Arbeit und Dritte Welt

We had the opportunity to visit the studios of Moritz Bormann and Otto Almstadt. Both are sculptors and work with different materials: wood, cardboard, stone and steel.

A used 20′ container was delivered from Hamburg today. We want to refurbish the container and give it a new coat of paint.

It is possible that as early as March of this year, relief supplies will be loaded that are intended for the activities of the association Lernen-Helfen-Leben (LHL) in Togo.

In addition to solar equipment, we are loading refurbished tools for farmers and bricklayers, a single-axle plow and a concrete mixer.

Even before the first official collection date, our fellow union members from Sehnde had already received a lot of donations – including 10 treadle sewing machines.

Many hands have contributed to the success of this project.

When the THW helped us in April 2009 to transport the hull to the rented workshop in Steuerwalder Straße, we had no idea that the boat would be swimming and sailing on Lake Tanganyika in February 2012, having been refurbished to the finest standard and ready to go.

The Hanoverian association IREMBO and its chairman Gerard Niyimbonera had suggested that we make the boat available to Burundian young people from the capital and port city of Bujumbura in Burundi, thus giving them the opportunity to generate income through transportation.

Supported by the “ Strengths on site” program, young people from the Labora youth workshop were able to put their talent to the test. Supported by the workshops of Arbeit und Dritte Welt, with the help of the vocational training center and coordinated by the city’s youth welfare office, the boat was finally handed over to Burundi’s ambassador at a ceremony on Hildesheim’s market square in August 2010.

The financial support for the transport from Hildesheim to Burundi was initiated by the Burundian Honorary Consul Dietrich von Berg, so that the transport finally took place in the fall of 2011. The boat has now already covered several nautical miles on Lake Tanganyika. Gerard Niyimbonera saw for himself a few weeks ago. It floats and it sails!

We received wheelchairs, walking frames and walking sticks from Magdalenenhof and Johannishof. These donations are destined for an aid shipment to Cameroon.

We put together a donation shipment of used hospital beds, tools for bricklayers, gardeners, carpenters and metalworkers as well as treadle sewing machines and workshop equipment for the Aqua creative association based in Meppen at short notice.

This was arranged by Mr. Marquardt (Vechta) from the Lernen-Helfen-Leben association. This transport was financed by the German Federal Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). Mr. Marquardt kindly provided us with the following text:

The Association Songa Nzila e.V. (Showing the Way) was founded in the community of Kilueka in 2008 at the suggestion of Mr. Augustin Konda ku Mbuta. Mr. Konda works as a researcher and biologist at the University of Kinshasa and is known as the author of the handbook “Plantes utiles du Bas-Congo”. He lives with his family in the Bumbu district of Kinshasa, where he has set up and runs a small Anamed health center. ANAMED means “Action Natural Medicine”, i.e. healing methods have been and are being developed with the help of indigenous medicinal plants. Mr. Konda is also the first chairman of Anamed Dem. Rep. Congo and works closely with the association Anamed e.V. (www.anamed.org) in Germany. Bumbu, the poor district of Kinshasa, is the most densely populated part of the capital with 65,000 inhabitants per km². Outside Kinshasa, about 40 kilometers away, Mr. Konda runs a large garden for the cultivation of medicinal plants, especially Artemisia annua.

Mr. Konda comes from Kilueka and speaks the local language Kikongo. He lives in Kinshasa and regularly travels to his home village of Kilueka, about 150 km southwest of Kinshasa, which can only be reached via completely unpaved roads.
In the last two years, Songa Nzila e.V. has worked together to build a village community center in Kilueka, in which a small health station and rooms for meetings and training courses are still to be set up. This building was created with a great deal of commitment by the members of the association, although financial support from Germany was still necessary. It is above all this joint commitment that has motivated Aqua creative to support the people in their further plans.

At the beginning, the Songa Nzila association only consisted of around 25 people, mainly women. However, the joint planning and work has shown the people what they are capable of, despite the general misery, when they work together to improve their living conditions. This has raised their expectations that further improvements can be made possible.

The measures planned as part of the project will improve the living conditions of around 5,000 people. And it is a common experience that successful projects are very quickly copied and imitated by people in the surrounding area. An important knock-on effect is likely to be a reduction in the rural exodus.

When Hejo Theisgen from the Labora youth workshop in Hildesheim asked us in 2011 whether we would like to take part in an aid project for young Africans without opportunities, we had no idea that we would need a lot of patience to realize this project.

There were many tasks to be completed before the loading date:
The financial resources for the project had to be raised and an application for a transport grant had to be submitted to the federal GIZ – which was fortunately approved.

The container already on our premises needed a new safety inspection by Dekra, a damaged area on a corner pillar had to be repaired and holes in the roof had to be welded. A new protective coating was also needed. 33 bicycles, 10 cargo bikes and 30 pedal sewing machines, tools and workshop accessories as well as spare parts were loaded.

Bishop Wüstenberg, who was ordained a priest in Hildesheim in 1982, initially went illegally to South Africa, which was ruled by an apartheid regime at the time, but was later given a farm on Mount Carmel in the province of Aliwal and set himself the task of giving young people without opportunities a perspective. A bicycle rental service, cargo bikes and pedal sewing machines are now intended to help people help themselves.

This closes a circle in which school leavers at Labora and people in work opportunities at Arbeit und Dritte Welt are connected with South Africans. In this case, the resources are used bicycles, tools and sewing machines, which are saved from the scrap press and landfill and thus regain their value. The motto is: recycle and reuse. This is sustainable for everyone involved.

In cooperation with the Labora Youth Workshop and the Eritrean Association for the Disabled in Stuttgart, we sent a large number of bicycles, machines, tools, wheelchairs and rollators to Eritrea on November 7 and 8.

The 3 containers, each 12 meters long, are destined for the Eritrean war-disabled and disabled association as well as for the wood and metal workshops of the new vocational school built by the trade unions in Massawa.

We received pictures from Eritrea from Fetzum Woldeghergis. They show a workshop of the Disabled and Veterans Association.

We want to support the association again this year with an aid shipment. The irrigation hoses, which we packed in a 40′ container in December 2010, have been deployed.

Finally, some pictures show the completed vocational training center in Massawa. We are collecting machines and tools for woodworking and metalworking workshops.

Today we received a visit from the Beamtenwohnungsverein: Natascha Moch, a trainee, and Gerald Ross, a qualified social education worker.