We are happy to announce that our nonprofit All4Aid is now all set up and completely operational! The idea of starting a nonprofit organisation came in 2016. The aim was to formally organise the support we were already offering to refugees, both in terms of volunteering and finances. We started putting the thought into practice after the police opened a case against Rodrigo. As a leader in a local church in Frankfurt, Germany, he was summoned and made suspect of the crime of aiding illegal residents. That was because of the church’s sanctuary programme, which housed and protected asylum seekers under the principles of the German sanctuary tradition (“kirchenasyl”).
As the Frankfurt prosecutors insisted in taking the case forward, the campaign “Respect for Church Asylum” was initiated to draw the attention of the public to the case. Thousands of people signed the online petition. Because of the public pressure, the prosecutors eventually dropped the case. Following the success of the campaign, plans were put in motion to establish a broader and more permanent initiative to support refugees. And that is how the nonprofit organisation All4Aid was born. In many ways, however, we are still the same, only a group of friends wanting to serve and support refugees and asylum seekers as best as we can.