News Archive

Nagpur, in the heart of India, hosted the partner conference for the Asian region between 30th September and 4th October. Over 60 participants from more than 40 weltwärts organisations in Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and Germany came together to exchange ideas and experiences.

A partner project of Bolivianisches Kinderhilfswerk supported Miguel when he had major problems as a child. Miguel currently lives in Germany – and is committed to helping children with disabilities and learning difficulties. In an interview with weltwärts, volunteer Miguel talks about the differences in the education system and what it means to him personally to do his voluntary service in Germany.

Over 50,000 young people have taken part in weltwärts since 2008. The recently published 2023 surveys of North-South and South-North volunteers show a high level of satisfaction with weltwärts and a high level of motivation among alumni to continue volunteering.

Zoe Marsch has been the new volunteers’ representative (PFIF) to the Programme Steering Committee (PSC) since April 2024. Zoe travelled to India as part of the Deutsch-Indische Zusammenarbeit (German-Indian Cooperation) in 2022/23, where she worked in a girls’ home in Tamil Nadu, India. She is now studying Social and Cultural Anthropology. We spoke to her about her voluntary work with the PFIF.

The partner conference for southern South America took place in Santiago del Estero (Argentina) in early May. The main areas of focus were the safeguarding of child welfare in organisations that work with children and young people, as well as the mental health of volunteers.

The seventh weltwärts partner conference in India will take place in Nagpur, India, in September/October 2024. Members of the implementing organisations and partner organisations from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka as well as members from the Programme Steering Committee will be invited.

Since 2008, over 50,000 young people have taken part in the weltwärts programme. The 2022 volunteer surveys for the North-South and South-North components that have now been published demonstrate a high degree of satisfaction with weltwärts and a high level of motivation among former volunteers to engage in further voluntary work.

The next weltwärts partner conference in western Africa will take place in Accra, Ghana, in January/February 2024. Members of the implementing organisations and partner organisations from Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal and Togo as well as members from the Programme Steering Committee will be invited.

For the last ten years, young people from the Global South have been able to perform their international volunteer service in Germany through weltwärts. Kenneth Tuhairwe helps travellers and people in crisis at the Cologne branch of the Bahnhofsmission. A positive experience for all involved.

The fourth weltwärts partner conference in eastern Africa will take place in Kigali, Rwanda, in May 2023. Members of the implementing organisations and partner organisations from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda as well as members from the Programme Steering Committee will be invited.

The sending organisation Jesuit Volunteers was founded 35 years ago and has organised assignments for around 100 weltwärts volunteers to date. Rather than applying to be sent to a particular country, interested candidates apply to the programme as a whole. In this interview, we find out more about the organisation itself and its volunteer programme, as well as what it looks for in its volunteers.

In September, the weltwärts partner organisation in the countries of the Andes met with their German implementing organisations and members of the Programme Steering Committee in Villa de Leyva (Colombia). The focus of the five-day conference was on the mentoring of volunteers and how to act in crisis situations.

Interview with Martin Schatke about networking with partners from Boliviaen, Ecuador, Columbia and Peru.

The first partner conference in Southeast Europe will take place from October 2nd to 7th in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Partner organisations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia and Serbia and their implementing organisations as well as the members of the programme steering committee will be invited.

Between September 2023 and April 2024, cross-organisation partner conferences of the weltwärts program are to be organised again. implementing organisations can submit their expression of interest in hosting a conference by August 14, 2022.

Mary Mlambo, Chairperson of SAwN (Southern Africa weltwaerts Network) since its founding in 2014, lives and works in KwaZulu Natal.

Graeme Cairns, board member and Treasurer of SAwN since 2018, lives and works in Cape Town.

“Inner preparedness, an open heart and a willingness to reach out to people.” This is how Andreas Lanksch describes the qualities that potential host families should possess. He and his family of five received two volunteers from Tanzania and Uganda as part of the “weltwärts” South-North programme in spring of 2018. The two women completed their service with the local partner organisations as well as with Kolpingwerk Germany. For 12 months they were officially a part of the family – unofficially, they still are.

Being in a network is all about keeping up to date with what’s happening, learning from each other and giving each other support. With this in mind, weltwärts partner organisations have formed regional networks in recent years. They bring together weltwärts organisations from one country or region to further their knowledge on specific topics and update each other on the latest developments on the programme. We spoke to Carola Flor from “Red weltwaerts” in Ecuador.

In a recent survey, volunteers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Oceania expressed a high level of satisfaction with their assignments in Germany – despite the restrictions caused by the pandemic. In fact, in some categories, the satisfaction ratings were higher than ever before.

Every year on 1 June, children and specifically children's rights are celebrated around the world. On this occasion, we would like to introduce you to a volunteer from the South-North programme: Joseline from Uganda decided to do her volunteer service with In Via in a school in Germany and shares some of her experiences with us.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, choosing to volunteer with weltwärts is still a good decision with hopes high that more volunteer assignments will be able to take place as the year progresses – both in Germany and in the Global South.