History
Danish People’s Aid was established on July 31st 1907 as Arbejdernes Samariter Forening (The Labour’s Samaritan Association).
The establishment of the association was caused by an industrial accident involving many injured workers at a building site in Copenhagen; incapable of helping their wounded colleagues the other workers could do nothing but watch the scene. After this tragic incident, Frederik M. Nielsen, a house painter, took the initiative in establishing an association, whose aim was to offer first-aid courses in order to be able to help other people who had been involved in an accident. The first board of the association consisted of two machinists, one bricklayer, two unskilled labourers and one dental technician, elected at the very first general meeting on July 31st 1907.
In 1962, the name of the organisation changed specifically into ASF-Dansk Folkehjælp and later in 2010 into Dansk Folkehjælp (Danish People’s Aid), as the organisation wanted the social work to be reflected in the identity of the organisation.
Today Danish People’s Aid is represented nationwide in 5 regions and by 50 branches in Denmark and Greenland. The activities of the organisation are mainly based on voluntary work carried out by more than 3 000 individual members and a large number of trade unions, collectively representing approx. 1.5 million members.
Danish People’s Aid operates worldwide as well, and to secure both nationwide and worldwide cooperation for humanitarian work, Danish People’s Aid is a partner in a number of different organisation networks like e.g. DACAAR (Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees), a development non-governmental organisation established in 1984, which works towards sustainable livelihoods in rural Afghanistan including the lasting return of refugees and internally displaced people and represent DAARTT (Danish Assistance to Afghan Reconstruction and Technical Training) – established in 2003 as a non-political, non-profit humanitarian organisation, registered and approved by the Afghanistan government.
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