Since 2005, PfefferminzGreen has been supporting local, non-governmental organisations in Africa, especially in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia. The association avoids any costs for organisation and administration, so that 100% of the donations and contributions get to exactly where they are needed - an extremely rare situation even in the area of charities.

The second principle is that the naturally limited funds do not fall victim to the watering can principle. Instead, PfefferminzGreen supports and accompanies individual projects over longer periods of time. Local NGOs are important partners are that can assess regional conditions and circumstances very well. One of these local organisations is, for example, the Sierra Leonean organisation Amazonian Initiative Movement, or AIM for short, which is dedicated to the fight against the circumcision of girls and for Women Empowerment.

At the DVS Group, support for the work of PfefferminzGreen is expressed not only through financial donations, but also through practical commitment. For example, during the Water is Life campaign, DVS Group trainees installed specially optimised water filters on site.

In 2020, the global pandemic naturally also hit Sierra Leone. As a result, much of the work in progress had to be stopped abruptly and, in the lockdown imposed, schools, kindergartens and other projects had to close. What could be quickly compensated for in this country through online teaching, proved to be a far greater challenge in Sierra Leone: Large parts of the country still have no connection to the internet and even where it does exist, families lack the means to buy the necessary hardware. A pragmatic solution to this situation was provided by a much older technology: radio. Special radio programmes for schoolchildren were quickly developed and implemented in order to be able to continue lessons in a makeshift way, even in times of pandemic. To ensure that sufficient receivers were available for this purpose PfefferminzGreen supported the aforementioned AIM in distributing equipment that could be purchased through financial help from the DVS Group.

Humanitarian aid for self-help also has to deal with the global crises and the unpredictable, and has to react flexibly, even putting projects on hold, when other problems suddenly require even more urgent help. But in Sierra Leona, too, the Corona crisis is coming to an end and PfefferminzGreen will continue to provide targeted aid that gets where it’s needed. And the DVS TECHNOLOGY GROUP will gladly continue to support this work.