Interview with Eckardt Kreye

Eckardt Kreye: The idea of doing something extremely meaningful. During a well-prepared exchange, the participants learn more than they would in a comparable school subject over the course of an entire year, if such a thing even existed… It is the youth that want these meetings. They ask about them, work for them in their spare time, give up their school holidays for them and are very thankful after the exchange for the experience. That’s motivating! This is how school should be! For me, this project is the most meaningful one out of all the projects I have organized during my school career.

We do not only work within the school, but also beyond it. Furthermore, we carry out international youth exchanges with non-governmental organisations that also work with the media. We are currently setting up a volunteer exchange of alumni. We make it possible for former participants from African countries to come to Bremen for one year and, vice versa, we send Germans to our partner organisations in Kenya. Our project is growing because enough great people work together on one idea: the idea of a better, fairer world. In our exchange program, we don’t only make people aware of unjust distribution, but we also point out methods for fair distribution. Lastly, such an exchange makes it possible for at least a few African teenagers to go beyond the borders that before seemed impossible to them. We establish contacts, friendships are formed, the participants change their perspectives – it is a programme of international understanding. The participating teenagers experience a drastic difference with regard to the ways of life, everyday life, the culture and views, but they simultaneously notice many similarities. My hope is that the youth of today will act more fairly tomorrow.

Eckardt Kreye: The teenagers that participate in these meetings are open to these goals. But among the participants there are differences in the perception of everyday racism, discrimination, prejudices, clichés and stereotypes. For us it’s important that the participants recognize and understand these for themselves and in context with others. And this is, in fact, one of the biggest challenges in our work: that the participants reflect and change accordingly, so that they allow criticism and recognize in which patterns they think and act. There has not been one meeting in which this has not been a problem.

Eckardt Kreye: There is definitely a big difference. First of all, it is a big relief that we don’t have to worry about taking care of the visas, flights et cetera and hardly write any applications. This work is done by Mutoto e.V.

Then, they look for some German pupils to take part. Unfortunately, they are not prepared, as there is no capacity at our school for that and it is also not evaluated afterwards. Mutoto Chaud arrives with professional trainers who are responsible for the programme. We define the framework and Mutoto Chaud designs the artistic cooperation. There is no work done on any long-term topics, but rather it is all about discovering our artistic possibilities of expression together. The Congolese trainers are professionals at that.

Both types of meetings are extremely valuable to team building and teamwork. Mutoto Chaud is in Bremen only for one week though; our student meetings and our extracurricular youth exchanges take three weeks. These create even more intense bonds.

Eckardt Kreye: We gain new people who are interested in our work, such as students but also parents. Up to this point, all participants were enthusiastic about the week with Mutoto Chaud and wanted to know more about our exchange projects. Several of them ended up later participating in subsequent youth meetings.

Eckardt Kreye: Before a youth meeting, we like to use so-called books-on-tour. These are artistically designed blank books in which the pupils introduce themselves, add photos, draw something and discuss topics.

After the meeting, the teenagers maintain private contact, especially via WhatsApp. The problem with our partner school, however, is that they are a boarding school and the students do not have any smartphones during the term (which is three months long). That means they can only chat during their school holidays. Occasionally, our school organizes Skype conferences.

For several years, we have been trying to maintain contact with help of a blog. On the German side, we produce videos and upload these to the website. Pupils from Mali and Kenya react to them. The goal is to also have videos uploaded from the African side. Currently, a volunteer from our association in Kenya supports this project. We are also working on an offer for the Kenyan teenagers to take part in the Federal Volunteer Service program at our school through the weltwärts program and also sending Germans to Kenya. Among others, their task is to communicate with the Kenyan and German partners as personal messengers.

Eckardt Kreye: The way the teenagers are changing. By now, I’m “warning” the parents about letting their children take part: after the exchange, the teenagers are different than before it.

Whenever we have an outgoing, we bring alumni to the group and let them tell about their experiences. It is remarkable when they explain how formative the exchange was for their future lives.

Even the founding of the association Partner über Grenzen (Partners across borders) can be traced back to the initiatives of the pupils. After the second school exchange, we faced the situation that former participants left the school but did not want to lose the contact to the “Africa Project” of our school. We had also the same situation after the first exchange. Many of the participants then wanted to become more active in this area and brought the association to life in 2015 together with enthusiastic parents, colleagues, friends and myself. Either this year or next year, the Kenyan alumni, parents and supervisors also want to found a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Partners Across Borders in order to promote the project idea further and to create stable structures. Furthermore, the GSM has won twice the Federal Presidents competition for developmental policy in 2012 and 2014.

Eckardt Kreye: This was initiated by a Kenyan NGO that works with disadvantaged teenagers between ten and sixteen years in Nairobi. They wanted to start a photo project with our teenagers. They then sent us three topic suggestions: “Life, Environment and Water”. The German teenagers were supposed to choose a topic. Without hesitating the Germans decided to take photos regarding the topic “Water”.The Kenyans then formulated the title “Maji ni uhai” which means “Water is life.”

I really liked the chosen topic, since the lack of water is already a life-threatening problem in many countries. We, in the global north, have something to do with the lack of water in the global south.

In Germany, we just need to look at from where the majority of the roses on Valentine’s day come from– and that is Kenya. Rose farming there consumes water reserves of which local residents are deprived. Or the scandalous privatization of water.Where are the companies located that promote this? In Germany, clean water is a given, however, even this can be an illusion. What about acid rain or what about the overfertilization and its effect on the groundwater? Without clean water, no life is possible.

Eckardt Kreye: In our project work, we make sure to choose topics in which the participants recognize global and local correlations. Through the intensive involvement with these topics, the participants become capable of assessing opinions and actions. And, of course, we hope that they think about their own actions and change them where necessary. We make people aware of the unfair distribution of wealth, power and privilege, of oppression and human rights violations, and of causes and effects.

Eckardt Kreye: The sustainability goals are considered from very different perspectives. In Germany, at first glance, reaching the sustainable development goals does not appear to be important for anyone’s survival, as opposed to African countries, where this is the case. In Germany, we need to make teenagers more aware of the fact that there is a water problem. Our friends in Kenya already grow up knowing this.

I think that people in Germany do not really know about the sustainability goals. I am very happy that Germany has to do more than provide so-called “development aid.” The global north also has to develop further, which has nothing to do with growth though. I doubt, however, that this is important to many Germans. This is different in Kenya.

Eckardt Kreye: The AGYI offers a good structure for support and funding. Without it, many of our projects would not even be possible. The AGYI approach is very good and important. However, the application for funding for smaller NGOs is very complicated and time-consuming. Here we would like to see a simpler cooperation!