Our Work COMPLETED PROJECTS

The very first aid activities in Costa Rica were carried out by the foundation in 1987 in the south-western canton of Pérez Zeledón. For it was especially in the remote rural areas that the need of the population was greatest.

For instance, the foundation donated a minibus to the elderly home Monseñor Delfín Quesada, which provided the residents with a means of transport to go to the hospital and receive medical care. The foundation also helped to keep the local hospital running - donating medical instruments and a much-needed air conditioning unit for the hospital's intensive care unit.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the Samuel Foundation decided to help needy children in Costa Rica and, in 1991, built two children's homes in the city of San Isidro del General: the Albergue Heinz and the Albergue Günther Children's Homes. Equipped for ten children and adolescents, both facilities offered protection, care, and support in a family-like environment. Since then, countless children have been able to find a temporary new home there until new prospects open up for them - such as being taken into a foster family, being adopted or returning to their family of origin.  

The Samuel Foundation ran the two children's homes in cooperation with the responsible Costa Rican child protection authority PANI until 2019. Infrastructure and staff were provided by the foundation. At the beginning of 2019, PANI took over both homes. This project for children and young people in need was thus successfully completed.

In 1992, the foundation supported the expansion of a school in the community of Lomas de Cocorí near the provincial capital San Isidro. The settlement, which had formerly been built illegally, suffered from extreme infrastructural deficiencies. Together with the community leaders, the Samuel Foundation worked out a plan to extend the local school by three urgently needed classrooms, a sanitary block, and a kitchen with a dining room. Previously, the majority of the 240 pupils had to be taught outdoors. As part of the building project, the foundation took over the purchase of the building materials, the financing of the external work as well as the coordination of the project - construction was then carried out with the participation of the parents. The completed school was a sign of hope for many of the local families and their children.

In the years 2023 to 2024, the Samuel Foundation supported an aid project for victims of sexualised violence in cooperation with Fundación Rahab, its partner organisation based in San José. Fundación Rahab provides care for women affected by violence, their children and young people at risk in holistic prevention and rehabilitation programmes. As part of the project, courses for the professional qualification of affected women were financed and modernisation measures carried out to improve the infrastructure of Fundación Rahab. The project was co-financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development's (BMZ) Development Cooperation Small Projects Fund.

Within the framework of a BMZ (German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) project, the Samuel Foundation carried out the extension of the school "El Divino Salvador" in Bello Amanecer in 2000. In this district of Ciudad Sandino, west of Managua, many families with many children live in precarious conditions. Thanks to the cooperation project between the local church as the school sponsor and the foundation, six classrooms were built and equipped. This made it possible to increase the number of pupils from 1^st to 6^th grade by 1.5 times and to open three additional grades, 7^th to 9^th.

From 1990 to 2010, the Samuel Foundation supported the health post "El Tepeyac" near Granada. Every Saturday, the health post, which was founded by nuns in 1963, was a reliable place to go to for up to 200 sick and needy people from the surrounding area who could not pay for services from the state health system.

In 1990, the Samuel Foundation started its commitment by donating a minibus for the transport of patients and staff. In 1995, it conducted a project co-financed by the Federal Republic of Germany for the renovation and expansion of the health post as well as for the water supply of three neighbouring communities. In 2003, students from the foundation’s building trade course carried out urgently needed repairs and beautification work in the health post under the supervision of our trainers. In addition, the foundation regularly supported the health post with funds for the purchase of medicines and food.

As a great art lover, the founder of the foundation, Robert Samuel, supported artists for many years. The Samuel Foundation continued this tradition. From 1986 to 2006, it financially supported young students of the renowned Düsseldorf Art Academy during their studies. During this time, it awarded annual scholarships and supported the students in exhibiting their own works of art. To be eligible for funding, students had to be socially disadvantaged, and their work had to be considered worthy of artistic support. The project was closely linked to the commitment of the private lecturer and press spokesman of the art academy, Hubertus Neuerburg. With his retirement, the foundation's scholarship programme also came to an end.

