Our work is governed by the following values and principles:
. No charity but dignity: People in need seek dignity not dependence. Traditional charity often meets immediate needs but too often fails to enable people to solve their own problems over the long term. We follow the principle of helping others to help themselves so that they become economically and socially independent.
. Empowering people: Empowerment refers to the ability of an individual to make choices regarding his or her life. Being given the opportunity to take responsibility for your own actions is not a privilege granted to everyone. The lack of choice or empowerment is almost always linked to poverty. We aim to create opportunities that enable people to help themselves.
. Participatory orientation, no free aid: Free aid often leads to a rapid degradation of the implemented resources and increases the level of responsibility and the involvement of community. Through participatory orientation we ask the beneficiaries to make a contribution to the project, either with cash, tools, land, materials or labor or to give something back to the community.
. Demand driven, rather than supply driven: It is not about what we want or what we think they want or what a donor thinks we should do. Instead, we focus our attention on understanding the needs of those whom we seek to serve. This requires an assessment of the specific situations.
. Do the right things first, then do the things right: It is very tempting to jump right away to implementation. Actually, skipping an assessment can often cause far more harm than good. We think that before carrying out any action a project plan needs to be written down, taking into account the concrete situation, the needs, the actions to be taken as well as the objectives and indicators of success.