News

The Namib Township Epako has a new building for its day care center. A highly motivated Homes of Hope team constructed two classrooms of 36 and 60 square meters, respectively. Furthermore, there is a new facility room, a pario and an extensive reed fence.

In other good news, the centre receives food donations from local farmers and our project has convinced the Ministry of Education to support the day care centre. The two teachers Cecilia Kaus and Martha Doeses have been admitted into the state training for preschool teachers starting next month, free of tuition. What a success story!

Headmaster Besa Isaaks thanks the volunteers: "It was a wonderful experience to have you here in Epako. Thank you for your outstanding work. Please do not forget us and visit us again."

Do you want to take part in a HoH project? You can now apply to the next Homes of Hope project in August!

From April 13th to 15th, the annual Go Ahead! member assembly took place in Bremen. The members took part in workshops discussing the future project of Go Ahead! and elected a new managing board for our country-wide organisation.

The highlight of the assembly was a speech by former anti-Apartheid activist Dr. Khumalo-Seegelken from South Africa. The 61-year-old academic who teaches at the University of Oldenburg talked about the current political and social situation in South Africa, and complimented us on our work in the country.

On the final day of the meeting, the elections of the new board members were the main focus. Benjamin Werner, a student at the University of Duisburg, was elected to be the chairman of the board. Johannes Hillje, his predecessor, will continue to work as a board member in the future. The other members of the new board are Tilman Rodenhäuser, Sophia Merckens, Jan Bildhauer, Johanna Reimers, and Tobias Pristl.

Our South African partner Heartbeat has sent us a recent report written by a social worker. Heartbeat supports orphans who lost their parents to Aids in their pre-school age, and enables them to attend a pre-school in the region of Katlehong/Vosloorus.

The social worker reports: "I am the guardian of Lesego Mfikoe. He is turning six years this year. Lesego has been on the Heartbeat programme since 2008. He was attending pre-school at Thabang Day Care. Heartbeat has been assisting Lesego with day care fees since he has been on the programme and he has graduated in 2011 and will be in school doing Grade 1 in 2012. I am grateful that they saw the need that children should attend day care for their development. Now Lesego can identify shapes, colours, numbers and surrounding things and he is ready for the next level. Thank you very much, Heartbeat, for building children in my community."

The pre-school kids of Heartbeat are financially supported by the Reggae band Jamaran, a long-term partner of Go Ahead!. We are constantly looking for sponsors for our two other pre-schools, the Pastoral pre-school and the Imbaliyezwe pre-school. For only 6 Euros per month you can enable a child like Lesogo to attend a pre-school, and thus give them the chance for a better future.

If you want to participate, you will find the necessary information in the pre-school section of our website.

During the kickHIV! campaign conducted by Go Ahead! in 2010, we collected 35,000 Euros in donations. We passed these funds on to the Youth Development through Football (YDF) project organized by our South African partners Heartbeat and Umzingisi. In autumn 2011, the second kickHIV! Holiday Camp took place, and the report on the camp has inspired and motivated us.

The camp was organized in the rural community of Despetch, about 30 kilometers from Port Elisabeth. A team of experienced YDF teachers, local coaches and international volunteers conducted the five day holiday project, together with 162 children and adolescents. The region is affected by poverty, violence and drug abuse as well as a high HIV prevalence. During the school holidays, the children are especially vulnerable to the negative influence of their environment, because they spend their time on the streets.

To mitigate this problem the project offered a comprehensive sports program based on the Development through Football approach. The WHO has awarded this approach which aims at using the magic of sport to educate adolescents and teach them life skills. Questionnaires conducted before and after the program have shown that the children learned about HIV prevention and safer sex. Generally, the project was accepted very well by the community and has generated lots of positive energy.

Go Ahead! is looking forward to the reports on the two other Umzingisi Holiday Camps the kickHIV! campaign has made possible.

The Rotary Club of Johannesburg North Central invited our board member Jan Bildhauer to South Africa to introduce Go Ahead! In person. Jan described his personal experience with the organization, the evolution of Go Ahead! since its foundation in 2007, as well as our close co-operation with Rotary Clubs in Germany.

The Club members were impressed by the commitment of our young organisation. "There should be more young people who dedicate themselves to others like you.", they said. The Rotary Club, too, presented some of its projects. There is a possibility of co-operation between the club and Go Ahead! in the future.

Once again we thank the Rotary Club Johannesburg North Central, and especially president Gerhild Angermaier and vice-president Manfred Vahle, for the invitation. We were glad to present our organisation.

If you are interested in a presentation about Go Ahead! in your school, university, community, service-club, enterprise or organization, please do not hesitate to contact us (info@goahead-organisation.de).

"BreakTheCycle - Education is the Way out" was the slogan of an education campaign which Go Ahead! organized from 18th November to 1st December 2011. All over Germany, activities and events informed young people about the vicious cycle of HIV/Aids, poverty and the lack of education in southern Africa. A school workshop in Berlin and an interactive online project were only two of the many events that encouraged young Germans to put themselves in the shoes of their African peers.

Our final report presents all the necessary information about the campaign and its successes. You can download it here: Final Report (pdf, in german)

We thank all the campaigners, partners and supporters for their commitment. We hope that the BreakTheCycle Campaign was only the beginning of a series of events to enhance global responsibility, and to fight against poverty and illness.

The organisations Suni e.V., Omaheke San Trust and Go Ahead! have joined forces to coordinate this year's intercultural Homes of Hope project (HoH) in the Epako Township. For this purpose, the three organizations have setup a joint office in the city of Gobabis in the Kalahari Desert for the time between the beginning of February and mid April.

Presently, they are coordinating materials and preparing provisions for the volunteers. The post-processing of the project will also take place in the new office. The members of the team, Sarah Monzel (Suni e.V.), Sophia Dreßler, Denitia Boshoff, Gerlina Bhilander (Omaheke San Trust) and Barbara Scharfbillig (Go Ahead!), are supported by house gecko Karel who makes sure that no fly will stand in the way of HoH.

[More about this in our blog (in German)]