31.10.2023

"Experiences that are now part of me"

Exchange among volunteers is just as important...

...as with mentors...

...and former volunteers. All Photos by: Lara Diederich Fotodesign

"Many experiences, but also tiredness and need for reflection": this is what Arwen Hartung brings with her to the return seminar of the North-South Volunteers. She was a volunteer from Germany in a women's centre in Zanzibar, Tanzania. In September, the volunteers met for a week in Wuppertal to bring their voluntary service in a UEM member church in Africa or Asia to a close. Part of the seminar was also a joint evening with the South-North volunteers, who for their part are just halfway through their year in Germany. As different as the experiences of the two groups often are, the exchange between them is very meaningful.

The seminar is about trusting conversations, looking back on the year, another anti-racism unit, as well as the question: How can the experiences of the voluntary service be integrated into the everyday life that is now coming?

The seminar units also dealt with continuities between colonial power structures and current volunteer services: Where are parallels here? And how did the young adults experience them last year? The perspective on global inequality can change when it becomes such a direct part of one's own life. Being aware of this is uncomfortable on the one hand, but on the other hand it can create important conditions for the future and initiate learning processes.

"One year: that was so many different experiences that I now take with me because they have become part of me," Arwen summarises.