Agosti
Foundation

The Agosti Foundation is also supporting the Swiss Red Cross in its emergency response following the severe flash floods in northern Nepal.

The disaster has caused extensive destruction, affecting communities, roads, bridges and critical infrastructure. The Swiss Red Cross has committed initial emergency funding and is working alongside local Red Cross teams responding to urgent humanitarian needs, including support for those affected by the disaster.

The Agosti Foundation is proud to support these efforts and to contribute to rapid humanitarian assistance for communities facing the immediate consequences of natural disasters.

Learn more about the Swiss Red Cross response here.

Following the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, the Agosti Foundation is supporting World Central Kitchen (WCK) and its ongoing emergency response for affected communities.

Since the earthquakes of 24 June, WCK has worked alongside local restaurants, community kitchens and partners across Venezuela to provide fresh meals and essential support to families, emergency responders and communities in need. By August, WCK had distributed more than 1.5 million meals across Miranda, La Guaira and Carabobo, while continuing to strengthen locally operated community kitchens.

Through our support, the Agosti Foundation is proud to contribute to an organisation delivering immediate, practical assistance while working closely with Venezuelan communities on the ground.

Learn more about World Central Kitchen’s work in Venezuela here.

In addition, in 2020 the Physicians Foundation became involved in the fight against Covid-19 with Agosti supporting. Assistance is provided to doctors, dentists and all medical staff in need. Donations are used to purchase the necessary personal protective equipment, such as masks, gloves, FFP2, FFP3 which are then transferred to the aid beneficiaries through regional medical chambers, i.e. doctors, dentists and all medical staff.

In 2020, the Agosti Foundation also provided financial support to the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poznań for activities related to the performance of diagnostic tests for Coronavirus.

Click here to visit Doctors for Doctors Foundation’s website.

Standart’s approach is to build communities rather than tented homes. They invite the refugees to help build the homes, creating a feeling of social affiliation to the communities they build. Schools, sanitary and health areas, space for religious worship and communal food areas add to the positive functioning of the communities, so building a substitute home away from home. Refugee camps that are built for communities rather than countless individual tents in rows also increase the security for the refugees living there, especially for women, children and elderly people.

The camps are operationally managed by IHH (UN) but the Agosti Foundation/Capital Holdings contribution provides the key stakeholders with the manpower and connections to government agencies around the globe for long term engagements. We also help secure available finance from international aid agencies, donor states and refugee relief programs to build new refugee communities in the Middle East.

At the time of Agosti Foundation’s first contribution housing had been given to over 40,000 refugees along the Syrian-Turkish border with finance committed to double that. Today around 10,000 homes have been built in 12 camps.

The small compound consists of a house with adequate rooms for the children, a fully functioning kitchen where the children received a least one warm meal a day, and various bathrooms and a playground. The outdoor area is used for their own garden where they grow different plants which are used in the making of the children’s meals.

The institution is aimed at single-parent households where the children can be safely left and nurtured while their parent is gone to work.

If possible, the families contribute as much as they can to cover the cost. However, for those not able to make any contribution, support is given by local and international donors including the Agosti Foundation.

Besides the loving and caring environment, the children also receive medical and nutritional attention at the day care home, and the nuns try to provide clothing for those without.

In 2019/20 the world was hit hard by Covid-19 (Coronavirus). On March 11 2020, the WHO declared the virus outbreak a global pandemic. Mindful that it is the poor and vulnerable people in our society who have lost their means to survive in the pandemic, Agosti Foundation wanted to support WCK in its relief efforts, which already distributes meals in low-income neighbourhoods of big cities like New York. WCK is active in dozens of cities providing over 250,000 fresh meals every day.

Restaurants are America’s second largest employer, regularly sustaining 15.6 million jobs with normal pre-pandemic annual sales of $889 billion. Today, the industry is projecting huge losses.

It is WCK’s intention that, by working directly with restaurants and providing demand for the businesses, that not only might they survive but the most vulnerable will benefit, too.

Agosti Foundation has substantially supported WCK during the Covid-19 pandemic and will continue to do so.

Click here to visit the World Central Kitchen's website.

Founded in 2005, the Children of the Forest programme supports education initiatives for abandoned Myanmar children including, not only academic learning, but also a range of life skills so that the children might better understand risks of exploitation while also strengthening their employability.

With an average of 100 enrolments every year, the programme has maintained a solid reputation over the years and has achieved its status of being a satellite to the local government school, allowing their pupils to be registered within the formal Thai education system. The children may then sit national examinations for recognised certificates and qualifications.

From now on, the Agosti Foundation will cover all yearly costs for the children to give them a safe home and provide education.

Click here to visit the Child’s Dream Foundation’s website.

Each centre is founded on Four Pillars of practice:

Mindfulness is a way of life
Mindfulness is applied to all aspects of life, including sitting, walking, eating, speaking, listening, emailing and working. The practice centres use the Five Mindfulness Trainings, a concrete expression of Buddhist teachings, to bring an ethical and spiritual dimension to decision making.

Engaged Buddhism
Engaged Buddhism is a new kind of Buddhism that is engaged with the challenges of our time and in which personal spiritual growth and service to society go hand in hand.

Community Building
In community (Sangha), students can strengthen their practice and transform their suffering and difficulties more easily, which enable deep peace, joy and happiness. Communities within the workplaces and schools can be built to learn how to bring positive change into society.

Monastic Community
The engaged monastic order is the largest Buddhist monastic order in the West. In each Plum Village practice centre, the monks and nuns create a peaceful, joyful and healing environment, where visitors can take refuge and immerse themselves in mindfulness practice.

“I am a continuation, like the rain is a continuation of the cloud”, says the global spiritual leader, poet and peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh.

Agosti Foundation supports the Plum Village practice to help ensure its teachings will be carried far into the future.

To find out more click here.

The foundation’s focus is on education because it is proven to be one of the most important factors for sustained social and economic development.

The institution’s Dream Training Centre provides free education of accredited qualifications in Vocational Hospitality Training to 60 underprivileged youths annually. After graduating, the Dreams Training Centre supports the students in job placement or internship opportunities. Free accommodation is provided for all students throughout the duration of their studies.

Children of the Forest strongly believe that empowered youth can proactively contribute towards the positive development of their communities. The aim of Higher Education is to create a new generation of responsible leaders and specialists who strongly contribute toward their country’s sustainable development.

Agosti Foundation supports Children of the Forest leadership programmes in Thailand and is committed to the ongoing roll-out of this exceptional work.

To find out more click here.