Positive voices

"A child sponsorship? That's no good. What's the point of sponsoring a single child? And the child won't see any of the money in the end anyway!' Only someone who has never heard of Emmaus Children's Relief will say this. For 50 years, this aid organization has been demonstrating how child aid should ideally work: With sponsorships to promote education and with global investments in communities affected by poverty. Emmaus Children's Relief works with a minimum number of employees in Switzerland: most of the work is carried out by volunteers.

Sponsorships are an ideal way to help directly. The sponsored child can experience care and attention. But it is also a rewarding experience for the sponsor: with a small contribution, the life of a fellow human being can be sustainably improved. It is not uncommon for an intercontinental exchange to take place and sometimes people even get to know each other personally.

Emmaus Children's Relief also supports projects in India - a country that is currently being hit by a second Covid wave like no other. The economic collapse after the first wave is now being followed by a health disaster, which represents a social catastrophe. Support such as that offered by Emmaus Children's Relief for 50 years is therefore more important than ever before."

"We founded the company Schibler + Haldi AG in 1991. During a village meeting in Frauenkappelen, we got to know Mrs. Renaud, President of Kinderhilfe Emmaus. She drew our attention to self-painted greeting cards, which children in the Third World paint themselves and which are then sold in Switzerland. We have been sending Christmas cards to our customers for several years now and they are very much appreciated. In this way, we are supporting a charity that makes a difference."

"We are all called to stand by each other and offer help. Each of us with what we have been given and entrusted by God. As the parish of St. Marien, Thun, we also support Emmaus Children's Aid. Because it helps where we could not help alone."

"One of the most important, if not the most important task of a society is to create good starting and general conditions for its children. As Director of Education, I am committed to this every day.

Fortunately, these conditions are good for children in Switzerland, at least in the vast majority of cases. The situation is very different in some other parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. That's why I'm glad that Emmaus Children's Relief is involved here. It tries to alleviate the plight of children from the poorest backgrounds and give them a better start in life. With its commitment, Emmaus Children's Relief not only helps the weakest among the weak, but also provides sustainable help. Those who have a good start in life have a good chance of leading a life in dignity later on - and of giving something back to society.

For the benefit of the underprivileged children, I wish Emmaus Children's Aid all the best as it takes off after the reorganization. Thank you very much for your support."

"In life skills, we often dealt with social injustice and poverty as well as a lack of education as causes. My pupils asked what we could do to alleviate these injustices. How could we implement 'help for self-help' as a school class? And that's when we came up with the idea of taking on a personal child sponsorship with Kinderhilfe Emmaus. The class treasurer was responsible for the punctual payment of the amounts (around CHF 2 per month per pupil) and kept a sponsorship booklet with all the receipts and letters from our sponsored child. We were also involved in selling cards with original drawings of sponsored children from all over the world. So for many years we had a joint social project that promoted class cohesion and a sense of responsibility towards disadvantaged people."