Cordaid
Cordaid is the Catholic Organisation for Relief and Development Aid (CORDAID). It is one of the biggest international development organizations, with a network of around a thousand partner organisations in 36 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and has a disposable annual budget of around 170 million euros (2006).
Cordaid directly employs 400 people, amongst them 300 are based in the Netherlands and the rest are stationed all over the world (2010). Cordaid is also known under the names of the funds it manages: Cordaid Memisa, Cordaid Mensen in Nood (People in Need), Cordaid Bond Zonder Naam (Association Without Name), Cordaid Kinderstem (Children's Voice).
Cordaid was founded in 1999 in The Hague, with the aim of helping people in distress and fighting structural poverty. It is a merge of three Dutch Catholic development organisations: Memisa Medicus Mundi (created in 1925), Mensen in Nood (People in Need, created in 1914) and Lenten Campaign/Bilance. The history of these organisations goes back to the beginning of the 20th century when the organisations were active in the area of shelter and (missionary) care for refugees, providing direct aid in the event of disasters, medical care and direct improvement of social and economic position of poor people.
The merge allowed the newly created NGO to benefit from broader resources, rationalised management and organisation and aimed at coordinating actions and projects. Each organisation became a fund with Kinderstem (Children's voice) being part of Mensen in Nood, until October 2004, when Cordaid's General Assembly voted the creation of a separate fund focusing on aid to children living in slums. Cordaid Microcredit was formed in October 2006, following the tenth anniversary of the microfinance activities. On 1 January 2007, the Dutch NGO Bond Zonder Naam (founded in 1938) joined Cordaid. Since 2012 the campaigning cooperation with the Lenten Campaign Foundation ('Vastenaktie') has ended.
