Our history

After the devastating Spitak earthquake of 1988, the Schaffhausen radio station Radio Munot and its staff members Pino Ciaccio, Norbert Neininger and Michael Stäuble launched a relief campaign. Together with other local radio stations, they collected around 120 tonnes of clothing and CHF 500,000 – flown to Armenia on six Balair flights.

This commitment soon gave rise to the foundation «Hilfe für Armenien» (Help for Armenia), founded by Norbert Neininger, Pino Ciaccio and the Armenian Vreij Kolandjian. The focus quickly shifted from emergency relief to lasting projects: a hospital for children with kidney disease, and an orphanage with more than 120 children – cared for, among others, by Susi Greutmann, who later joined the foundation board. In 1999, Susi Greutmann and Pino Ciaccio received the Schaffhausen Prize for Development Cooperation.

Since then, working closely with local partners, the foundation has built four kindergartens, renovated two day clinics and provided basic water supplies in remote villages. Every project grows out of a deep understanding of local needs – and the wish to create lasting structures rather than short-term aid.