International Friendship Association (IFA)

Welcome to the International Friendship Association (IFA) gGmbH

We are a legally registered nonprofit organization based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, dedicated to fostering intercultural integration and providing comprehensive support to immigrant communities and refugees. Through a variety of impactful initiatives, we promote development cooperation, international understanding, and meaningful connections across cultures.

Our Mission

At IFA gGmbH, our mission is to:

• Support Refugee and Diaspora Communities: Empowering individuals to thrive in Germany through targeted programs and resources.
• Promote Integration: Enhancing opportunities for immigrant children and youth to integrate successfully into German society.
• Encourage Peace and International Understanding: Building bridges between cultures through dialogue and collaboration.
• Facilitate Bilateral Dialogues: Organizing workshops, seminars, conferences, and forums to strengthen connections between Ethiopia and Germany.
• Advance Development Cooperation: Partnering with stakeholders to create sustainable solutions for global challenges.
• Support Underprivileged Groups in Ethiopia: Focusing on children and women through life-changing sponsorship programs.

Center of Excellence in Ethiopia

In alignment with our mission, we are proud to spearhead a groundbreaking project to establish a multipurpose Training Center of Excellence in Ethiopia. This initiative is designed to address critical local and international workforce needs while fostering sustainable development.

Key Objectives:

• Capacity Building: Providing tailored training programs to develop the skills and capabilities of Ethiopia’s workforce.
• Job Creation: Generating meaningful employment opportunities within the Ethiopian economy.
• Workforce Empowerment: Equipping individuals with competencies to meet labor demands in both Ethiopia and Germany.
• Bridging Skill Gaps: Addressing labor shortages in Germany through cross-border skill development and collaboration.
• Language Training: Offering German language instruction to job seekers preparing for opportunities in Germany.
• Vocational Education and Training (VET): Implementing action-oriented learning programs in vocational education and training.
• State-of-the-Art Training Facility: Equipping the multipurpose center with cutting-edge tools and methodologies to provide high-quality training and education.

Join Us

Through these efforts, IFA gGmbH is committed to making a lasting impact on the lives of individuals and communities, both locally and internationally. By creating pathways for skill development, integration, and collaboration, we aim to build a brighter future for all.

We invite you to partner with us, support our initiatives, and join our mission to inspire change and foster understanding. Together, we can make a difference.

The AIDS curse has created major problems and left number of the Ethiopia orphans behind. Children are the most vulnerable and many of them are orphaned or even infected by the HIV infection. This has tended to have lifelong effects on their development leading to a generation of no hope for tomorrow.

“Child Sponsorship Real help, Real Change!”

Today's children are tomorrow's parents and leaders. Child sponsoring is the beginning of a unique relationship between a sponsor and a child. Sponsorship provides a sense of security and  belonging to a child, and in return, a sponsor  will get the satisfaction of investing for betterment of a child. The best way to change a child's life is to change the world in which she or he live. Your support can give a needy child, life’s essentials like food, education, basic health care and immunization.  

Help one Doller a day and  change a child's life!

For food, clothes, school attendance and basic health care € 30 per month and total amount € 30 x 12 months = € 360 per year.  This small amount of money goes a long way through a country in helping to support children in difficult circumstances to change their life in Ethiopia where need is greatest.

Imagine the satisfaction you will feel when you make a donation that will contribute to the betterment of lives of needy children in Ethiopia. Your kindly donations, grants, legacies, gifts, and project funding allows IFA to address the needs of marginalized children thereby realizing its desired goal.
Any kind of support is something special for IFA’s program whatever it is, small or big. Contribution can be made in-kind or in cash, whether in group or individually.  Yes one dollar can make a difference. 

https://mainfrankfurt.engagementportal.de/projects/59532

Provision of Educational materials in 2019 

300 orphan and marginalized  children supported educational materials in Ethiopia, Oromia National Regional State of West Arsi Zone in the Dodola town and  District at the beginning of school years 2012 EC/2019 

Provision of Educational materials in 2020

175 orphan and marginalized  children supported educational materials in Ethiopia, Oromia National Regional State of West Arsi Zone in the Dodola District at the beginning of school years 2013 EC/2020

IFA’s mission is to create and to promote community centered development activities at the grassroot level towards socio-economic improvement. IFA’s primarily supports children and poor women living in the rural areas of Ethiopia.

The girls project is carried out in Oromia National Regional of South Arsi Zone of Dodola District. Many orphan and marginalized girls who live in the District remote areas could not attend their secondary education because of different reasons mostly due to economic problems. Their parents forced to make their daughters quit their secondary education because they cannot cover all costs of living of their daughters throughout their academic years. Especially orphan girls have no chances to access to education due to their dual problems economic and being orphan.

Beside, since most of these girls are obliged to be dependent of either some relative (if they are lucky) or should rent a small room in group in the slum areas of the towns in order to peruse their education. This contributes to their venerability to unwanted sexual relationship and as a result they might have contracted HIV. The fact that these teenage girls have very minimal knowledge to protect themselves from such kind of danger aggravates problems. Generally, to overcome all these problems including closing the gender gap in access to education requires concerted interventions at various levels and need the active involvement of all stakeholders.

With this in view, IFA envisaged launching a project in the aforementioned locations which focuses on enhancing orphan and ,marginalized girl students participation in secondary schools through provision of educational support, HIV/AIDS awareness raising programs and mentoring activities for purposefully selected disadvantaged and needy girls.

Grace Impact gGmbH has provides a second donation to International Friendship Association (IFA) to support orphan and marginalized girl students and empowerment project in Oromia National Regional State of West Arsi Zone in the Dodola District.

As a result, 30 orphan and marginalized girl students but performed well in their primary education were selected and provided educational materials, uniform, and school bags.