Czechia’s People in Need joins forces with the Slovak People in Peril

“After years of working side-by-side, we have decided to co-operate more closely and share our professional experiences from the work we do in Slovakia and the Czech Republic as well as in different crisis hit regions around the world,” says the director of People in Need, Šimon Pánek. His counterpart at People in Peril, Braňo Tichý, adds: “The situation in the places where we work today requires more expertise and a more long-term commitment. Both of our organisations can contribute to achieving this by providing capable staff and financial resources.”

People in Peril and People in Need will remain separate organisations with their own governing structures, decision processes and projects, but they will now share the administrative costs, such as offices and support staff, in their missions abroad.

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In Slovakia, after 10 years of close co-operation, People in Peril will absorb the Slovak office of People in Need. It will, for example, take over the projects in the socially excluded locales in Slovakia, which in the past were successfully led by the local branch of the Czech People in Need. At the same time, the newly expanded organization will become part of the international People in Need network.

The two organizations have previously worked together, for example, during the floods in Slovakia in 2010, in organising the One World human rights film festival or in helping victims of the recent earthquake in Nepal.

The Slovak People in Peril will also be changing their logo from an image of a surrendering figure to the Franz Kafka drawing of a “man behind a fence”, which is currently used by People in Need.

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About the organizations

People in Need was founded in 1992 in Prague by war reporters and journalists who decided to help in conflict affected regions. Gradually, People in Need established themselves as a professional humanitarian aid organisation that aims to help in crisis struck regions and to support human rights around the world. During its more than 20 years of existence it became one of the largest non-profit non-governmental organisations in Central Europe and also began to work in the field of education and awareness raising as well as helping socially excluded members of society.

People in Peril was founded in 1999 in Slovakia also as an initiative of journalists who created an organization that would help people in distress, as a reaction to the humanitarian crisis during the war in Kosovo. People in Peril gradual became an organisation providing humanitarian and developmental aid as well as educational programmes. It provides aid during natural disasters, humanitarian crises and in the struggle against poverty.