Tree house project
Baumhaus is a social education project founded in 2007 by the German-Chinese business woman Wei Qian and the university professor Peter Jochimsen , which sends young volunteers abroad every year to provide development aid there. It takes part in the weltwärts program of the German federal government , is part of the Peter Jochimsen Foundation and is scientifically supported. The seat and place of foundation is Eckernförde .
history
In 2008, 13 volunteers spent one year in Yunnan Province, China . They taught English in elementary and middle schools in the Lisu Nujiang Autonomous District there . Furthermore, they assisted the school management and projects such as the sponsorship project BTAC (Because They Are Children) and the clothing project were created to improve the living conditions of the often poor students and their families.
In 2009 the number of volunteers in the People's Republic of China was increased to 23 and the project was expanded to include Brazil. Five volunteers worked there on social projects. As early as 2010, 23 were working in Yunnan again and six more were working at schools and universities in and around Qingdao . The hygiene project was founded in this generation.
The three previously existing projects were then continued by the 4th generation in 2011/12 and the fourth project, "Slumkids", was founded. The volunteers set up the region's first two used clothing containers and trained 19 street children. Their 31 successors, who taught English in all four counties of the Autonomous Okrug , set up two more containers and drew a lot of attention within China to the project through films such as that of China Radio International . On September 4, 2013, the 6th generation of volunteers started abroad. In addition to the 33 volunteers for China, six more went to Peru for the first time . In the 7th generation, which started their service on September 4, 2014, a total of 42 volunteers were sent. 16 of them will go to Yunnan Province , and for the first time ten volunteers will go to Sichuan Province and eight to Jiangxi Province . Eight other volunteers are again working in Peru.
aims
The aim of the project is, on the one hand, the sustainable development of the volunteers' deployment region and, on the other hand, the personal development of the volunteers themselves. These goals are to be achieved through the independent organization of social projects and teaching English in a foreign country. The volunteers develop further in these challenges and come back to Germany after one year as interculturally educated adults.
Project goals
In the countries of the Third World and in the newly industrialized countries there are many families for whom the education of their children is primarily costly. Even if the state schools are partially free, the families often lack the money for school uniforms, study materials and food. The tree house project supports school education and the social integration of disadvantaged children. In two projects they are looking for ideal sponsors who can financially support poor children without access to (good) education. They also help through humanitarian projects to alleviate hygiene and health as well as material misery a little.
Personal development
The volunteers of the tree house project have the opportunity to get to know and better classify complex social grievances in poor regions of the world, to develop a greater sense of responsibility, to bring about positive changes in small, careful steps and their own in intercultural action to enrich personal development.
Projects
Slum kids
The poverty in the mountains of Nujiang is very great. It is difficult to farm on the steep slopes. Hunger is driving people out of their home villages and forcing them into the towns in the valley or even into Myanmar . In the large village Liuku , the seat of county government, they were a few years ago in small slum-like settlements on the outskirts down and collect plastic bottles to live by the pledge. They belong to the ethnic minorities of Lisu , which represents almost half of the population in their Autonomous County. They don't speak Chinese and their ancestors were once proselytized to Christianity. They live on the edge of society and their children help them collect rubbish instead of going to school.
When the volunteers recognized this problem, they developed a close relationship with the families and convinced them to send the children to school with financial support from German sponsors. In annual summer schools, the volunteers prepare the young children for school or give tutoring for the children who have already started school. The children are very happy to be able to go to school now and reward the volunteers with good grades.
Now it remains for the volunteers to legalize the children. Because of the one-child policy (which does not apply to the Lisu) and the high number of children per family, parents are afraid to register their children. They have no entry in the hukou , the important family register, and so in principle do not exist. But the volunteers are working to change this and to alleviate their poverty with the other projects.
Clothes project
The volunteers collect clothes in the villages of the valley. In street, school and residential district collections they receive a lot of donations from the wealthier population, sort them and then drive to the mountain schools or to the mountain villages and give the clothes to the neediest children or families.
In order to increase the amount collected, they set up used clothing bins in various parts of Nujiang with the permission of the local government. Citizens across China became aware of this and now want to collect clothes and set up containers. With this, Baumhaus achieves another goal, namely to show the population that helping is fun. The project is thus a catalyst for the social commitment of the Chinese for the poor part of their population.
Hygiene project
A big problem for the people who live a simple life in the mountain villages of Nujiang is the bad hygiene situation. They live in dirty, leaky huts with no access to hygiene items or medicine. Even simple hygiene such as daily brushing teeth or hand washing is disregarded here.
That's why the volunteers set up donation boxes in various supermarkets in the villages in the valley, in which the customers can donate toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap. With this material, the volunteers teach the children of the mountain villages how to properly brush their teeth, wash their hands and face. They also clearly explain why this hygiene is so important. With these simple methods and the donation gifts, the volunteers try to improve the health of the children in the long term.
Sparks - Spark of hope from the Nujiang Valley
Sparks is the successor to the BTAC - Because they are Children project . To have the chance of a good career, you have to study in China - and that is best at a good university. To support this, the volunteers select needy and motivated students, build a good friendship with them and then, if interested, look for one or more ideal sponsors who then finance the child's studies. The volunteers support the child with free tutoring in English and organize an exchange of letters between the sponsor and the sponsored child. The long-term goal is that the student has a successful career and can later help his ethnic minority, home and the tree house project.
financing
The project is financed by “ weltwärts ”, the development volunteer service of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development , by youth abroad , a cooperation of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Schleswig-Holstein (ASB) and the association for children, youth and social affairs Hilfen eV (KJSH) and the Peter Jochimsen Foundation.