20 Years of Czech Development Cooperation

On 9 November, 2009, the Czech Platform for Development Co-operation (FoRS) and the organisation People in Need launched the media campaign "20 years of Czech Development Cooperation". The campaign not only brings attention to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain but at the same time evaluates successes and falls of the Czech Republic during the past 20 years. On this occasion, Czech non-governmental organisations would like to point out that besides increasing the GDP or the membership in important international organisations, there is still one more thing which Czechs can be proud of and that is the Czech development cooperation.

Between 1989 and 2009, Czech non-governmental organisations helped in more than 60 countries in the world. Czechs have shown their solidarity not only in a number of countries troubled by natural disasters or wars but have also directly or indirectly supported many long term development projects focusing on education, health care, infrastructure and other fields.

The campaign shows that even though we live in times of economic crisis, we should not forget that in many parts of the world people still live in much worse conditions than we do and thus they need our help.

The campaign has launched a website which presents all FoRS members and successful projects, media articles, and promotion materials. The internet site of the campaign is http://www.ceskapomoc.cz/

Information provided by Katerina Gabrielova, FoRS