Lake Aid Created in 2017 Headquarters Annecy, France

Lake Aid started in 2015 as a Facebook group. Our aim was to send warm clothing to refugee camps in Austria. After this mission was accomplished, we wanted to find ways of helping refugees closer to home. We started a Homework Club in a Night Shelter in Annecy.

Lake Aid became a Registered Charity in 2017. We started providing support for asylum-seeking families through outings and holiday camps, a Christmas Party, Baby Boxes for new mums and distributing school supplies.

Today, we connect local residents with asylum-seeking and homeless families in the Annecy area. We work with other local charities to provide activities and essential supplies for children in need.

More recent projects have included making and selling Covid19 face masks with asylum-seeking women, sharing an allotment with a refugee family, offering activities and support to unaccompanied minors, and helping asylum-seeking women find legal and paid work.

We work in partnership with other local charities, including Secours Populaire, Ligue de Droits de l’Homme, Annecy Solidarite Migrants, Croix Rouge, Urgence Roms.

Lake Aid is 100% volunteer-run, with an elected board of 7 members. We meet every 2/3 months in person or remotely (since Covid). All our meetings are Open Meetings and any member of our private Facebook group can join.

Around 40 active volunteers regularly help at Lake Aid events, and we are supported by over 600 members of our Facebook group.