About us

About us

© Foto: PIN archive

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 the 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.


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Emergency Relief and Development Cooperation

humanitarian aid and development cooperation

  • We provide immediate humanitarian aid to people in need – in natural disasters and conflicts.
  • At the same time, we focus on long-term assistance to people living in poverty and poor living conditions. In countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, we implement development programmes that improve access to education, healthcare, drinking water, and sanitation; we also support livelihood development and people's democratic participation in their country.
  • We have provided emergency aid several times in the Czech Republic, notably during floods and the Moravian tornado.
  • Our humanitarian and development projects emphasise ecological stability and resilience to climate change. In the Czech Republic, we support local governments and other landowners in landscape water retention programmes and farmers in modern, climate-sensitive agricultural practices.
  • In more than 30 years of activity, we have provided humanitarian and development aid in more than 40 countries around the world.
Learn more about our humanitarian and development aid…
Human Rights Support

Promotion of human rights

  • We protect civil activists who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms and support civil society in countries where democracy is underdeveloped.
  • We help lawyers, journalists, artists, and bloggers who are at risk of physical, psychological or other harm from the state. We support independent civic organisations to develop professionally.
  • We relocate the most vulnerable to safety and provide them with financial and psychosocial assistance.
  • We meet with key politicians and legislators at the national and international levels to inform them about the concerns of human rights activists. We propose activities and changes that would improve their future and lead to systemic change.
  • Every year, we organise the One World International Human Rights Film Festival.
  • As part of One World, we award the Homo Homini Prize to Human Rights Defenders who have contributed significantly to the defence of human rights and the promotion of democracy.
Learn more about our human rights support…
Social Integration Programmes

Social and educational programmes in the czech republic

  • We support the social mobility of poor and disadvantaged families through outreach social work, counselling and educational services. Clients are actively involved in addressing the situation.
  • We provide a wide range of social and educational services in seven regions and debt counselling in six others. Nationwide, we provide help on a helpline. We run re-socialisation and activation services and help victims of crime.
  • We work with children and their families in pre-school preparation, tutoring, and low-threshold club For older children and young adults, we offer help with choosing a secondary school, preparing for entrance exams, and support during their studies.
  • We run the information portal How to Survive Debt and regularly compile the Responsible Lending Index.
  • We help refugees to integrate more readily.
  • We communicate with other NGOs, schools, local governments, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.
Learn more about our social work…
Educational and Awareness Programmes

Education and awareness

  • We organise the One World International Human Rights Film Festival, which attracts around 100,000 people a year in more than 45 cities.
  • We provide teaching materials in the One World in Schools programme to more than 4,000 schools. We introduce students to Stories of Injustice, offer Media Education, organise Student Elections, and present Gratias Tibi Award.
  • International human rights film festival One World is one of the cornerstones of the People in Need. Since its inception in 1999, it has become the most important festival of its kind in the world and in 2007 it won a special mention from UNESCO for its contribution to human rights education.
  • We run online training courses for educators and the general public.
  • We bring the topic of climate change to students and educators. We prepare seminars, methodologies, and long-term projects that motivate young people to address the issue and take concrete action in their neighbourhood.
People in Need in Numbers

Our Help in Numbers

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