Stiftung Olivenzweig - Olive Branch Foundation

Startseite
Schweiz
Basel
Stiftung Olivenzweig - Olive Branch Foundation

We choose projects created by local communities.

The Olive Branch Foundation (OBF) funds grassroots projects for refugees, returnees, internally displaced people and host communities in high-risk, underserved areas, places where few are willing to go.

23/12/2025

As 2025 comes to a close, we want to share a story of hope from the field in Burundi.
In the communities of Cankuzo and Ruyigi, families are working together to rebuild their livelihoods, step by step.

After months of preparation, five agro-pastoral cooperatives reached an important milestone: 77 goats were distributed to 237 cooperative members, including women and men, returnees, internally displaced people and host community members, together with veterinary kits to support animal health and sustainability.

Behind these numbers are people.
Joselyne, a 32-year-old mother of three, prepared carefully before receiving her goat.
"With the organic fertilizer from the goat, my maize fields will finally produce more," she says.
Through a community solidarity mechanism, the first kid will be passed on to another cooperative member, helping the benefits grow over time.

Françoise, 31, joined her cooperative to learn new farming techniques.
"The training we received helped me prepare properly. This goat will allow me to fertilize my fields and improve production," she explains.
"My hope is that all my children will be able to study and build a better future."
What makes this project special is its community-driven approach. Change starts from the priorities and decisions of the communities themselves, with solidarity and shared responsibility at its core.

As we close the year, these voices from the field remind us that lasting change grows from the ground up.

Thank you to everyone who supports this journey.
We wish you happy holidays and all the very best for 2026.

FLM Burundi Chiara Polti

16/10/2025

🌿 Investing in local agency. Building lasting change.

On this International Day of Rural Women, we celebrate the strength, wisdom, and resilience of women like Anastasia in Burundi, who turned challenge into opportunity.

Once struggling to send her children to school, Anastasia is now financially independent, managing her harvests, saving through her cooperative, and investing back into her community.

This is what community-led transformation looks like.
At Olive Branch Foundation, we believe that lasting change starts within communities themselves.

Through initiatives like Cooperative in Burundi, we are enabling women and men in rural areas to lead their own development journeys.

🔸 Empowering local leaders.
🔸 Strengthening resilience.
🔸 Turning small investments into lasting impact.

Because when local communities thrive, the world grows stronger. 🌍
👉 Join us in supporting locally led initiatives that create real, lasting change.

https://www.stiftungolivenzweig.ch/burundi-donation

📷 FLM Burundi

09/10/2025

The model is ready to grow.
With sustained support, peer-to-peer training, additional machines, and stronger buyer linkages, we can open doors for many more marginalized women — while preserving the essence of what makes this work successful: local leadership, practical skills, and market-driven solutions.

Let’s write the next chapter together.

This Giving Tuesday, join us in empowering more women:
👉 https://stiftungolivenzweig.squarespace.com/checkout/donate?donatePageId=66b07eac4819501d41ac620c

07/10/2025

Sangita Kumal shared how life changed: before the project there was no work and no steady income; health care, school, even daily necessities were out of reach.

Through training she learned production, branding, and marketing. Today she earns a regular income, her children are enrolled in school, and she’s dreaming bigger—turning leftover leaves into compost.

“Now we have cash in hand, enough food, and regular earnings.”

📷 Lutheran World Federation LWF Nepal

02/10/2025

On the International Day of Non-Violence (2 October), we reaffirm that non-violence also means economic justice and equal dignity.

Even where “untouchability” is outlawed, caste-based discrimination still limits access to education, employment, and public spaces.

In Kanchanpur, we’re responding with enterprise: supporting Dalit women to launch and grow businesses, strengthening agricultural practices with technical support, and linking producers to real markets.

The aim is sustainable livelihoods for 100 Dalit women entrepreneurs—and more—so families can plan, invest, and participate fully in community life.

Stand with Dalit women today and help turn opportunity into lasting, non-violent change.

📷 Susan Muis

30/09/2025

Machines and electronic tools were procured, but a very practical challenge surfaced: no suitable space to operate safely and store materials.

The community’s response is underway, a dedicated “machine house” is being built near the production site so daily operations are organized, safe, and professional.

When the community leads the design, site selection, and day-to-day management, it isn’t just infrastructure, it’s ownership. People who build it will use it, protect it, and improve it, turning a room with machines into a business that outlasts the project and multiplies incomes.

Share your thoughts!

*****on

📷 Susan Muis

25/09/2025

Forty women, including two with disabilities, completed the full pathway and are already producing and selling different types of leaf plates in local and national markets. When quality meets a clear value proposition, demand follows and income starts to stabilize at household level. This Giving Tuesday, help the next cohort move from training to sales: CHF 46.61 covers 10 days of technical training for one entrepreneur; CHF 29.32 supports business planning; CHF 130 covers setup and spares; CHF 1,520 co-funds a shared leaf-plate press. Your gift keeps value in the community and waste out of landfills.

Donate here: https://stiftungolivenzweig.squarespace.com/checkout/donate?donatePageId=66b07eac4819501d41ac620c

📷 Susan Muis

21/09/2025

We started with a five-day business planning course where each participant built her own plan—costs, customers, cash flow. On request from the women, we added two more hands-on workshops (5+5 days) focused on leaf-plate production, hosted in Kailari-4 (Manhera) and Bandargaudi-5. Skills first, then scale: a sequence that turns confidence into commerce.

📷 Susan Muis

17/09/2025

In early February 2025 we kicked off an inclusive entrepreneurship initiative in Kailari and Bardagoria rural municipalities (Kailali district). Together with LWF Nepal and the Freed Kamaiya Women Development Forum, we support women at the margins—including persons with disabilities—to launch eco-friendly leaf-plate enterprises through practical training, the right tools, and access to markets. Locally led, built to last, and centered on dignity and income.

Read more: https://lnkd.in/eACjCzyw

📷 Susan Muis

30/08/2025

🌱 Cooperatives = strength in numbers.

In rural Burundi, Chad, and Nepal, cooperatives give families access to:

Shared tools and training
Better market opportunities
A voice in decision-making
The result? Stronger incomes, stronger communities, and stronger futures.

28/08/2025

Across Burundi, Chad, and Nepal, women are rewriting the story of leadership.

In Chad, women are village chiefs.
In Burundi, half of all cooperative leaders are women.
In Nepal, women entrepreneurs run eco-businesses that protect the environment and sustain families.
When women lead, entire communities rise.

📷 FLM Burundi

22/08/2025

🌍 Did you know?
Burundi ranks among the lowest on the Human Development Index, Chad faces recurring climate shocks, and Nepal has thousands of families recovering from conflict and poverty.

Yet in all three countries, local communities are leading change:
✅ Cooperatives boosting incomes
✅ Women in leadership roles
✅ Youth building businesses
✅ Families finding peace and resilience

When people drive solutions, transformation lasts.

Adresse

Dufourstrasse 49
Basel
4052

Webseite

http://www.stiftungolivenzweig.ch/

Benachrichtigungen

Lassen Sie sich von uns eine E-Mail senden und seien Sie der erste der Neuigkeiten und Aktionen von Stiftung Olivenzweig - Olive Branch Foundation erfährt. Ihre E-Mail-Adresse wird nicht für andere Zwecke verwendet und Sie können sich jederzeit abmelden.