Fundación Aldeas de Paz

Qui sommes-nous

In the 1990s Manfred Monnighoff, a German entrepreneur, developed the Peace Villages Foundation, the first known non-profit franchise concept. He left his successful business career in Holland behind to become a social activist and joined small grassroots NGO´s around the globe and worked as a volunteer with the intention of helping to create and promote a culture of peace. He learned putting his professional skills to work and gained important NGO management skills which later enabled him to develop replicable and self-sustained aid programs in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.

Constitution of Aldeas de Paz
In 1995 Monnighoff started his first humanitarian project in Merida, Venezuela. The work in Merida focused on children rights. With the aim of creating an official organization in Venezuela, he succeeded in 2001 when the legal constitution for a volunteer-based NGO in Caracas, Venezuela, called Fundacion Aldeas de Paz, was created.

Our Vision
We believe that through our initiatives we can create a culture of peace to empower young people and preserve indigenous cultures. We believe that learning through service prepares our local and international volunteers to be role models for change worldwide. We believe that as a community, we are stewards of peace, tolerance, and change across cultural divides. We believe that what we have started in Venezuela can be successfully replicated in other countries and we look forward to helping other enthusiastic individuals accomplish this with our knowhow and practical and financial support.

Our mission is to create a platform for development and cultural exchange between local youth, their family, their community and worldwide volunteers. We promote the culture of peace through enriching cross-cultural exchange for people of all races and nationalities and we practice voluntary community service where we provide additional opportunities in educational, recreational and environmental fields and assist our local beneficiaries to develop their potential and improve their own lives.

Successful work was done for more than a year, but due to dramatic political and social developments in the aftermath of the coup of 2002, a decision was made to leave the programs in the hands of the local community and relocate Aldeas de Paz to Santa Elena de Uairen, a gold and diamonds mining town located on the border with Brazil and Guyana. For the last twelve years Aldeas de Paz has been based in Santa Elena, focusing its resources and energy on cultural and social programs in the region. In the beginning of 2015 we had to suspend our volunteer program in Venezuela until the social and political situation in the country hopefully improves and until it will be safe again to invite volunteers to join our ongoing efforts there.

By the end of 2014 a new program was started in Santa Barbara de Samana, a coastal town in the north east of the Dominican Republic. It all started from a request for support that we received from a local grass-roots initiative working with disadvantaged youth in an impoverished rural community. With our current youth care, community & nature program in the Dominican Republic we aim to empower young people by offering them additional educational opportunities and training, as well as supporting and educating parents, and offering assistance to children with special needs and physical and/or psychological challenges.

Addidionally we promote children rights through a multi-media project and are preparing an awareness raising television program with the aim to help educate parents and attend issues around parenting and education.

Manfred Mönnighoff is the Founder of Fundacion Aldeas de Paz.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.