-based agriculture in The Gambia.

Our people

Förderverein Humanitas is supportet financially and ideally by its more than 140 members and many friends and partners. In The Gambia a team of experts, friends and supporters helps the association to roll out its projects as cost-effective and sustainable as possible. The responsibility for all projects is carried out by the voluntary FVH Board of Directors in Switzerland.

Friends & Partners

The operational work is supported by the following friends, companies and partners:

Only thanks to the great collaboration with and support from these companies it’s possible to reduce all administrative or over-head costs to a minimum so that up to 98% of all donations are effectively invested into the projects in The Gambia.