News archive 2010

Waffles and cake in Munich, Freiburg and Bremen, mulled wine in Potsdam, a flash mob in Mainz, info booths in Trier and Heidelberg, a concert by "Liedfett" in Hamburg. Across the country our college groups designed their own campaigns to dish out as many AIDS ribbons as possible. Despite the cold weather, 10 groups came out to remind people that in sub-saharan Africa 1.8 million people become HIV positive each year.

We do not limit our member's creativity; in Dresden, GoAhead! members gave out free hugs to attract attention. To most people in Germany, AIDS is not a primary concern: 431 people died of AIDS related diseases last year, in South Africa it's almost twice as many - per day.

The largest campaign of the day happened in Hamburg where GoAhead! ambassador Cosma Shiva Hagen and the band "Liedfett" put on an a capella show. We thank everyone involved in the various campaigns, and all those who supported us with their donations! If you want to get involved, contact us at pro_active@goahead-organisation.de.

An extensive program was awaiting the 39 participants of this year's GoAhead! staff workshop on the weekend from 29th to 31st October in Mainz. On Friday evening, the board members, division heads, staff members and the substitutes of student associations came from 16 different cities to the capital of Rhineland-Palatinate. The objective was to present their work, to be informed about the situation in Southern Africa, to develop common ideas aiming the improvement of the effectiveness in the new relief associations and define into what it should evolve in future.

At the beginning of the weekend, Jan Bildhauer (former first chairman) emphasized how important it is for the board to be imprinted by new faces and new ideas in order to avoid standing in the way of the association's progress. That is why the members' meeting marked the start. During the meeting the old board was discharged and a new one elected. Since Friday, the position of first chairman has been filled by Johannes Hillje, a founding member. The second chairman position will be assumed by Tilman Rodenhäuser (one of the six founding members as well). The position of treasurer stays in the experienced hands of Wolfgang Bildhauer. David Steinacker, Tobias Maaßen, Jan Bildhauer and newly-arrived Benjamin Werner complete the board. After the withdrawal of Angela Steffens, one of the board members, we hope to see the work shared and organized soon again with a woman's support.

The actual workshop started on Saturday with actions within the plcs. Divided into small groups, the participants tackled with problems about politically correct communication as well as the presentation of GoAhead! to the public. They set cornerstones for the Advocacy Campaign in 2011 and attended a training course for the school workshops. Later, the plcs presented their results to all the participants. Discussions followed during which first decisions were made. For example, a new slogan for GoAhead! was voted. During the evening conversation, visions as well as critics of the existing work were expected. Tilman Rodenhäuser was particularly delighted about the results he was able to sum up at the end of this intensive day of work. "We all agree on one point: GoAhead! has to keep on growing in the coming years to be able to support existing projects in a better way and to start working with new associations".

The workshop organization by the Mainz students association, under the leadership of the talented Julia Broska and Tobias Maaßen, was much praised by the participants. Apart from many ideas, new friendships appeared. Through them, the net all over Germany has closed ranks.

Every day, 7400 people in the world get infected with the HI virus. Since this infection rate is still very high, "Dance4Life" a GoAhead! partner, used the opportunity to launch a global campaign called "Beat HIV - spread the positive virus". Thanks to the virtual distribution of the "positive virus" in the internet, Dance4Life plans on spreading knowledge about HIV and AIDS throughout the world. It aims to break all the taboos and stigmatization associated with AIDS and HIV.

The main idea is the following: during the Dance4Life campaign (Sept.13th to Dec.1st 2010, which is the World AIDS Day), around 592,000 people will contract the disease. The objective of Dance4Life is to have infected more people with the "positive (Dance4Life) virus" after the end of the campaign on Dec. 1st 2010 than there will be people infected by the HI virus during it.

Anyone may spread the positive virus and in doing so, participate in making people more aware of the high risk there still is to get infected. GoAhead! supports the campaign, especially because it allows the organisation to draw the public attention to the situation of children and youngsters in Southern Africa who lost their parents because of the virus.
Please support the campaign at [facebook.dance4life.com ]

Establishing personal contacts to project partners in South Africa is one of GoAhead!'s highest priorities. During the last few weeks, Johannes Hillje, board member and director of this year's kickHIV! campaign, visited the Heartbeat and the Umzingisi foundations in Pretoria and Port Elizabeth. Umzingisi has been GoAhead!'s newest partner for a few weeks now. Thanks to the donation takings collected by kickHIV! which amounted to almost 35.000€, GoAhead! is now able to support educational sport projects such as "Development trough soccer" of both foundations. In the framework of soccer workout sessions, youngsters are informed about aids and the so-called life skills.

