We support projects in which we can see great potential for impact of helping others to help themselves.  We see training and education as one of the most effective ways of self-help:

  • (Vocational) training and further education for disadvantaged people
  • Capacity Building in agriculture and nutrition
  • Effective observation of fundamental human rights

Priority is given to the following countries: Switzerland, Cambodia, Guatemala, Kenya, Mexico, Myanmar, Namibia, Peru, South Africa and Tanzania.

Deadlines for the submission of projects: 1 April and 1 September

To applications from organisations and for projects

Processing of applications takes 3 to 4 months (after expiry of deadline).

What applicants can expect from us

  • Forging of a long-term partnership, personal contact and support with know-how and connections
  • Simple application procedure, simple reporting; no unnecessary formalities
  • We appreciate and encourage personal commitment
  • We also support organisations with contributions unrelated to a project

What applicants should not expect from us

  • Support for projects or organisations outside of our priority areas
  • Such a large amount of funding that an organisation becomes financially dependent on us
  • Sponsorship of large aid organisations and their projects
  • Funding of events or publications
  • Sponsorship of projects with no “helping others to help themselves” element

What we expect from our applicants

  • Transparency and proactive communication before / during / after support
  • Meaningful, reliable reporting (incl. report after completion of sponsorship with presentation of benefits – how was “helping others to help themselves” achieved?)

Examples of organisations and projects we are currently sponsoring:

Asia / Middle East
Latin America
Africa
Supraregional
Switzerland / Europe

 

Child's Dream Foundation, Myanmar
Child's Dream was founded by two former bankers in 2003. The aim of Child’s Dream is to support disadvantaged children, young people and communities in the Mekong Sub-region (Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia) so they can help shape their societies in a competent and responsible manner. Child’s Dream focuses on the areas of health and education. The atDta Foundation supports a number of Child’s Dream schemes in Myanmar.
www.childsdream.org

TDSO - Teacher Development Support Organisation, Cambodia
Since 2017, the NGO "Theater Development Support Organisation" (TDSO) has been offering professional development programmes for English teachers. The educational programme is being continously expandes to sustainably support teachers in improving their pedagogical skills, language proficiency, and technological competence.
www.tdso.ngo


Suyana Foundation, Peru

The Suyana School is a vocational school that aims to equip young people from remote rural areas with practical, climate-resilient agricultural skills, enabling them either to find employment on an agricultural enterprise or to gain access to higher education. 
www.suyana.org

 

 

Aiducation International, Kenya
Aiducation International supports and encourages gifted and underprivileged students with college scholarships. After college, the state of Kenya funds the best 10% of graduates with a loan for their university studies. There is no funding to bridge the gap between basic education and university. Students receiving a scholarship from Aiducation International have all completed free basic education with excellent marks but cannot afford the college fees without a scholarship.
www.aiducation.org

Circleg, East Africa
The CIRCLEG PROJECT is a Swiss-East African social enterprise that would like to improve the quality of prosthetic care of people living with amputations in low and middle-income countries. In addition ot improving the development, manufacture and distribution of prosthetics, Cirecleg would especially like to enhance the quality of prosthetic care by ecucating and training local orthopaedic technicians and by reducing the stigmatisation of people with amputations.
www.circleg.world

CO:OPERAID, Kenia
The Swiss organisation is committed to the education of children and young people in Africa and Asia. The atDta Foundation supports its project "Ujuzi Kwa Vijana" - reintegration and vocational training for young people from the slums of Kitale, Nairobi.
www.co-operaid.ch

Knysna Initiative for Learning and Teaching - KILT, South Africa
The initiative was founded in 2017 by the South African Gill Marcus and aims to ensure that every child can attend school and have the opportunity to reach their full potential. The atDta-Foundation supports the "Afternoon Study Club" and "Lego Robotics Club", two talent development programs for disadvantaged young people from the townships.
www.kilt.org.za

Solafrica, Kenya and Switzerland
Solafrica is an independent Swiss non-profit organisation to promote solar energy. The atDta foundation supports Solafrica's training projects n Ethiopia, Kenya and Switzerland, where young people are trained in solar technology and small-scale entrepreneurship. 
www.solafrica.ch

