News

At the beginning of March more than 40 Go Ahead! members gathered together for the annual meeting of the organization. At the Heinz Nixdorf Institute in Paderborn they took part in workshops and discussed the future outline of Go Ahead!. The three day meeting cumulated in the election of the new managing board – resulting in major changes in the head of the board.

The meeting started with an impressive report. Some participants of the last Homes of Hope project in Uganda presented their experiences. Their photos and stories made it easy to share their impressions of the work in the project, the excursions and the exciting intercultural exchange with the local community.

The ten workshops that followed presented information on development cooperation. The workshops not only consolidated the internal structure and the public image of Go Ahead!, but permitted also to discuss the future project of cooperation with companies.

The last day was focused on the election of the board members. For the first time the elections resulted in a complete change of generation. The last three founder members, Tilman Rodenhäuser, Jan Bildhauer and Johannes Hillje, opened their positions to new board members. They are followed by Christian Lichtenberg, Lys Kulamadayil and Finn Pauls, who have been active as regional heads before.

After a very efficient and impressive week end Go Ahead! is looking forward to a new year full of optimism. We would especially like to thank the university group of Paderborn who organized the meeting and received us affectionately. You are great!

Christian Lichtenberg / Paderborn / c.lichtenberg[at]goahead-organisation.de

Dear readers and supporters,

We hope you enjoyed your season’s holidays. First of all we would like to thank you once again for supporting Go Ahead! during the past year. Thank you very much!

We would like to share with you the insight in Motshidisis life. Motshidisi is a 15 year old girl. In 2005 she lost her father. Last year, her mother died, too. Both her parents died of Aids. Left alone by the rest of her family, Motshidisi gets help and support in one of the centers of our local partner Heartbeat.

Here is her story in her own words:

‚When my mother passed away I feel like it was the end of the world. All my families started to reject me. If I stay with them here they will take advantage to sell the house but they must talk to me first so I decided to say no. They started to reject me, but when they see me in the street they become surprised because I am a clean child, I look like other child, I don’t separate myself saying I am an orphan, no I am not an orphan in gods eyes.
One thing I told myself was that god is with me and I love him so much because he showed me the way. I am also going to church and pray that god can help me to live a better future and that is want and I am sure I will make it.

My mum was friendly, sweet, she was not a shouter, she was always humble and she knew how to guide people. Some people they were coming here even if we don’t have that much, if some people come in and beg for this she give them. Sometimes it is hard (being alone), I always crying so nobody can hold me, I’m sitting there (points to room) and I remember all the things that my mama was doing, but now no one looks after me. But one thing she told me when she died, she said ‘take myself as I am, hunny, and focus on school because education is the key to success’ that is what she told me.

I started being in Heartbeat last year at the end of June when my mother passed away. Heartbeat helped me with everything, whatever I want, whenever I want to talk, I go to Heartbeat and take some person that I trust and tell him my problem and he will guide me. I was telling myself I will not have a secret inside of me because it will eat me. Smilo (a Heartbeat worker), he is the one that is looking after me, all of the things I want, I talk to Smilo and I take him as a father. Heartbeat has helped me with some food even now if I come back to school I know I can’t be stressed about what I am going to eat, I know there is food in the house. I don’t want to be negative to myself, I will always be positive even if I don’t know something but I make sure that I will make it.‛

Tilman Rodenhäuser / Genf / t.rodenhaeuser[at]goahead-organisation.de

How do Namib and South African children see their world? The exhibition Through my Eyes gives an answer to this question. During an art workshop Friederike Vigeland, Jana Hüttmann und Pia-Nele Haack gave single-use-cameras to school children in these two African countries and encouraged them to take pictures of whatever they liked. They did – and their 30 snap-shots give an unbiased and innocent insight in an ordinary African school day. Six information boards about the educational systems in Namibia and South Africa complete the exhibition.

Vigeland, Hüttmann and Haack will donate 50% of the earnings made during the vernissage to Go Ahead!. We congratulate the three Go Ahead! members for their great idea and thank them for the generous donation!

The exhibition is also available online on facebook.

Tim Schnorr / Local group Mainz (Germany) / mainz[at]goahead-organisation.de