Walter Zeller provided us with machines from a carpentry shop clearance in Kelkheim near Frankfurt am Main as well as a lot of accessories. We were very pleased about this contact in Hesse.
The machines are destined for the training workshop in the newly built vocational training centre in the Eritrean port city of Massawa. This centre is run by the Eritrean Trade Union Federation.
The flanging machine that came to us from a tool collection of the DGB local organisation in Sehnde was badly damaged.
Master craftsman Algermissen and Olli Jüngst carried out professional repairs to ensure that this small but very fine machine can now be used again.
The plan is to send the machine to the Eritrean Trade Union Federation’s recently completed vocational training centre.
Horizontal shaping machines, also known as shapers, have been built in Germany since 1905. The ‘Deutsche Maschinen- und Werkzeugfabrik GmbH’ in Glauchau gave rise to the ‘Wotan-Werke AG’ in Leipzig in 1909.
Shaping machines were widely used until the 1970s. They were used to produce surfaces or gear wheels. The shaping machines were later replaced by milling machines.
As very high surface qualities are achieved with these machines, they are still attractive for use. We now want to clean and overhaul the machine and offer it to our partners in Africa.
When the chairman of the Eritrean Trade Union Confederation NCEW, Baire Tekeste, visited us last year together with Ambassador Petros Tseggai, he asked us for support: a building for a vocational school had been completed in the port city of Massawa and could now be set up. We agreed to help in the areas of carpentry and metalwork.
Just under four weeks ago, the Stuttgart-based association “Adi Belsey Primary School in Eritrea” informed us that there was still room in a planned donation shipment, which could be carried out with the support of the German government-owned GIZ.
We were delighted to accept the offer and put together the following donations:
1 stationary drilling machine, 6 vices, 1 welding transformer, 1 double sanding block, 2 lathes, 3 planing benches, 1 band saw, 1 circular saw, 3 hacksaws, 1 anvil, 1 veneer press, 1 dust extractor, 1 jointer.
We received the majority of these donations from tool collections from the DGB local chapters in Sehnde and Burgdorf. Everything had been inspected, checked and refurbished in our workshops and professionally packed in the warehouse.
Last week, we took the donations by truck to Heilbronn, where the chairman of the Stuttgart association, Manfred Weiss, was already waiting for us on the premises of the Schenker company.
On the way back we took donations from Mrs. Hajdu from Ulm and from the company Gilles from Leimen. These donations are intended for our next transport. As in August last year, it will go to Banjul, the capital of Gambia, and will support the work of the DBO (Dresden-Banjul Organization).
Around mid-August, we want to load a 40′ container destined for the work of DBO in Banjul, the capital of The Gambia.
Hubert Dombrowski from Uslar is the initiator of this project, which we are now carrying out for the 3rd time since 2010. We have already received donations from Ulm and Leimen.
On “Green Day”, the new career orientation day on 12.11.2012, young people will discover professions and courses of study in the environmental sector.
Our carpenters and metalworkers will show interested pupils how solar lamps can be made from industrial scrap using simple means.
We also present our concept of sustainable management by refurbishing used tools and machines and using used bricks for the construction of our new workshop and the associated avoidance of Co² production.
Our garden grounds have been open to the public since the beginning. It can be visited from Monday to Thursday between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. and by appointment.
School classes with parents and teachers, trade union groups, seminar participants from the University of Hildesheim and the HAWK and kindergartens have used this offer so far. The garden has also been the destination for company outings and has been visited as part of the “Open Garden Gate” and “Hannover Region Discovery Day” projects.
About 1 1/2 years ago, we received a donation of four industrial sewing machines, a buttonhole machine and a machine for sewing on press studs. We had wrapped the machines in stretch film and stored them in the hope that a suitable project would be found.
On July 4, Petra Rösch, a master tailor and member of IREMBO e.V. from Hanover, visited us. Her plan is to set up a professional tailoring workshop in Burundi. She thought that the machines we have in storage would be just right for this. As a next step, we plan to check all the machines.
We received a large number of old bricks from the demolition of the former MTG Fleige building in Einumer Straße. We found out that these had been produced in the Schlewecke brickworks, which no longer exists today – not in the so-called “Reichsformat”, but only 6 cm thick.
In any case, our colleagues made two beautiful sheds from these hand-cleaned bricks. The roof tiles – from the renovation of a residential building in Fahrenheitstraße – were produced in the former Ochtersum brickworks. This company has also disappeared from the face of the earth.
Incidentally, at the beginning of the 20th century, Hildesheim workers met secretly on the site of the Ochtersum brickworks to celebrate May Day – this had been banned by the German emperor.
