From APD, 24 April 2018 | The Adventist Foundation for the Blind in Switzerland has been closed down due to lack of funds. The closure was finalized on April 22 following a decision on November 13, 2017 to dissolve the service.

A remaining endowment of 90,000 Swiss francs (approx USD 91,652) was transferred to the Adventist Voice of Hope ministry based in Alsbach, Germany.

The Adventist Foundation for the Blind was founded in 1963 by Werner Schenk and received strong backing from members of the Adventist Church and the Free Church in Switzerland in early years. The foundation provided various printed products in braille and large fonts for the blind and visually impaired in both German and French.

Topics covered in the informational products included health, lifestyle, and Christian spirituality. The foundation ran a number of centers across the Swiss city of Basel and distributed material worldwide. Staff at the centers were paid by the Swiss Federal Social Insurance Office while other costs were shouldered by donors.

In recently years the finances of the organization had suffered as rising technological costs had outpaced donations.

According to the Adventist denomination’s Office of Archives, Statistics and Research, the Swiss Union Conference of the denomination which oversees the church in Liechtenstein and Switzerland, has 4,704 members and 54 churches.

APD is an Adventist news service for several countries in Europe.

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