In Battambang since 2005
A Swiss association, a French association, twenty years in Battambang
AVEC was founded in 2005 in Battambang, in the north-western province of Cambodia. Twenty years on, it’s still there, by the same hands, that everything is decided and everything gets done.
The story begins in 2005
Our history, twenty years in a few lines
Patrik Roux discovered Battambang in the early 2000s. Cambodian by adoption, he settled there gradually, observing, understanding. He met Theavy Bun, Cambodian by birth and by commitment, whose knowledge of the ground and family network would become the project’s local anchor. Together, they founded AVEC in 2005, with a simple intuition: for humanitarian work to last, it must be run from within, by people who live there.
The first programme was the shelter. A few children taken in, a house, a protection procedure run in partnership with the Cambodian Ministry of Social Affairs and the Battambang police. Very soon, needs outgrew that: it became clear that protection without schooling wasn’t enough. The school support programme opened. Then the training centre for young adults who wouldn’t go to university. Then university scholarships for those who could. Then the kindergarten. Every programme was born of a need on the ground, never of a marketing plan.
In 2025, AVEC supports more than 750 people a year. The Swiss body is an association with public-benefit status. A French association was added to open donations up to French tax relief. The accounts are audited. The teams are stable. The field headquarters is still in Battambang. Management is still there too.
Our mission, in three movements
Not a slogan. Not a single programme. A mission built around three complementary movements, for twenty years.
First movement
Protect
The Battambang shelter cares for twenty-six children at any one time. Abuse, abandonment, exposure to trafficking: these are the cases the Ministry of Social Affairs and the police refer to us, for long-term, professional protection. Strict procedures, siblings never separated, psychological support.
Second movement
Educate
One hundred and fifty-six schoolchildren supported in 2025 across three partner schools. Supplies, uniforms, transport, tutoring, food parcels for families. Education as a safeguard against dropping out and against the networks lying in wait for children who leave school early.
Third movement
Support
One thousand four hundred and fifty-four course enrolments at the training centre. University scholarships for the best students. Sentinelles support throughout their studies. Professional networking. Protection doesn’t stop at eighteen; it continues through to economic independence.
The AVEC team
A field management team living in Battambang. A stable local team. A volunteer board in Switzerland and France.
Co-founder and director
Patrik Roux
Co-founder of AVEC in 2005, Patrik has lived in Battambang for twenty years. He steers the organisation’s overall strategy, the relationship with the Cambodian authorities, programme oversight and links with donors in Switzerland and France. He is also the publication director of the French association.
“You can’t really run a humanitarian NGO from a distance. Not properly. You can sign cheques, organise galas, write reports. But protecting a child happens with the neighbour next door. With the headteacher who calls on a Sunday. With the police who know who to talk to. That’s why we live here.”
Co-founder and field manager
Theavy Bun
Co-founder of AVEC, Cambodian by birth, Theavy is the organisation’s local anchor. She oversees the shelter day to day, manages the team of care workers, liaises with the Ministry of Social Affairs, and personally follows every child taken in. Her family network in Battambang also serves as AVEC’s early-warning network: when an at-risk child comes to light in the region, it’s often through this network that we hear of it.
Theavy is also the shelter’s emotional memory. Twenty years of children taken in, twenty years of life stories she remembers name by name. Many former residents of the shelter call her “mum”.
The field team in Battambang also includes Cambodian care workers present at the shelter day and night, specialist trainers for the centre’s three courses (sewing and beauty care, English, IT), a psychologist who visits regularly, and administrative and logistics staff. All of these people are Cambodian employees, paid according to local salary standards. The organisation doesn’t rely on a rotating cast of expatriates: the jobs are stable, the faces are the same from one year to the next.
Our governance, three structures for a single field operation
On the ground, the AVEC NGO, registered in Cambodia, employs the team and runs the six programmes. In Europe, the AVEC Switzerland association and the AVEC France association collect donations and transfer them in full to the field. This structure opens up tax relief to donors in both countries: the franc and the euro arrive in the same place, on the same budget lines, audited against the same criteria.
AVEC Switzerland association
Public-benefit status. Registered office at Route de la Conversion 247, 1093 La Conversion. Chaired by Philippe Cloux. Volunteer board. Accounts audited annually by an independent fiduciary firm. Full tax regime: deduction on direct federal tax and cantonal taxes for donors resident in Switzerland.
AVEC France association
A loi 1901 association recognised as being of general interest. Registered office at 3 chemin de Hourtic, 64800 Bruges-Capbis-Mifaget. Publication director: Patrik Roux. Volunteer board of directors. Accounts audited. Full tax regime: 66 % income tax relief for individuals, 60 % for companies under corporate patronage rules.
Both structures fund the same operational programmes in Battambang. No donor is more useful than another: the Swiss franc and the euro arrive in the same place, on the same budget lines, audited against the same criteria. The only difference for you is a tax one: choose the association in your country of residence to benefit from the tax deduction that applies to you.
Twenty years, in numbers
2005
Year founded
Twenty years of continuous action in Battambang
750+
People / year
Children, schoolchildren, trainees and students supported in 2025
95,9 %
To the field
of funds go directly to programmes in Battambang
3
Structures
NGO in Cambodia, Swiss public-benefit association, French association of general interest
Want to find out more about AVEC?