Something to hold on to in unsteady times

MAF Switzerland is one of around 40 aid organisations that have joined this campaign. Together we make visible what often goes unnoticed: even in uncertain times, things can be moved when many stand together.

Why this campaign was launched

The figures of recent years speak plainly. In 2025 there were 65 armed conflicts involving a state, the most since 1946. By the end of the year almost 118 million people had been forcibly displaced. Added to that is the climate crisis, whose consequences have long been visible. Droughts, floods and heatwaves are destroying livelihoods worldwide. Reliable rules and institutions are losing their force, and more and more often only the law of the strongest seems to apply.

You would expect more to be invested precisely now. The opposite is happening. According to the OECD, public funding for development cooperation fell by 23 per cent in 2025, the sharpest drop ever measured. The second Trump administration made drastic cuts shortly after taking office, and other donor countries are withdrawing their contributions too. Switzerland is no exception. It is far from the agreed 0.7 per cent target, and in the current debates on savings, international cooperation is among the first items to be cut. For people on the ground this means, in concrete terms: aid programmes are curtailed and partner organisations lose their planning certainty. That is exactly why this campaign came about. When support falls away where it is needed most, Swiss aid organisations want to show that their work does not become less important, but more.

Support grows where people stand up for one another

Support does not come from above. It grows where people stand up for one another, take responsibility and create prospects together. The strength of aid organisations lies in their closeness to people. Those who live in a place know best what a community needs and which solutions really hold. Much comes out of that closeness. Local partners strengthen their communities, secure livelihoods and create spaces where people can exercise their rights. Together, Swiss aid organisations reach millions of people every year. What looks small on its own adds up to a great deal. And it concerns us too. As a small, interconnected state, Switzerland depends on stable global conditions. Our prosperity and our security depend on whether people elsewhere can live in dignity and build a future. If we invest in this work, we invest in our own stability as well.

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MAF Switzerland's contribution

Within this network, every aid organisation contributes in its own way. MAF Switzerland does so with what we do best: reaching people who are otherwise almost unreachable.

Because often, where need is greatest, people are hardest to reach. Roads are destroyed, impassable in the rainy season or too dangerous. With small aircraft, MAF brings specialist staff, medicines and relief supplies into remote regions that would take days to reach overland, or cannot be reached at all. One flight replaces a journey of several days over barely passable tracks and makes medical evacuations possible where every hour counts. In this way MAF complements the work of many other organisations. Where partners run up against the limits of what they can reach, we make sure their help gets through anyway. When budgets shrink, this access becomes all the more important, because a flight that saves days also saves costs and saves lives.

For MAF Switzerland, something to hold on to in unsteady times therefore means one thing above all: making sure no one remains out of reach. That only works together with the other aid organisations and with the people who carry this work.

More about the campaign: www.swiss-ngo.ch

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