World Peace Service
| World Peace Service (WFD) |
|
|---|---|
| legal form | non-profit registered association |
| founding | 1959 |
| Seat | Berlin ( ⊙ ) |
| purpose | Mediation in civil peace service projects |
| Chair | Marcel Gounot |
| Managing directors | Judith Ohene |
| sales | 6,581,824 euros (2018) |
| Members | 145 (2018) |
| Website | wfd.de |
The Weltfriedensdienst eV (WFD) is a peace and development organization based in Berlin and was founded in 1959. The registered association , recognized as a non-profit , had around 150 full members at the end of 2019. He works with partner organizations in 23 countries, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa , Southeast Asia, Latin America and Palestine . The main focus of the work is training , resource protection , advancement of women , human rights and civil peace service projects .
Recognition, funding and cooperation
The WFD is one of the seven development services recognized by the federal government and can therefore place collaborators in its projects on the basis of the Development Aid Act (EhfG). The financing of the project funding, planning / evaluation and support, as well as public relations and administration is done through sponsoring memberships, donations and project-related grants, e.g. B. from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development . As proof of the careful and transparent handling of donations, the WFD is awarded the donation seal of the German Central Institute for Social Issues (DZI) every year . The association is also a signatory to the Transparent Civil Society Initiative .
The club is a member of a large number of clubs and associations, under whose roof it has joined forces with like-minded clubs / organizations:
- Action Group Service for Peace (AGDF)
- Platform for Civil Conflict Management (ZFD)
- Working group "Learning and helping overseas" (AKLHÜ)
- Working Group of Development Services (AGdD)
- Association of Development Policy of German Non-Governmental Organizations (VENRO)
- State Network of Berlin Development Policy Advice (BER)
- Sponsors of the Peace Film Prize at the Berlinale
In addition, the WFD is active in the funding agency for returned specialists from the development services and is a contributor to the alliance against AIDS. The WFD is one of the founding members of ATTAC Germany and is a partner of the "Alliance Development Helps".
Project work
The organization works with partners in African, South American countries and in southern Asia as well as in Palestine. A special feature of the work of the WFD is the combination of classic development cooperation and civil peace service. This approach stems from the conviction that without development there can be no peace and without peace there can be no development. That is why the WFD is also active in projects that do not focus on conflict prevention or aftercare, but on human rights, education, food security and environmental protection, HIV / AIDS and the advancement of women. Of the 20 professionals who are deployed, 14 are peace workers. In the development, implementation and monitoring of the projects, the Weltfriedensdienst cooperates closely with the respective local partners, according to the motto "partnership instead of dominance".
Current projects in the south
The WFD is working with these projects in countries in the South. a. currently together:
- Argentina - COAJ: Campesinos are fighting for their land
- Brazil - AdoleScEr: Social integration and violence prevention; CAMPO / Vida Ativa: Sustainable funding
- Burundi - MI-Parec: Support reconciliation
- Guinea-Bissau: DJINOPI: Alternatives to Genital Mutilation; Mom ku Mom: civil-military dialogue
- Palestine - Al Mada: Music Therapy; Yes-Theater: Theater-pedagogical peace work
- Senegal - ENDA ProNat: Help for self-help; USOFORAL: Peace in the Casamance
- Zimbabwe - CCMT: Nonviolent Conflict Management; KAITE: organic farming; PACDEF: Building structures to ensure peace
- South Africa - Sinani, PSV: Traumatic Legacy; STEPS: film project for the education
- Laos - GLAD: Non-Formal Vocational Education for Young People
Project partnerships
The WFD mediates project partnerships between support groups in the north and grassroots initiatives in the south. Partnership groups are already promoting WFD projects and independent initiatives in the south.
Domestic projects
In addition to the cooperation with partners in the south, the WFD is also active in Germany with two educational projects:
work4peace - student campaign for Africa
work4peace is an initiative of the Weltfriedensdienst e. V. and is intended on the one hand to raise issues of the one world in schools and among young people. This is guaranteed by the offer of teaching units and project days as well as further training offers for multipliers and interested students.
On the other hand, three educational projects of the association are specially funded each year with the income from the project.
The content of the student campaign is that students go to work for a day. The jobs should be sought and found independently. Assignments in both formal and informal work sectors are possible and desirable. It doesn't matter whether office work is done in a company or the neighbor's lawn is mowed.
However, other forms of action are also possible, such as cake bazaars, charity runs, Africa festivals or benefit concerts. Therefore, the project is not only open to older students who are formally entitled to work, but also to elementary school students. The focus of the student campaign is not to simply collect donations, but rather the independent action and commitment of students. The date of the action is up to the decision of the respective organizing school.
work4peace would like to encourage schools to commit themselves to fair North-South relations. For this reason, the Weltfriedensdienst e. V. developed the "Peace School" concept in cooperation with the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Science and Research. In 2008, this title was awarded to the first schools that stood out in the implementation of work4peace through their special commitment, perseverance and their wealth of ideas.
The results of the campaign in recent years:
- In 2010, 40,000 euros were used to create a pilot film on the subject of HIV / AIDS for the deaf in South Africa, to accept 24 new students in a football boarding school in Burkina Faso and to build a football field on the boarding school premises. In Senegal, 86 teachers were trained in forest reforestation and 100 more families were mobilized to sort and recycle rubbish. In autumn 2010 we started the first shootYourpeace competition. The best three pictures, which represent the personal peace of the participants, were awarded and exhibited in a Berlin gallery. We are also pleased about the addition of four more "peace schools".
- 2008/2009 approx. 100,000 euros flowed into educational projects in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Senegal, South Africa and Mozambique. Five schools in Berlin received the title of "Peace School".
- 2007 Almost 40 schools took part, 15 of them for the second or third time. Many activities such as benefit concerts and Africa Project Days were organized entirely by schoolchildren. With the income of a little more than 50,000 euros, tool boxes were financed for graduates of vocational schools in Ghana and Mozambique. In Namibia's capital Windhoek, soup kitchens in 20 day-care centers offered a warm meal every day.
Global Generation - A project with people over 50
The Global Generation project is planned to run for three years and is aimed at people aged 50 and over. It is jointly supported by the Hungarian BOCS Foundation, the Austrian organization Südwind, and the German organizations Brücke / Most-Stiftung and Weltfriedensdienst eV, with co-financing from the BMZ.
The aim is to build on the experiences of older people and to incorporate them into a communication process between South and North. The main component of the project is the course Global Perspectives - What connects us with Africa? It is aimed at people aged 50 and over in rural areas. In five workshops a year, the participants approach global issues with the help of their own biographies and lay the foundation for long-term commitment. The course is partly led by trainers from South Africa. They enrich him with African perspectives and report on their work and methods at the partner organizations STEPS and Sinani Program for Survivors of Violence. Every year one topic is in the foreground
- 2010: How do experiences of the war influence us to this day?
- 2011: How did we react to major social upheavals like in 1989 or the end of apartheid?
- 2012: Children move away, older people stay. What does this mean for the future of our villages?
In addition, seminars are held for multipliers of all ages who want to integrate development policy issues into their professional or voluntary environment.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Employees in the Berlin office. In: wfd.de. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
- ↑ Transparent and economical. In: wfd.de. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
- ↑ Signatory. In: transparency.de. Accessed January 1, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Project work of the WFD ( Memento from March 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Project partnerships ( Memento from March 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Review work4peace 2005-2010 .
- ↑ About Global Generation .