The project "Café Eden" is an initiative of the Düsseldorf Theatre on the topic of flight and migration. The aim was to create a meeting place for all citizens and at the same time to contribute to improving the integration of refugees into our society. “Café Eden” is a place for information, encounters, art, and culture and is actively shaped by the participants. In 2017 and 2018, the Samuel Foundation added an educational component to the services offered by "Café Eden": teaching the German language to refugees, especially children and young people. Different formats were developed for the playful teaching of the language, such as theatre play clubs, school theatre workshops, open stage formats, play offers and discussion events, which were very well received.

In 2018/19, the Düsseldorf Theatre and the Samuel Foundation, together with the zakk cultural centre in Düsseldorf, continued their successful cooperation in the field of integration. As German language skills are a crucial instrument for the success of integration, the multicultural play "Germany. A Winter's Tale" focuses on linguistic and cultural exchange between Germans and young people with a migration background. In the play, the actors follow in the footsteps of Heinrich Heine, who, after 13 years of exile, sets off on a journey back to his German homeland. The project was funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia and the State Working Group for Sociocultural Activities.

Amid the difficult economic situation in Cuba in the 1990s, the foundation was involved in various projects on the Caribbean island between 1997 and 2007. The work there proved to be quite difficult, as independent project work was not desired by the Cuban government.

Despite these difficult conditions, three projects were realised in the capital Havana that have opened prospects for young people in Cuba. The foundation started its work there in 1997/98 by supporting a lifeguard school, the "Escuela Provincial de Salvavidas Henry Dunant". In the following years, it provided support to a training centre for crafts and technical courses, the "Politécnico Fernando Aguado y Rico", as well as to a training facility for young people from the socially weakest sections of the population, the "Escuela de Oficios Hermanos Ameijeiras". In particular, the foundation carried out measures to modernise the infrastructure and equipment of the respective centres.

Based on the initiative of the child psychiatrist Dr. Eugen Jungjohann from Düsseldorf, the Samuel Foundation conducted a project for basic medical care in the community of Ebenebe in Eastern Nigeria, the former Biafra, from 1990 onwards. For this purpose, the foundation built a small hospital with outpatient care, an inpatient wing with 20 beds and an operating theatre. In 1992, the hospital was completed and officially inaugurated. In 1994, the building was extended by a wing for a nurses' school with a total of eight training places. The hospital developed extremely successfully and also did a good job in preventive care and hygiene. Shortly after its inauguration, an average of about 120 patients visited the outpatient clinic every day. In 1996, the first eight nurses successfully completed their training. In 1999, the foundation began the process of handing over responsibility to the local partners, which was fully completed in 2002.

From 2002 to 2017, the Samuel Foundation was active in educational projects in Thailand. From 2006 onwards, it functioned as an officially recognised international development aid organisation. Initiated by Gerd Mathia, a former marketing consultant from Düsseldorf who had been living in Thailand for many years, the foundation supported and supervised school-age children and young people in their education. Although school education is free in Thailand, transport, uniforms, and school supplies are not. In addition to financing school attendance, the foundation offered important classes to accompany the education, such as computer and English courses as well as afternoon care.

In addition, the foundation repeatedly financed measures to improve the infrastructure in a children's home, the "Home for Hilltribe Children", as well as rural schools in the region, and contributed significantly to running costs, such as school meals.

At the same time, up to 70 children and young people were in the care of the foundation, attending from local primary schools to national vocational schools and universities in the country. We supported many of them for many years, from primary school until they successfully completed their vocational education.

With the retirement of the country director, the foundation phased out its activities in 2017 at the same time as it ended its support for the last young people in sponsorship that year.

Between 1989 and 1996, the foundation supported an educational project of the Dominicans for children of a rubbish dump colony on the periphery of San Salvador, which was founded by landless and displaced persons at the time of the civil war in El Salvador. The project provided pre-school and primary school education for the children of the colony and created the necessary infrastructure. During its involvement, the foundation financed the salary of a teacher from Germany as pedagogical director.