News from Berlin

News from Berlin - On Friday May 25^th it was the International Africa Day. For this occasion the program “Gemeinsam für Afrika” (“Together for Africa”) organized street actions with German schools from ten German cities, including Berlin.

“Gemeinsam für Afrika” is a project developed by more than twenty German NGOs and aid organizations to improve living conditions in Africa. The president of this campaign is German Federal President Joachim Gauck. The idea is to raise awareness of Africa in Germany, so that Germany would increase its participation to help Africa solve its problems, such as hunger and poverty.

Last Friday “Gemeinsam für Afrika” invited German schools to participate in street actions. These were various actions taking place, but they had one common goal: promote the discussion between students concerning the diversities and the opportunities of Africa, and draw attention on the continent problem to propose solutions. For example, numerous schools took part to the role-playing game “Wer hat was – Afrika-Europa-Verteilungsspiel” (“Who owns what – Africa-Europa-Repartition game”). With this game German schools underlined the unequal distribution of resources between Europa and Africa. With the “Game of Cacao and Diamonds”, German pupils learned that there is wealth in Africa but the local population do not benefit from it because of unfair trading practices and exploitative working conditions. Within the context of Boko Haram, children and teenagers were also invited to debate about civil war and violence.

A teacher whose class participated in the project “Gemeinsam für Afrika” said it was a success because the “children were very enthusiastic. They learned that it is possible to improve the every day life of the African population and want to take part to this project”.  

News from Berlin – Berlin Global