Founded in 1927 by the Finnish Pentecostal churches, Fida is today a widely active international mission and development organisation.
Fida International (formerly known as the Finnish Free Foreign Mission) was founded in 1927 to coordinate the international work of the Finnish Pentecostal movement. The first secondhand shop was established in 1979 to support relief work around the world.
Finnish Pentecostal churches have been involved in international aid and mission work for more than a hundred years. The missionaries of the first decades gave all they had to the work of their calling. They helped where there was no other help and planted churches that have grown into denominations with millions of members.
After the Second World War, a strong growth of missionary work began in the Finnish churches. Clinics, orphanages and schools were part of the work from the beginning.
Long before development cooperation as such began, missionaries had established hospitals, schools and orphanages in the areas where they worked. The needs were often enormous, with missionaries working in crisis areas and in the midst of famine without adequate resources.
As the need for social work grew, a separate department for development aid was established within FFFM in 1974. To support this, the first secondhand shop was opened in Helsinki, Vilhovuorenkatu, in 1979.
Today Fida has 50 partner countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and South America. We are one of the largest missions, development and humanitarian aid organisations in Finland. Fida works in networks through which it influences the growing Pentecostal movement around the world.
Over the decades, the nature of Fida’s work has changed: Finnish expats are no longer the main characters in the story, but support partner churches and organisations that have become independent and have significant influence in their societies.
In Finland, Fida is well known for its chain of secondhand shops in 13 cities.
Major highlights in our history
1927 The Finnish Pentecostal missionary organisation the Finnish Free Foreign Mission is founded. Nikolai Pöysti, who was a missionary in Manchuria and Russia, played an important role in the foundation. In the early days, Pentecostal missionary work was based on the support of local churches. In addition to Pöysti, one of the first missionaries was Toimi Yrjölä and his family. They worked in China, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and the Asian seas on the Ebeneser mission ship.
Sylvi Mömmö was the first finnish pentecostal missionary in Africa.
Missionaries set up clinics, schools and orphanages in the areas where they work. Many of them work in conditions of hunger and need, without adequate resources and equipment.
In 1974, FFFM was one of the first Finnish organisations to receive support from the Finnish state for development cooperation. The grant was used to build schools and health centres in Ethiopia and Kenya. A separate department for development work, called Missions Development Aid, was set up within FFFM to handle fundraising and administration in support of development cooperation.
In December 1979, the first secondhand shop was opened in a patinated wooden building in Sörnäinen, Helsinki, to benefit the mission’s fundraising efforts.
The store chain took off in 1981, when FFFM and local Pentecostal churches organised a nationwide “One for the Least” clothing drive with unparalleled results: in less than two months, Finns donated a record 5.5 million kilos – 350 train carloads and 120 truckloads – of used clothing and textiles. These were sorted for three years at a sorting centre in Vihti Selki.
In Ethiopia, famine threatens millions of lives. Finnish Free Foreign Mission responds and that marks the beginning of Fida’s humanitarian aid. A plane chartered from Finnair was used to fly blankets and medicines into Ethiopia on Finnish Independence Day, 6 December.
There are already 47 shops in different parts of Finland. The popularity of secondhand clothes is growing.
Fida is the only Finnish organisation to start development cooperation in North Korea. For nearly three decades, Fida works to improve potato farming, dental care and health practices in the closed country. During food shortages, Fida also delivers humanitarian aid to North Korea. Fida’s work in DPRK ends in 2019 due to international bank sanctions.
Finnish Free Foreign Mission and Missions Development Aid merge and become Fida International. The name is Latin and means loyal and reliable. The store chain will be called Fida Mission Stores.
Second hand is becoming a popular phenomenon in Finland too. Fida Mission Stores changes its name to Fida Secondhand Shops.
The war in Ukraine is creating a serious humanitarian emergency in the heart of Europe. Fida is among the first to help, channelling aid to churches and local organisations in Ukraine and neighbouring countries. Finns are donating more than €1 million in emergency aid through Fida. The work in Ukraine continues to this day.
Fida is one of Finland’s largest mission and development organisations. Its work reaches annually about 50 countries and seven million people. Fida has stores in 13 locations in Finland. Every year, Finns donate around two million kilos of clothing and goods for circulation through Fida.
We work for a just world, help in crisis areas and take the good news of the Gospel to all nations and people groups.
