InterEuropean Human Aid Association
The InterEuropean Human Aid Association (IHA) was formed in 2015 in Germany to serve as a platform for the coordination of volunteer efforts responding to humanitarian crises across the Balkans. Since then, it has developed in a volunteer-based NGO mostly focusing on the field presence in Northern Greece.
IHA provides humanitarian aid to refugees across Europe ”standing for a Europe that lives up to its standards and puts human rights and dignity first”. It supports thousands of refugees in Northern Greece by providing them with essential relief supplies and a space for community building, learning, and cultural exchange. IHA quickly responds to changing needs of its beneficiaries the supports those who ”fall through the cracks of the official aid system”.
Crop Trust
Crop Trust is a Germany-based international NGO that was established with a mission ‘’to ensure the conservation and availability of crop diversity for food security worldwide’’. To secure a reliable food supply there is a need for diversity of crops and there is no institution in the world that can hold this diversity.
Therefore, the Crop Trust works on securing millions of different crop varieties to make it available to farmers and plant breeders across the world. It secures and brings together crop gene banks that are tasked by the international community with conserving the legacy of crop preservation. It also builds the capacities of these gene banks across the world and provides sustainable grants for the global crop conservation system.
Robin Wood
Robin Wood is an environmental NGO that fights for environmental justice, climate protection and climate justice, democratic participation for everyone, preservation of tropical forests, healthy ecosystems and forests, ecological traffic turnaround without fossil fuels, getting the energy transition right, waste, and sustainable ways of thinking.
The NGO was established in 1982 and since then it has become one of the leading environmental NGOs in Germany. Robin Wood uses activism to resolve issues related to environmental polluters and to attract the public’s attention. Although the organization’s primary concern was the preservation of German forests, it later expanded to other environmental issues. Robin Wood is known for organizing public protests to raise awareness of environmental concerns.
Democracy Reporting International
Based in Germany’s capital Berlin, Democracy Reporting International (DRI) is an independent NGO that works on the promotion of political participation of citizens, government accountability, and the development of democratic institutions across the world.
The organization works on supporting local ways of involving citizens to participate in the political life of their countries. Since 2018, DRI has been a part of the UN Global Compact, which includes NGOs, businesses, and other organizations to implement sustainability principles and work towards achieving the UN goals. DRI, therefore, actively works on supporting the principles of the UN Global Compact, including anti-corruption, environment, human rights, and labor and implements them in its internal policies and mainstreams all aspects of its work to confirm these principles.
Forum ZDF
Forum ZDF was established in 1996 as a response to the Balkan crisis and with an aim to help people overcome war and violence and support them on the path to peace. Currently, the organization works with peace consultants in Germany and ten other countries in the Middle East, Europe, and southeast Asia.
Forum ZDF uses lobbying, public relations, and campaigns to actively advocate for the civil peace policy. It also offers specialized training through its Academy for Conflict Transformation to people involved in international peace work. The organization strives to broaden and strengthen the practice of non-violent conflict management and puts efforts to minimize the use of weapons and other forms of collective violence by substituting them with non-violent actions that will contribute to sustainable peace in the whole world.
Buddy Bear Help
Buddy Bear Help is a German humanitarian NGO established in 2004 with the aim of ‘’to react quickly and to avoid any unnecessary red tape when helping children in need in the native countries of the United Bear artists’’. Part of the United Buddy Bears Initiative, the organization strives to promote people living together in peace and harmony.
The guiding principle on the organization’s work is based on ‘’every cent for the children’’, ensuring that hundred percent of all the donations it receives are used for the individual projects helping children in need. Since its beginnings, the Buddy Bear has funded lifesaving operations in Bolivia, the building of schools in Angola and Malawi, as well as support to children in Jamaica and Sri Lanka and to schools in Nigeria.
GermanWatch
GermanWatch is an independent development and environmental NGO that lobbies for sustainable global development. For German Watch, sustainable development means economically stable, ecologically sound, and socially equitable development.
The organization advocates for the prevention of climate change, fair trade relations, responsible financial markets, and compliance with human rights. To achieve its goals, GermanWatch collaborates with other environmental organizations, as well as with companies, labor unions, and organizations concerned with consumer protection. The starting point of its work is the situation of marginalized people in the global South, and together with other actors, the GermanWatch represents a strong lobby for sustainable development in this part of the world.
Plant for the Planet
Plant for the Planet is a German-based NGO that was formed with the goal of raising awareness on climate change amongst children and adults. Today, it is a movement of more than 88.000 Climate Justice Ambassadors, mostly children and youth in 74 countries worldwide. In the majority of these countries, Plant for the Planet held its Academies on climate change and so far, it has organized more than 1.500 academy sessions.
The organization has planted more than 13.6 billion trees as a part of the Billion Tree Campaign, initiated by the UN. Today, the organization calls it a Trillion Tree Campaign, as its goal on planting more trees has become more ambitious. The organization also introduced the Plant for the Planet App, which has more than 25.000 registered users and it has planted more than eight million trees in the global South as a part of its Plant for the Planet Reforestation Project on the Yucatan Peninsula.
Medica Mondiale
Medica Mondiale is an NGO in Germany that works for women and girls in crisis and war zones around the world. It was established in 1993 with the task of confronting sexual violence in war at all levels. Medica Mondiale, thus, supports all girls and women who were victims of sexual violence, regardless of their political, religious, or ethnic affiliation.
The organization offers psychological, medical, and legal help and programs to promote the generation of income of girls who experience rape and torture, through a collaboration of local women’s organizations and its projects. Its mission is to give women an opportunity to lead self-determined and independent lives even though they experienced violence and degrading treatment. Medica Mondiale also advocates for women’s rights on political levels and draws attention to crimes that were committed against them.
DEMIRA
DEMIRA is an international humanitarian NGO established in 1996 in Germany with an aim of ‘’providing humanitarian mine clearance, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), emergency medical aid, and disaster relief to people living in post-war countries and to victims of natural disasters and civil unrest’’.
To ensure that the lives of people in crisis areas are not endangered, DEMIRA conducts humanitarian mine clearance, disaster relief, research and development of mechanical mine clearance machines, and testing and evaluation of demining equipment and clearance technologies. It also trains and operates with mine detection dogs and collaborates closely with European and other international organizations and governments.
