The Centennial Program

The AFS-Centennial celebrates 100 years of unprecedented accomplishments first by the humanitarian American-Field-Service and now by AFS Intercultural Programs. The idea was and is to help build a more peaceful world by promoting understanding among cultures.

Based on this motto, thirty-seven years ago, the AFS-Refugee-Aid-Foundation was established by AFSers and AFS-organizations in Austria. Also, the leading founder of the foundation later received one of the first Stephen Galatti Awards for his achievements.

The AFS-Refugee-Aid-Foundation combines the origin of AFS as a volunteer-driven humanitarian aid program with the spirit of global intercultural learning. The AFS-Refugee-Aid-Foundation conducts humanitarian aid projects in various parts of the world. Furthermore it aims to raise awareness, that intercultural learning has many different and often particularly challenging facets, especially in the context of involuntary migration. It is also in this spirit, that we are launching the ...

As global challenges differ considerably from one centennial ago, this time mobile medical support in the war-torn country of Southsudan is delivered together with the partner AMREF. There, approximately eleven million people are burdened with a civil war, more than one million refugees and internally displaced persons as well as an impeding famine.

As this crisis goes largely unnoticed the AFS-Refugee-Aid-Foundation not only decided to run one part of the Centennial Program there, but also added a second part to the program. We try to raise direct awareness for the challenges of refugees while helping them through special camps, workshops and direct support with and for refugees together with the partner Caritas.

Much remains to be done and in the spirit of the AFS centennial, we are looking both for financial support as well as volunteers for the Centennial Program of the AFS-Refugee-Aid-Foundation.