About us

We are a non-governmental, non-profit organisation founded on the ideals of humanism, freedom, equality, and solidarity. We consider human dignity and freedom to be fundamental values. We believe that people everywhere in the world should have the right to make decisions about their lives and to share the rights expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We strive for a society that is open, informed, engaged, and responsible with respect to problems at home and around the world. We want to actively participate in shaping a society where cultural, ethnic, racial and other differences are a source of enrichment rather than conflict. 

We are an intrinsic part of civil society. Our work is based on the personal initiative and activity of hundreds of our employees and volunteers, both in the Czech Republic and in the dozens of other countries where we operate, as well as the trust and support we are endowed with by individuals, businesses, governments, and international institutions.

We determine the specific areas and priorities of our activities with respect to the level of urgency and our actual capacity to change the situation. We cannot be everywhere, but it is essential that our work makes a real difference.

We provide humanitarian aid in critical regions around the world in response to real needs, in the spirit of the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross. We help people overcome disasters and support them in the times of recovery so that they can get back on their feet.

We combat poverty, which is often the result of insufficient access to education, natural resources, as well as unjust treatment, discrimination, and poor administration. We help people to overcome these limiting circumstances and support them in their ability to improve their lives. We target the roots of these problems and remove them with the cooperation of the people affected to remove them.

Our organisation is based on the experiences of our own country in the 20th century to provide help in authoritarian and transforming regimes. Just as the free world supported the struggle for freedom in former communist states, we support people engaging in critique and dialogue with power, demanding that fundamental human rights are observed, and striving for more open societies. We support civil society so that it may be the cornerstone of improved maintenance of public affairs in emerging societies and countries.

Through concrete social work based on mutual respect and responsibility, we help people living in social exclusion in the Czech Republic. We cooperate with them to solve their problems. We particularly support the education of young people intending to improve their prospects in life. We also seek to solve key structural issues such as over-indebtedness, discrimination, labour market exclusion, and segregational tendencies in education.

Our work entails supporting the development of free and responsible people who navigate the contemporary world, approach information and opinions openly and critically, and wish to shape social life. We engage with the experiences of the people we work with, while addressing key global topics such as climate change, sustainable development, a struggle for freedom and human rights in dozens of countries, social inequality, and the position of minority groups.

We believe that when we attained our freedom after decades of living in oppression and informational isolation, we also attained a shared responsibility. We are convinced that closing our eyes to what is happening in the seemingly distant world is just as short-sighted as forgetting our own past. That is why we have been building People in Need for over 30 years, doing real work and motivating the public to take action together with us.

We are helped by many one-time and regular donors who support us mainly through the Club of Friends of People in Need and purchases through our e-shop Skutečný dárek.

Our Profile

People in Need was established in 1992 by a group of Czech war correspondents who were no longer satisfied with merely relaying information about ongoing conflicts and began sending out aid. It gradually became established as a professional humanitarian organisation striving to provide aid in troubled regions and support adherence to human rights around the world.

Throughout our 30+ years of our existence, we have become one of the biggest non-profit organisations in Central Europe. In addition to humanitarian aid and human rights, we also work in education and help people living in social exclusion.

We are part of Alliance2015, a strategic network of seven European non-governmental organisations engaged in humanitarian aid and development projects. This collaboration increases effectiveness, both in working in the target countries and in campaigns aimed at influencing the attitudes of politicians and the general public in Europe.

We are also part of NeoN, a group of more than 20 organisations and networks representing over 600 NGOs. Together, we negotiate cooperation with the state administration at the level of the Office of the Government, ministries, and parliament.