Our purpose

Our purpose

Fondacio's raison d'être is to form and accompany builders of a more humane and just world, with the younger generations at heart. It is its identity from the beginning: the emergence of vocations for a new world.

Builders of a more humane and just world

In just over 45 years, Fondacio has grown and diversified rapidly. Its mission has spread to some twenty countries, opening up to a plurality of cultures, building bridges between very different social backgrounds, looking to the world with hope, training people who are passionate and committed to the good of humanity.

Fostering vocations as builders for a more humane and just world

Fondacio, on different continents, in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, leads development and solidarity projects in several fields: education, health, social and sustainable development, with a set of programs that support and equip future builders in three dimensions: 

  • To give meaning to one's life, with means of personal and professional formation. 
  • To live relationships of solidarity, cooperation and partnership that make it possible to develop and combine talents for a greater, stronger and more lasting impact.
  • To get involved in projects in order to develop new solutions for a more fraternal world.

Bringing proposals to the challenges of our time

We live in a world of turmoil that is becoming more complex and accelerating. It sometimes seems threatening, especially on issues such as ecology and climate. At the same time, new opportunities are emerging which are sources of hope in a search for meaning. This is how Fondacio addresses both this context of change and the need to respond to today's challenges by accompanying and training actors of change. 

All around the globe, there are many proposals that integrate as closely as possible with local expectations and issues. 

Find all our actions in the "Our actions" menu. 

Engaging today to build tomorrow's change

Engaging with young people: New generations are at the heart of the future and it is with them and for them that we must act first. They are at the heart of the mechanisms offered by Fondacio in an intergenerational approach.

Engage as actors of change: Enable everyone to contribute to the development of their own color, to be a source of solutions, or to influence decisions based on shared values for a common good. 

Engage in pilot projects: Pilot projects are developed and accompany achievements or research into solutions aimed at sustainable development. On every continent, incubator centers for change and innovation are working to improve living together and to safeguard the common home.

Some significant examples: Sichem in Togo, L'Esvière in Angers, L’Ermitage in Versailles, Oasis near Bogota, Los Almendros in Santiago...

 

Fondacio is still on the path

Fondacio was born in 1974 in the wake of the Second Vatican Council and the dynamic of openness to the world that it inspired in the Church. While on mission in some twenty countries, the men and women of Fondacio wish to spread a spirituality of friendship based on the Holy Gospel.

Recognized by the Catholic Church (Canonical Statutes of Pontifical Right), the association strives to develop ecumenical links with the Orthodox and Protestant Churches.

Like our logo, everyone is called upon to be a spark in the heart of the world. A spark of change. 

"Christians for the world", Fondacio's motto since its creation in 1974.  

Witnesses to the spirituality born of the Gospels, the members of Fondacio develop multiple initiatives that are a path of transformation and conversion, of prayer and sharing with others, and of active commitment for more justice and humanity.

The three dimensions in which Fondacio's charism based on the Gospel is exercised are expressed in its DNA: being true, being with, being for. These are three dynamics of life.

All of Fondacio's proposals aim to support people in their quest for meaning, authentic relationships or commitment, based on these 3 dynamics. They are the fundamental and inseparable components that irrigate all Fondacio's offer and actions.

Celebrating our diversity around the world

At the heart of all this is an appreciation of encounters and intercultural and interreligious dialogue.  The value of dialogue and difference as assets for acting together aims to ensure that differences are not factors of decrease but of increase and greater benefit for the benefit of all and the community.

Fondacio's open-mindedness is key to its functioning. It is not a community with a strong or confining identity component. Anyone, whatever their beliefs, can find what they are looking for and can get involved. 

Within Fondacio, there are several cultures from East to West, several denominations, Orthodox, Protestant, Catholic... they are also other people, without religious labels, who meet, dialogue and act together. The purpose of our meetings is to open our hearts widely to the peripheries of the world, and to let ourselves be moved to better hear the calls and cries, the hopes and anxieties, the joys and sorrows of today's men and women, and more particularly the most vulnerable. 

As Saint Augustin affirms, "fraternal love is God Himself". It is the beating heart of Fondacio who desires to witness more and more of such love. Fraternity is lived as a companionship, a source of support, encouragement, challenge and even co-creation. Fraternity is the goal and also the path of the human adventure, our path. Fondacio proposes to live and progress together on this common road, open to all.