Next year (2011) is going to be the European Year of Volunteering. The idea is to promote the volunteer work and the important role of the NGOs in the society.
All actors in societies have the right and the responsibility to defend their rights and the rights of others.
It is not difficult to understand, though many people don't seem to figure out what I am doing now that I work for The Finnish NGO Foundation for Human Rights KIOS in Helsinki. But actually it's not complicated at all.
KIOS works to promote human rights in developing countries by granting funding to human rights projects.
Financial support is provided to local civil society organizations that work for the promotion and protection of human rights in their own countries and regions.
Our aim is to especially support the promotion of the human rights of the most disadvantaged groups of the societies. In Finland, we aim at increasing the knowledge of Finnish civil society on the human rights situation in developing countries.
Civil society organizations and non governmental organizations have an important role as an alternative when you have to work in the situations where two different countries can’t cooperate normally.
Advancing human rights promotes as well the MDGs and the other way around. The following MDGs are our priorities:
- 1. Reducing global poverty
- 2. Basic education for everybody
- 3. Equality of the sexes and advancing human rights of women
- 8. Global partnership
15 Of our 20 focus countries are among the most vulnerable and the less developed ones. We follow the DAC Guidelines on Poverty Reduction.
Since its establishment in 1998, The Finnish NGO Foundation for Human Rights (KIOS) has supported a number of various kinds of Human Rights projects in different parts of the developing world.
Each country and each location has its specific human rights challenges, to which local organisations aim to react with specific human rights interventions. Be it through human rights education, reform of judicial systems, or advocacy for ending human rights violations, KIOS strives to assist the promotion of human rights for the most vulnerable.
Without the committed work of local organisations, KIOS would not be able to fulfil this mission.
Some time ago we had a meeting with IPACC The Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee, a network of 150 indigenous peoples’ organisations in 20 African countries. These kinds of networks and organisations are important, as they can see what the problems are and then work for the better future.
To see videos about IPACC’s work:
http://www.ipacc.org.za/eng/resources_cop15.asp
http://www.youtube.com/user/IPACCMedia
To read about success stories in developing countries visit our webpages: http://www.kios.fi/english/success_stories/
thanks for presenting your ngo. How many people do you employ on full time basis. Recentlly I have met with the opinion that in general NGO sector shouldn’t be professionalised, as most of the things we do should be provided by goverment. Volunteering and civil society should be something attitude and not professional… what do you think?
Iwona, it was nice to meet you in Kenya!
I’m sorry I haven’t answered to your comment before. I think you’re right, the NGOs are doing so many things especially in Africa, that the government should take care of, and they seem to be a business there. Even the religion seems to be a business in Africa nowadays. That really is quite far from the volunteering. They still somehow have to be professionalized to be able to do more.