Partner organisations
Context, international cooperation works together with several partner organisations within the Centre for Civic Driven Change and Civic Driven Child Development. Our most important partner organisations are ICS (International Child Support) and SHGW (Stichting Het Groene Woudt).
International Child Support
International Child Support (ICS) is working for the improvement of basic social services and facilities in Africa en Asia. Such social services are education, health, and food and human security. Also, ICS is trying to make a contribution to the strengthening of local communities. In these complex processes, learning and the application of lessons learned in the ongoing project work is crucial for the constant improvement of ICS' work.
Concretely this means that ICS is active in remote rural areas, where schools are very important as social institutions within communities. Schools often function as centres for social change, in order to provide a future not only for the children themselves, but also their families and the extended community. Therefore, a lot of the support from ICS is focused on education and supporting the role and quality of schooling in such communities, together with local people.
Other related topics, that ICS is working on are:
- Health
- HIV/Aids
- Human security
- Protection
By means of an integrated way of working ICS seeks to combine these different focal points, wherever that makes sense and is of benefit to the local community.
Important principles of ICS' work with and for children are:
- Programmes, building on a child-rights-based approach;
- Development initiatives, that build upon and are driven by local initiatives and organisations (Civic Driven);
- Actively seeking and enhancing partnership and cooperation;
- Education as starting point for social change.
Because not every child has the chance to go to school, one ICS programme focuses on vulnerable groups of children, as those with a handicap, those affected by HIV/AIDS, children living in conflict situations and abused children.
Currently ICS is active in South-East Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines and Laos), and East Africa (Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya).
Stichting Het Groene Woudt
Stichting Het Groene Woudt (SHGW) is a Dutch foundation that promotes sustained economic development in rural areas of developing countries. Their aim is to stimulate income improvement and – diversification in the rural areas within three sectors: agriculture, industry and fair trade. Most projects that SHGW supports have components that are aimed to set up viable businesses in rural areas, to be eventually owned by collective groups of the beneficiaries.
With support of SHGW, local companies are set up in e.g. Tanzania, Kenya, Indonesia, and India. These companies invest in rural based, economic development projects that generate sufficient value-addition in order to increase the household incomes of beneficiary groups, create financial reserves for maintenance and replacement, repay the investment and reinvest in new social ventures. Examples of thematic areas: dairy processing, bio fuel processing, reforestation, grading/storage of apples and the production of organic green tea.
SHGW believes that civilians including the poor have the strengths to build their own lives, with minimal support from the outside. This support should preferably in the form of loans as when it comes to increasing economic productivity this has shown to be more effective than grants.