Media Centre

The financial stabilization and consolidation measures introduced and implemented last year at HEKS/EPER have proven effective. Overall 2019 income admittedly fell short of expectations in a still difficult environment. It did simultaneously register an increase of 2.23 million francs over the prior year, however, to stand at 68.4 million francs.

Under its emergency aid programme for people confronting hardship as a result of the corona pandemic and therefore in need of support, HEKS/EPER is constantly expanding its offer of services in Switzerland and in project countries around the world.

The seemingly unchecked spread of coronavirus is confronting our society with major challenges, which we can only defeat by acting together and in solidarity. Swiss Church Aid (HEKS/EPER) is therefore launching an extensive emergency aid programme. HEKS/EPER has set itself the goal, with the support of the Swiss people, of raising at least one million francs in donations to support people at home and abroad facing hardship caused by this pandemic and who are in dire need of assistance.

Dramatic pictures are reaching us from the Greek-Turkish border, where thousands of refugees have been converging and becoming stranded under precarious conditions since Turkey opened its borders in late February. Asylum applications cannot be made because Greece has announced that the right to asylum will be suspended for one month. HEKS demands that the current asylum law be enforced and that Switzerland establish safe and legal escape routes.

East Africa is currently gripped by the worst locust invasion in decades. In Kenya and Somalia, entire crops are being ravaged by insect swarms measuring several square kilometres. The same is also happening in Ethiopia, where HEKS/EPER has been active for many years. If no immediate action is taken, a famine could ensue. HEKS/EPER is therefore taking emergency action to aid the worst hit smallholders and cattle farmers in the Borana region.

The wave of solidarity that followed the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti on 12 January 2010, was huge: including in Switzerland. “Swiss Solidarity" was keen to know what had been achieved in the impoverished Caribbean country with the 66 million francs it had raised.

Peace continues to elude the Middle East. The entry of Turkish troops into neighbouring Syria in early October sent tens of thousands of people fleeing to safer areas. The situation is rather confusing at present. Supported by shifting alliances of militias and rebel groups, Syrian and Turkish troops are fighting for territorial control along the Syrian-Turkish border.

How should Switzerland approach to its international cooperation in the future? The Federal Council has submitted its proposed strategy together with an explanatory report for public consultation. HEKS/EPER is commenting on the proposal and underlining that the empowerment of civil society is receiving far too little attention.

In the framework of its participation in the UNHCR Resettlement Programme, the Federal Council decided in late May to admit to Switzerland 800 especially vulnerable refugees for each of the next two years. While in principle HEKS/EPER welcomes the Federal Council's decision as a step in the right direction, given the still record numbers of refugees around the world, it is nonetheless calling for a substantial increase in the admission quota.