FIAU: Federazione Internationale di Appoggio Umano (The International Federation for Human Support) - Supporting and encouraging peace, justice, solidarity and cooperation among all human beings, stimulating the principles of reciprocity, cooperation, friendship, support and reciprocal assistance.

Reciprocity and self-organization: Solidarity is not enough

Decades of experience in international cooperation and aid to the "third world" have shown us that despite the massive engagement of thousands of volunteers and in spite of the mobilization of huge economic resources (though unfortunately not all of this financial support reached the intended destination), the plans for development eventually collapse once "the external" contributions cease.

Not only have the projects stopped but in many cases a spirit of passiveness and new dependencies have been formed in the people who received the aid. And while we focus on the symptoms such as hunger, illiteracy, misery, and disease,
the underlying causes of these dramatic situations are never openly addressed.

FIAU organizes activities and projects based on two fundamental pillars: a) self-organization: the people of a neighborhood or village will be responsible for the organization of a project according to the time, methods, and tools available to them and b) reciprocity: people will have to carry to others that which they have received (literacy, preventive medicine, assistance). Ten people teach ten people each, and these 100 quickly become 1000. This is the mechanism that will allow the transmission and amplification, in a relatively short time, of the fruits of our labor.

The concept of "human support" stems from a concept that it is important that the campaigns that we bring to fruition are not limited to to simple economic aid. Our goal is to support in a unified way the activities of all people who want to transform the reality in which they live into a more human reality. We focus on material and personal support, from peer to peer, in a process of mutual enrichment.

Our project for this event is explained in detail here.

If you happen to speak Italian, you can access more information in Italian at www.fiau.org or there is also a Spanish organization at www.fiah.org which does have some English and French information as well. Though we are supporting the Italian organization, you can see the good works of the Spanish organization as well.  

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