The consequences of the climate crisis are being felt ever more distinctly around the world: heavy rainfall, flooding, extreme drought, melting glaciers and low-lying coasts disappearing into the sea. While the industrialised nations are the ones mainly responsible for global warming, it is mainly the people in poor countries south of the equator who suffer the consequences. This is what motivates HEKS/EPER and its partner organizations to militate for greater climate justice.

Since its founding in 1946, the work of HEKS/EPER has been shaped by advocacy on behalf of refugees and displaced persons. In Switzerland today, HEKS/EPER provides legal representation and advice to refugees and asylum seekers and, through various integration projects, promotes migrant participation in social life on an equal basis.

Enough food is produced overall to feed the entire world population. Yet more than 800 million people are experiencing hunger around the world. Through its programme work, HEKS/EPER therefore strives to ensure that peasant farmers, pastoralist families and traditional communities such as indigenous peoples have control over land, water and seeds.

Social inequality is growing worse around the world and in Switzerland. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this trend. Not only must underprivileged people grapple with financial woes, they are often also stigmatised and socially marginalised.