Casa Alianza Switzerland’s 20th Anniversary

We celebrated Casa Alianza Switzerland’s 20th anniversary in a packed room at Café Voisins, joined by many of our founding members, donors, and new people interested in Casa Alianza’s activities!

Mr. Longchamp, President of the State Council, did us the honor of delivering a speech and announcing live the award of funding for a three-year project in Honduras.
Two volunteers, Clara Lormand and Frédéric Crousaz, who had just returned from Nicaragua, each shared their experiences in the field in moving speeches, followed by a reception prepared by Café Voisins and a concert by Barlovento Dúo.

Urgent Project at Casa Alianza Nicaragua (CAN).

 
MANAGUA. Renovation work that began at the home for teenage mothers revealed that the roof was infested with termites and on the verge of collapsing… CAN therefore urgently contacted the secretariat to share this news, which significantly increases the cost of the repairs. Part of the CHF 15,000 needed has since been secured, but we are still seeking CHF 5,000 to complete the work and allow the young teenage mothers and their babies to return to their home.

Micro-Business Project: A Bakery in Guatemala

 
Susana arrived at La Alianza Guatemala in July 2016 following the death of her mother a month earlier. She had been living with her grandmother along with her three other siblings, the youngest of whom was only 7 years old. The grandmother was already caring for her daughter’s two children—whose mother is in prison—as well as two other children belonging to one of Susana’s sisters, who leaves them with her while she works during the day. Susana’s grandmother lives in a high-risk neighborhood in Guatemala City and has no income, which puts these children at high social risk. One evening, Susana did not return home and was found asleep in a field. The police took her before a judge, who placed her at La Alianza.

On the eve of her 18th birthday, Susana knows she will soon have to leave the shelter to stand on her own two feet. Between 2016 and 2017, she completed a baking and pastry-making training program offered at La Alianza and funded by the municipality of Meyrin. Today, she would like to move back in with her grandmother and bake bread and pastries to support her family.
To start her own small business, Susana needs a little help, which is why La Alianza reached out to Casa Alianza Suisse to ask us to fund a used professional oven as well as all the utensils and basic ingredients needed to launch her business.

Thanks to donations from our members, we were able to make Susana’s project a reality! She will return to live with her grandmother, equipped with the tools and technical skills needed to launch her own bakery, giving her a better chance of reintegrating into society and her family in a sustainable way.

A Day at Casa Alianza Mexico

This fascinating account by Valérie Tabachnik, a member of Casa Alianza Switzerland for over 10 years, takes us right into the heart of the work done by the educators at Casa Alianza Mexico for a single day. Just enough time for Valérie to capture the very essence of the work being done on the ground and to convey it accurately.
“On August 4, 2016, we had an 8:00 a.m. meeting with the teams at Casa Alianza Mexico. We met Jessie and Aidee, who organized this day for us—two lovely young women whose helpfulness and professionalism we’ve come to appreciate over the past few weeks through our email and phone exchanges.”

Read the article 

Music Festival

The 2017 edition was a scorcher!! With over 600 concerts in 3 days and hundreds of festivalgoers strolling from one stage to another with a drink in hand, everyone was able to enjoy the delicious treats we were selling at the Casa Alianza booth.

By the numbers: 28 kegs of beer and 42 liters of rum were consumed, 55 volunteers came to lend a hand at the booth, 85 kg of raclette cheese were enjoyed, and the executive director walked 38 km in three days between the refrigerated trailer and the booth!

That said, the net profit from this event was far below our expectations (one-third of what we made in 2015). This may be due to the location and the heat we’ve been experiencing these past few days.

Visit by Guadalupe Ruelas 

The director of Casa Alianza Honduras spent a week in Geneva as part of a consultation on the issue of migrant children at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. We took the opportunity to visit our donors and organize (at the last minute—our apologies) a cocktail reception at the Bains des Pâquis, where about ten members of Casa Alianza Switzerland came to listen to Guadalupe and ask her many questions.
Did you know? Casa Alianza Honduras is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year! To mark the occasion, we’ll be publishing a special issue to highlight the work being done on the ground.