Johannes visited one of Heartbeat's three pilot projects in Atteridgeville, a township near Pretoria. During the training sessions, two topics were discussed: "protection" and "time management". After the soccer workout, coach Lebo discussed with the children what is worth to be protected in life and the role played by time management. Thanks to a successful pilot period, the program is soon to be offered in other provinces across the country.
In Port Elizabeth, together with Umzingisi's founder Nick Mould, Johannes visited one of the projects that Umzingisi offers to schools of the townships. Since many schools in the poorer districts are unable to offer sport classes, Umzingisi fills this gap with its own sport programs. Every day of the week trained teachers go to a different school of the province and give their class. The lesson contents are worked out by the foundation together with other experts, for example the German association for technical cooperation (Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit, GTZ). Meanwhile, Umzingisi reaches 22000 children annually. Surveys taken by the participants of the Umzingisi programs showed that the knowledge and the approach of topics such as HIV / AIDS, self-confidence and emancipation have positively changed for 90% of the children.

You can find more information about the "Development through soccer" project here.

Great news from our finance department! Despite the typical summer slow-down, GoAhead! was happy to receive many donations. Both the kickHIV campaign and various other activities led to a strong increase in donations.

- The money collected at the "Charity Swim 2010" in Starnberg summed to approx. 5.000 Euro.
- The Dr. Johanna Decker schools in Amberg collected 1.000 Euro through a sponsoring run.
- The annual Summer Party of the One-World-Club in Bomlitz collected 3.000 Euro in total, which will be put in the pre-school programm.
- At the Charity concert of the band "Soulshaker" in Villingen Familiy Rieble collected 150 Euro.

In addition we received many smaller amounts and of course the funds from our regular monthly donators.
We would like to thank all of the above mentioned supportes, all donators of the past months and of course all our longtime supporters throughout the past years!

The participants of the current Homes of Hope (HoH) project have gone through four weeks of sweat and adventure. In co-operation with our partner „Gods Golden Acre" they built a house for a familiy in need and are now on their way back home now. GoAhead! would like to thank them all.

By the way: The application phase for the new Homes of Hope Project in March 2011 in Namibia has already begun! Interested? Here you can get all the info you need: [www.goahead-organisation.de/projekte/homes_of_hope]

After three years filling a double role as board member and pre-school program director, David Steinacker is passing the post on to Johanna Reimers (j.reimers@goahead-organisation.de). Johanna took over in June 2010 after training for a couple of months.

"I am looking forward to the new challenges and the larger involvement in the GoAhead! team", she said. We all wish her best of luck in her new job and are grateful for the support!

Whether they are going to God's Golden Acre in South Africa of the Morukutu school in Namibia, all participants of our latest volunteer workshop had a lot of questions on their minds. The workshop was run by our partner Suni eV and organised by the director of the GoAhead! volunteering program, Barbara Scharfbillig.

"Thanks for a beautiful and informative weekend", participant Jana Schulz writes. "I feel even more anticipation than before, and the whole thing somehow doesn't seem so far away any more!"

If you are interested in volunteering in Africa or want to participate in our next workshop, please contact b.scharfbillig@goahead-organisation.de. We are especially looking for a football coach for the Morukutu school in Namibia.

The long anticipated charity swim took place on July 4th 2010. Despite stormy weather warnings, South African Richard Klerck jumped into the Starnberg lake near Munich, Germany, around 6am. He swam the 23 km route so fast that he had to take a break in order not to arrive early! After 9 hours, about 700 spectators awaited him at the finish line.

Thanks to Vinzenzmurr for the food, the South African consulate for the great African flair and all participating bands for the music! Visitors, sponsors and those involved were equally thrilled about the great atmosphere and have called for more events of this kind. All donations proceed to the third year support for our Learning Center.

We are currently looking for young people to fill positions in the Homes of Hope project, Fundraising and graphics design. The job descriptions are only available in German, you can find them here.

