About us
Look at poverty differently and you’ll see grassroots entrepreneurs, full of energy and ideas. We help turn their skills and potential into jobs. They find a way up and out of poverty.
Hand in Hand International is a member of the Hand in Hand Network, a global group of NGOs that has worked in 14 countries and counting. Our goal is to eradicate poverty in the communities where we work.
In the 1980s and ’90s, Percy Barnevik ran some of the world’s biggest companies, changing the way business was done. But it wasn’t until a trip to India in the early-2000s that he discovered his “biggest and most important project.”
“I was visiting southern India and I saw this terrible abuse of child labour. I couldn’t sit by and do nothing, so I started to pay the factory owners to free them,” says Percy, now 79. “At one point I was in mind to release 200,000 children, which becomes quite a lot of money. But I couldn’t guarantee they’d stay free. I realised then that I had to attack the root cause of the problem: poverty.”
Tackling a problem as big as poverty in a country as big as India, Percy reasoned, would require an NGO committed to speed, scale and efficiency – the same principles he’d championed as a CEO. When he couldn’t find that NGO, he built it himself.
Today, Hand in Hand has worked in 14 countries and counting, helping to transform more than 15 million lives. Find out more about our journey below.
Indian children play in the street
2003: Percy recruits local development specialist Dr Kalpana Sankar, a nuclear physicist by training, to help launch Hand in Hand. Together, they begin to develop our livelihoods model.
Honey producers | Afghanistan
2007: Word of Hand in Hand’s success in India reaches Afghanistan, and then-President Hamid Karzai takes notice. Hand in Hand Afghanistan is established at Karzai’s request, with staff from India leading the way. Hand in Hand’ emphasis on South-to-South knowledge transfer continues to this day.
Naomi Masilo | Shop owner | South Africa
2008: Hand in Hand Southern Africa launches in Bryanston, a suburb of Johannesburg, with three staff and a cramped office. Today, our network employs dozens staff in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
Hannah Haciku | Tailor | Nairobi, Kenya
2010: Hand in Hand Eastern Africa launches in Nairobi, Kenya. A network hub and regional leader is born.
Group exercise | Cambodia
2012: Hand in Hand India launches a pilot in Cambodia.
Gloria Kabagwira | Organic produce farmer | Rwanda
2013: Hand in Hand Eastern Africa partners with CARE International to empower some 80,000 Rwandans, mostly women, to work their way of poverty. When the project concludes in 2016, more than 115,000 jobs are created.
Children play in Myanmar
2013: Hand in Hand India continues its regional expansion by setting up in Myanmar.
New York City
2014: Friends of Hand in Hand International launches in New York City, enabling US citizens to make tax deductible donations.
Faith Makundi | Member | Tanzania
Hand in Hand Eastern Africa expands into Tanzania, targeting Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions in the north of the country.
2022 Hand in Hand (Germany) eV was founded. The aim, to deepen our activities in the DACH region.