For 50 years the aid and human rights organisation medico international has fought for social change. In solidarity with socially excluded and marginalised people in the global South, medico works to promote good living conditions for people which maximise health and social justice. The goal is not merely to reduce poverty, want and violence, but to identify and overcome their causes. The problem in the world is not too little aid, but rather the conditions that make more and more aid necessary.

For medico, aid is part of comprehensive political action in solidarity. Our efforts to support emancipatory processes are made in the awareness of the ambivalent consequences of aid. We operate on the maxim ‘Defend, criticise and overcome aid‘. The core issue is cooperation in partnership with actors in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Rather than exporting aid materials, staff or projects, we support local structures and initiatives. Our partners are not passive recipients of aid – instead, they are competent actors, themselves organising aid in the struggle for better living conditions and fighting for the human right to health.

Crises and emergencies are not natural phenomena. Poverty and violence have their causes in global relationships of exploitation and domination. This is why active and critical public relations work is a central task for medico international. Always standing up for the rights of the socially excluded, we are active in global networks, at events and through publications and campaigns. We keep people informed about forgotten conflicts, repressed interests and concealed dependencies. The goal is to establish and promote a transnational counterpublics which binds together the ideas of a good life, human rights with universal validity, social responsibility and institutionalised common goods accessible to all. 

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