Fida and ECHO enter into humanitarian aid partnership contract

June 2007
 

Fida International signed a co-operation agreement with the humanitarian aid office of the European Commision (ECHO) on June 26, 2007. Fida is the third Finnish non-governmental organisation entering into such partnership. Earlier, ECHO has signed a similar contract with Red Cross and FinnChurchAid.

– Fida wants to strenghten its humanitarian aid and the co-operation with ECHO is a step into that direction. We can offer Fida's projects as a channel to supply EU funds, Fida's Director of Development Cooperation Eero Horstia comments.

– Fida's strenght are its employees who know the local culture, language, geography and the key persons. Through the local partners we have networks that get the aid to its destination effectively, describes Horstia.

Fida has supplied humanitarian aid with support from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland since 1984. Many of the destinations are so-called forgotten crises that have gone on for years, even decades, and do not get much media attention. With preventive education Fida has improved its local partners' capabilities to act in crisis situations. Humanitarian aid often continues as development cooperation.

Fida is committed to the international ethic principles of assistance. The volume of Fida's humanitarian aid has been approximately one million euros in the recent years. In 2006 Fida supplied humanitarian aid to among other places the tsunami areas, Northern Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Pakistan, Indonesia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Fida cooperates with the UN organisations (eg. FAO, WFP, UNICEF) and other humanitarian agencies in the operations.