If you have any questions regarding participation in GoAhead!, please contact pro_active@goahead-organisation.de.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Go Ahead! and the college group in Munich, Germany, are pushing their current project, the Charity Swim 2010. South African amateur Richard Klerck is will swim 22.5 kilometres through the Starnberg Lake (South-west of Munich) on July 4th.

In response to the event the "Sunrise ABC Pre-school" in Krailing (close to the lake) started its own project. On May 20th and 21st, 30 children aged 3 to 6 designed campaign days focussing on South Africa. They collected 1.000 Euro in donations and kindly donated them to the Learning Center project.

Since the Youth Ambassador Program successfully completed its pilot phase in its first year, GoAhead! decided to support the initiative for another year. We are financing the special education of two young people from each of 14 Learning Centers of our partner organisation Heartbeat.

So far, 24 young South Africans became ambassadors of their townships or villages, founded youth forums and presented their community's problems to Heartbeat. This feedback enables the organisation to tailor its programs to the needs of people. The football and life skills programs Heartbeat is about to initiate are prime examples. It was the influence of children and young people that demanded more focus on life skills.

We are looking forward to continuing the program.

In the second year running GoAhead! was able to raise the sum necessary to fund the Learning Center in KawZulu-Natal, South Africa. Following Euro 58,536 in the first year, we increased the amount in the second year (ending in September) to Euro 74,376.

This allows the center to cover an additional 220 orphans and expand its training programs. The Learning Center is situated in a rural area close to the border with Swasiland. Since its inception in summer 2009 it organises educational projects and support for orphans in the area.

Children are provided with a hot meal after school, receive homework support and participate in the center's leisure programs. Professional social workers offer psychological care. Furthermore, the center trains community volunteers to support more orphans.

The center impacts 667 children today (267 more than anticipated). The raising numbers reflect the increasing need for help in the region - we are happy to provide some of it.We thank all our sponsors. Through your generosity, 667 children are given a chance for education and a better life!

Children are provided with a hot meal after school, receive homework support and participate in the center's leisure programs. Professional social workers offer psychological care. Furthermore, the center trains community volunteers to support more orphans.

The center impacts 667 children today (267 more than anticipated). The raising numbers reflect the increasing need for help in the region - we are happy to provide some of it.We thank all our sponsors. Through your generosity, 667 children are given a chance for education and a better life!

The director of the GoAhead! volunteer program, Barbara Scharfbillig, took two months from February to April to visit our partner projects by the Suni e.V. organisation in the Kalahari desert of Namibia. She evaulated our volunteer program together with local teachers, students and intern co-ordinators Vernon Malumani and Gabriel Hangara.

At the Mphe Thuto Primary School, the children appear to benefit hugely from the presence of volunteer teachers. The level of school lessons is increasing constantly. For 2011, we are planning to shift the focus towards teacher training.

The Morukutu Primary school is also reporting positive news, the school is scheduled to be connected to the power grid at the end of the year. Hoepfully this will make it easier to find volunteers for this small school in Hereroland.

For both schools there are free intership places for 2010. If you are interested, email b.scharfbillig@goahead-organisation.de

The Homes of Hope (HoH) project is starting over in its 5th incarnation. In August 2010, a group of young people will fly to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to build a house for a family in need. Deadline for applications is 08/05/2010.

See the Homes of Hope page for more information.

As GoAhead! grows at a relentless pace, we once again need to create a new staff position. We are looking for a graphics designer to modernise the design of this website as well as create flyers, posters and portfolios. The workload should be between 2 and 4 hours a week.

Please do apply! Unfortunately the application materials are in German.If you have any questions, please email us.

[Job description (German)(pdf)] - [Application form (German) (doc)]

The Youth Ambassadors have completed their first period in office. Goal of the program is to improve young people's leadership abilities and to give orphans a voice. The program has proven a huge success for our South African partner Heartbeat. The ambassadors began their work in early 2009, initiating youth forums, debating clubs and other events relating to "young" topics. One ambassador organised a workshop aimed particularly at men, reminding them of their special responsibility for community development.

GoAhead! staff have met some of the ambassadors on various occasions. During study tour last march we discussed questions reaching from "what is the dating behaviour of young German couples" to "what are the most important tasks of the next South African president". Our chairman, Jan Bildhauer, participated in one of their training workshops. Eventually, Tilman Rodenhaeuser was fortunate enough to visit the closing ceremony in december 2009.

