Weltwärts: Africa

“Weltwärts” is the name of the new programme supporting the involvement of young Germans in development collaboration. They are working in projects in more than 50 countries in Africa

(© picture-alliance/ dpa)

They teach in schools, work in orphanages or give advice on health issues. Since early March, young Germans who want to get involved in development collaboration on a voluntary basis are being supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through a new programme called “Weltwärts” which supports young people from Germany doing development policy volunteer service. Anyone between the ages of 18 and 28 can apply. Currently, around 130 organizations involved in development policy work are partners of “Weltwärts”. 

They prepare the young people thoroughly for their sojourns abroad, which can last from 2 to 24 months. The volunteers earn pocket-money of 100 euros a month. By the end of the year the BMZ aims to admit 3,000 young people into the Weltwärts programme. Most of the projects are on the African continent. How do young people become involved with Africa? What motivates them about their work? What experience do they gain? We would like to introduce four of the “Weltwärts” participants.

“Dream Job” in Burundi

When Philipp Ziser returned to Karlsruhe he was certain that he wanted to go back to Burundi again, where he had already worked for about a year until the end of 2007. But how to back there? The small Cologne organization, “burundikids”, that finances orphanages, schools and training schemes in one of the world’s poorest countries, could not afford to send him to the east African country again. So the launch of the “Weltwärts” programme came just at the right moment. 

Since March, the 25-year-old has been continuing the work in the Burundian capital of Bujumbura. “I’m responsible for communications between Burundi and Germany. That means writing applications and reports, collecting donations and extending our PR-activities.” For the journalism student with experience in a newspaper office, it is a “dream job”. 

“Even during my time at the newspaper office, I realized that I wanted to get out for a year. Not just to travel and do odd jobs, but to do something I am qualified to do.” Now Philipp is spending two years with 65 children in an orphanage, looking after the association’s projects and, when necessary, driving the children to hospital. The experiences he is gaining in Burundi are very intense. What is a routine operation in a German hospital, often cannot be done here due to the absence of doctors or technical equipment. But the positive experiences outweigh the negative. 

“When I come back to the children’s home in the evening and they all come running towards me, then I forget the stress involved.” Or when he sees how thanks to a micro-credit of 50 euros a woman can build up a little business and survive, and then can send her children to school. “That’s what motivates us. When we see that we can have an impact.” This encourages Philipp. “I could well imagine setting up a small project some day to train young journalists.”

Scholarships for School Students from South Africa

The cultural scientist Johanna Lichtenberg (24) and the future teacher Max ­Reichel (23) have been working since April in Johannesburg in the South African office of the AFS Intercultural Programmes. They both know the exchange organization: Max spent a year in the United States as an exchange school-­pupil thanks to the AFS, Johanna in South Africa. “It is great to come back here and work for the organization which once supported me,” says ­Johanna. 

“We know from experience how much the stay abroad influenced us. And we would like to make this ­possible for other school students.” She is designing a marketing concept for the local office, looking after PR-work and maintaining school contacts. “It’s normal in Germany for school students to go to school abroad, here it’s not. We also try to make this possible for ­socially disadvantaged children, for ­example, through a scholarship,” she says, commenting on her work. 

So the young lady from Celle is organizing a big sponsors’ race for the 50th anniver­sary of the AFS South Africa. Max has ­already worked for the AFS in ­Germany and is now continuing this in South Africa. He provides intercultural training courses and prepares not only the many AFS volunteers, but also the guest families. The student from Kiel is impressed by the dedication of the guest families, many of whom lives in townships. “The people are so incredibly ­interested,” says Max. 

“Many of them don’t have the money to travel abroad, so they take in school students so as to bring the world into their home, so to speak.” He himself is still gathering new intercultural experience. “You need a lot of patience when you have an appointment with someone here. If you were waiting in Germany, you would call up after five minutes and ask what’s the matter. But I’m still not sure how much time I have to include for this in my planning here.”

Schooling for Street Children

“It was always my dream to go to Africa one day,” says Marianne Schaaf. She wanted to get to know the people there and their culture, and make herself useful. The “Weltwärts” programme was just the thing,” says the qualified nurse, who worked in a meeting place for the homeless in Bonn. 

For a good six months now the 21-year-old has been working for the GLONA Healthcare and Vocational Academy in Accra, an umbrella organization for alternative educational services and basic medical care for socially disadvantaged people. She is one of the first “Weltwärts” volunteers despatched by the German Development Service DED. 

Together with Ghanaian and international volunteers she is preparing for a large scale clean-up job in one of the ­poorer quarters of the city of Accra and is informing the inhabitants on issues to do with hygiene and health. Marianne also teaches children in English and arithmetic. “I explain it with my hands and feet,” she says. 

And the children return it all a hundred-fold. “It’s just great when they start reading.” These new experiences have changed her professional perspective.  When she gets back to Germany she intends to study health sciences – a key qualification for working in a developing country.