During nearly thirty years of operations, we have partnered with many organisations. These partnerships were built on supporting specific development interventions. As successes accumulated, Aidlink continued in partnership with the organisations and groups it had worked with on specific projects. Some of these partnerships continue today. These relationships were based on experience and trust built up over years of working together.
About Aidlink
Third world development through partnership
Aidlink is an Irish international non-governmental organisation (INGO). We exist improve the lives of those living in poverty in the developing world.
We believe that local communities and organisations are best placed to manage their own development. Therefore we work in partnership with strategic partners in our priority countries: Uganda, Kenya and Ghana. We are committed to empowering communities to directly implement development actions and to advocate for the relief of poverty and increased access to basic services. Our programmes focus on the basic development needs of communities as identified by them - water, education, food security and health (including HIV and AIDS).
Background
Since we were established in 1982, we have placed local participation and locally designed and managed responses at the centre of our approach to development. (More)
Aidlink and the Irish Spiritans (Holy Ghost Fathers)
Historically, Aidlink had close links with the Irish Province of the Spiritans as a number of Spiritans Fathers were involved in the establishment of Aidlink. Based on this shared history and the considerable experience of Aidlink as a dedicated development organisation, Aidlink and the Irish Spiritans entered into an agreement in 2004 whereby Aidlink became the agent for the Irish Spiritans in terms of its development activities. The main focus of this agreement is on securing and managing Irish government funding through Misean Cara for Spiritan development programmes in Africa, Brazil and Pakistan.
Putting our mission into action
Our mission is inspired by a philosophy which recognizes the dignity of the individual person, and each person having the right, the duty and the means of self and community development. (More)
Our mission is realized by:
- Supporting the development of our international partners; missionaries, community groups and local NGOs involved in sustainable development programmes.
- Accessing and distributing funds to programmes that are aimed at community development and are self-sufficient with a long term impact.
- Empowering and building capacities to enable our partners to operate, manage and control their own development programmes.
- Giving priority to projects that focus on basic needs such as primary education, vocational skills training, primary health care, water and sanitation, HIV and AIDS, gender and food security.
- Fostering Development Education in Ireland by promoting an understanding of the causes of poverty and inequality in the world.
We promote and support efforts among our partners to ensure that the cross cutting themes of gender and HIV & AIDS are integrated into all projects.
We have introduced two significant changes in our work in recent years;
- Aidlink has moved towards a more strategic, partner focused approach.
- Aidlink has made the strategic decision to concentrate its activities in Kenya, Uganda and Ghana.