A report on the first year of the Youth Ambassador program can be found [here (German) (pdf)].

After our preparation weekend and intense fundraising efforts, Homes of Hope started on March 7. During the coming four weeks participants are going to complete a building for our partner RainbowHouse in Kampala, Uganda. The building will be used for their work with children from the surrounding slums.

Participants have started a Blog.

Barbara Scharfbillig, responsible for the GoAhead! volunteer program, is currently visiting the project of our partner organisation Suni e.V. in Namibia. Even out here, at the rims of the Kalahari desert, the enthusiasm of the kickHIV! team has become known and people want to participate. Hence, Barbara und Vaanda (see Photo), the Mphe-Thuto-School and the Morukutu-School are looking for volunteers who are either qualified sports / football teachers or alternatively own at least a C-Coach licence for football and are looking for a 4 week adventure at a Namibian bush School. Interested volunteers can send their application to Barbara or Vaanda (b.scharfbillig@goahead-organisation.de).

More information on the schools at [www.mphethuto.de]

Since February 27th, GoAhead! chairmen Jan Bildhauer, Tilman Rodenhäuser and Johannes Hillje have opened a temporary office in an apartment in Berlin. Until March 22nd they will work intensively on the kickHIV! campaign days as well as on pother projects. To this end, a couple of GoAhead! colleagues have already announced their visits to Berlin, so everything's set for a productive stay.

Whoever is interested in our work and our current projects and successes, feel free to follow our Blog (in German)!

When the film „Lost Generation" had its premier showing at the Arsenalkino in Berlin on 12/12/09, the invited guests were visibly moved. In her documentary about the life of AIDS orphans in South Africa German director Silke Kaiser succeeded to convey a very authentic image of the problems and challenges the young generation in many Sub-Saharan countries faces. The website [www.lost-generation-film.de] is now online and the movie will hopefully be shown at many festivals throughout the year.

The filming of „Lost Generation" took place during the GoAhead! study tour 2009 when a camera team of the HFF Potsdam accompanied GoAhead! on their visits to various projects. Scenes were shot at GoAhead!s partner projects Heartbeat, the Pastoral Preschool and God's Golden Acre in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Limpopo and the rural areas of KwaZulu Natal. „We are proud to be part of such an extraordinary film project and hope that „Lost Generation" can show many people the extremely serious situation AIDS orphans in South Africa are in." says Tilman Rodenhäuser, deputy Chairman of GoAhead!.

GoAhead! wishes to again thank Silke Kaiser and her team as well as the HFF Potsdam for the production of the GoAhead! promotion movie which was also shot in 2009.

This year, GoAhead! is working on its first Germany-wide campaign. Since last September a team has been preparing the kickHIV! Campaign Days 2010. Supported by a "start social" consulting scholarship, we completed a campaign booklet, a website (www.kickHIV.de) and a flyer. We also succeeded in making VIP contacts: kickHIV! is sponsored by Continental and RWE and endorsed by celebrities such as Cosma Shiva Hagen, Steffen Groth, Bartholomäus Grill, Mezud Özil and Philipp Lahm.

So, what is kickHIV!? On the weekend of May 28th - 30th we will take a stand! Anyone can get involved for a good cause with kickHIV!, be it as a club, a school or a circle of friends. Let's make everybody aware of the situation of HIV orphans in South Africa and help people discover the fun in taking social responsibility! The money collected during the kick HIV! campaign will be used towards a project of our local partner which uses the popularity of football to link sports and AIDS prevention. Of course, our 100% guarantee applies.

To make kickHIV! a success we need your help! Take the opportunity, organise a campaign and take a stand against AIDS and poverty in South Africa!

Get registered at aktion[at]kickhiv.de. For further information please go visit [www.kickHIV.de]. You can also support us on Facebook, Twitter and StudiVZ.

Using all possible channels of communication we urged you to vote for GoAhead! in the CharityStar online competition - successfully! We won the competition and 1000 Euro.

CharityStar is a project by various fashion chains who put clothes collection containers into their shops. For every kilo of donated clothes, the management adds 2 Cent into a pot. As soon as this jackpot reaches 1000 Euro which are given to the project with the most votes at that point in time.

The money will aid the kickHIV! campaign. Thanks for voting and spreading the word!!