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Testimonial

Lea Sophie Kolle, weltwärts participant from Braunschweig in Germany

A young woman wearing a blue hoodie and holding a camera looks into the camera and laughs. The sky in the background is cloudy and the sea and cliffs are visible.
Lea Sophie Kolle, weltwärts participant from Braunschweig. Photo: Elias Link

AGYI: Where exactly did you get involved?

Lea Sophie Kolle: I went to South Africa in 2015/16 with the Allgemeiner Sport-Club Göttingen von 1846 e.V. as part of the weltwärts volunteer programme. I spent time in a children's home called Coram Deo – Places of Care – near Coffee Bay in the Eastern Cape province, as well as at Mount Packard Junior Secondary School, where I supported the structuring of activities for pupils in their spare time and taught them different kinds of sports.

AGYI: What moments do you remember the most?

Lea Sophie Kolle: A lot of my nicest and most intense memories were with children in the children's home. For example, one of the babies was just starting to talk and could only say 'mama' as well as my name, Lea, and the name of my colleague from the weltwärts programme, Elias.

AGYI: What was your biggest realisation about living abroad?

Lea Sophie Kolle: That you really don't need a lot to be happy and you should learn to enjoy the small things in life more.

AGYI: How did your experience benefit you personally?

Lea Sophie Kolle: I learnt a great deal about myself, my strengths and weaknesses, and gained a lot of independence. Like how to change a tyre, for example.

I also learnt a lot about children and young people and how they behave, as well as about education. Although we were not responsible for the children's education, it's still necessary to have common rules in place.

AGYI: What does intercultural exchange mean to you?

Lea Sophie Kolle: For me, it means breaking out of your own cultural circle, looking at other cultures and being part of their daily life. It also means taking part of this new culture back with you to your old life. It's the only way to see that your own culture is not the 'one true' culture, but that others can be completely different in every respect and exactly as valuable.

The swimming lesson was in the nearby river and the children looked forward to it for days.

AGYI: Thank you for providing this interesting insight into your life and work.