 

 

 

 

 

currently no projects

 

Allianz Chance+, Zurich
Allianz Chance+ came into being thanks to a nationwide development programme in Switzerland committed to equal opportunities in education. The association aims to support existing development programmes as well as the setting up of new ones, but in particular also to ensure that the overall structural and political conditions are systematically improved.
www.chanceplus.ch

Association Equilibre, Uri
Association Equilibre is a non-profit association in the canton of Uri conducting innovative and sustainable projects for the employment, training and further education and integration of regugees in Switzerland. The atDta foundation supports an education project focused specially on the situaion and needs of older (aged >26) female refugees with family responsibilities.
www.association-equilibre.com

Caritas, icluso project, Zurich
To promote equal opportunities on the apprenticeship market, incluso puts young people with a migration background (mentees) in contact with employed persons (mentors) who give them advice and support on a voluntary basis during their last year at school.
www.caritas-zuerich.ch

EDUCA SWISS, Zurich
EDUCA SWISS is a Swiss foundation that promotes education and its funding. It helps motivated people to realise their academic goals by providing free consultations for the planning and budgeting of their vocational and professional education projects, and by arranging low-interest student loans.
www.educaswiss.ch

frac - Information Center, Biel
frac is a bilingual (French and German) low-threshold information and advisory centre for the Biel, Seeland and Bernese Jura region. frac is a non-profit, tax-exempt association. Since 1999 frac has been providing advice, training places in the primary labour market and courses for both men and women (in particular for migrants), so they can benefit from equal opportunities in their personal and professional choices regardless of their social and cultural backgrounds and are free to make choices and find their own way through life.
www.frac.ch

LernAtelier, Lucerne
This association offers German and mathematics lessons free of charge to asylum seekers and refugees in the canton of Lucerne. The aim is to make better use of refugees’ time while they are awaiting an asylum decision, so that they can be quickly integrated into continuing education and training and/or the labour market once a decision has been made.
www.lernatelierluzern.ch

Ombuds office children’s rights Switzerland
The Ombuds office children’s rights Switzerland foundation came into being from the Child Advocacy project “Child-friendly Justice 2020”. The aim of this project was to implement the Council of Europe’s guidelines on child-friendly justice in Switzerland by 2020 in all the relevant courts and authorities, the juvenile justice system, the Office of the Public Prosecutor and the police. The foundation aims to run an independent, national and low-threshold ombudsman’s office to reinforce children’s rights.
www.ombudsstelle-kinderrechte-schweiz.ch

rollaid association, Switzerland
The rollaid association is a non-profit, tax-exempt organisation headquartered in Bern. In Switzerland,  discarded wheelchairs and other medical equipment (power assist devices, handcycles, walking frames and walking sticks, etc.) are rarely reused. Used material is often disposed or stored away, unused. The rollaid project collects used equipment, which is reconditioned in its workshops by young people following a workforce and social integration programme. It is the donated to an aid organisation in Ethiopia.
www.rollaid.org

Solidarity network, Zurich / Lunch for refugees, Aussersihl Church, Zurich
With various projects such as German courses and lunches, public campaigns and political events, the Solidarity network Zurich and the Aussersihl Church contribute to improving the living conditions of refugees and undocumented migrants while raising public awareness of their situation.
www.solinetz-zh.ch

Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, Bern
The atDta-Foundation is involved in the “2nd chance for 1st professional training” pilot project run by the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation and the Department of Education for the canton of Bern. More than 400,000 people in Switzerland aged between 25 and 54 have no professional qualifications, making it very difficult for them to find work on the Swiss labour market. The project offers people from the canton of Bern the possibility of obtaining qualifications.
www.johnsonstiftung.ch

Swiss Student Union (VSS), Bern
The VSS represents the interests of the student bodies of universities of applied sciences, universities of teacher education, cantonal universities and federal institutes of technology at federal level. Its main objectives are equal opportunities in access to higher education and the democratisation of higher education institutes. The atDta foundation supports the VSS in its "Perspectives Studies: access to higher education in Switerland for refugees" project. 
www.vss-unes.ch