Overseas services
The Services in Übersee non-profit GmbH (DÜ) based in Bonn, formerly Services in Übersee, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen in Deutschland e. V. is a subsidiary of the Evangelical Work for Diakonie and Development eV (EWDE) and a non- denominational church non-governmental organization that supports the development aid projects of other church non-governmental organizations through the placement of specialists. As a recognized development service , DÜ has been part of "Bread for the World" since 2002 .
history
The organization was founded by Bread for the World and six other church organizations to express thanks for the support of the ecumenical fellowship of the churches on October 6, 1960 in Hamburg. For this initiative the idea of active participation in the peace service as well as the decolonization, liberation and development of oppressed peoples was fundamental.
The ecumenical work of the Evangelical Student Congregation through the establishment of the overseas register formed a further root strand. It pointed young academics to tasks overseas and resulted in the establishment of the "Working Group for Services overseas Protestant Churches in Germany" on November 9, 1960. The initiators of the working group were the campaign " Bread for the World " and the Evangelical Church in Germany , Evangelical Free Churches, Lutheran World Service, German Ev. Mission council, Protestant youth and student work, Protestant academies. In 1959 the Roman Catholic Church founded the “ Working Group for Development Aid ” in order to respond to the increasing demand from young Christians for practical development work.
As part of the consolidation of development cooperation between the Protestant churches in Germany, DÜ was integrated into the Evangelical Development Service based in Bonn in 1999 and has been a subsidiary of the Evangelical Work for Diakonie and Development eV since 2012
construction
Specialists are placed overseas at the express request of the independent partners, which is why the organization does not carry out its own projects. It limits the participation in overseas areas of responsibility and integrates them into ecumenical structures. For overseas services, “partnership” becomes the key term and an expression of active participation in global ecumenism . In 1961 the first five skilled workers were placed overseas. In 1962 there were already 37, with the focus on health professions, craftsmen and technical personnel. In the next few years, the number of placements increased steadily. Most of the specialists were placed in partner countries that were traditionally areas of work for German mission agencies, such as Tanzania or Indonesia . But there were also new partner countries, for example Nepal . In 1963, organizations of the personal development service and voluntary work founded the “Working Group Learning and Helping in Overseas”, which was supposed to contribute to the establishment of the German Development Service . In 1965 the first issue of “der überblick”, a magazine for ecumenical encounter and international cooperation, was published by services overseas. Since March 19, 1970, the association has been officially recognized as the carrier of the development service within the meaning of the Development Aid Act (EhfG) of 1969.
In 1970, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the company's existence, the jubilee volume “On the way to one world - from the work of services overseas” was published. 448 contracts have been signed since 1960. Also in 1970, the Church Development Service Working Group was founded. In this association, DÜ cooperated with the “ Bread for the World ” campaign in the Diakonisches Werk der EKD , the Evangelical Central Agency for Development Aid , the Evangelical Working Group for World Mission as the predecessor of the Evangelical Mission in Germany and the Church Development Service of the Evangelical Church in Germany.
The concept of DÜ and its principles led in 1975 to active support of domestic development work within the framework of cooperation with the "Haus am Schüberg" in Ammersbek near Hamburg and the Center for Development-Related Education in Stuttgart. Since 1977 the “Committee for Development-Related Education and Journalism” has supported projects by overseas services such as the specialist unit for long-distance tourism and journalism programs. Also in 1977 the DÜ General Assembly decided to introduce domestic contracts for returning skilled workers. Projects that point out the causes of underdevelopment in society should be supported. In the same year, returning experts founded the Returners Committee (RKA) as a representative and advisory body for returnees in the EED with the aim of providing informal support for experts in their return and reintegration.
In 1985, 190 DÜ development specialists were working overseas, most of them in education (84), health (54) and technology (33). 76 new contracts were signed. Since then, DÜ has also increasingly placed staff in churches and partner organizations who work against oppression and discrimination, strive to promote religious and ethnic minorities and - for example in the countries of Central America - fight against human rights violations . Services overseas tie in with the anti-racism program of the World Council of Churches . In 1986 the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany dealt primarily with the Church Development Service and underlined its importance for the ecumenical claim of the Church. The organization Christian Specialists International , which was founded in 1984 mainly by circles of the Evangelical Alliance , is accepted as a “supplementary personnel service for evangelical churches and aid organizations in the 'Third World'” and funded by the EZE. Services overseas itself concluded an agreement on cooperation programs with mission organizations and Diakonie-Katastrophenhilfe. Increasingly, skilled workers were also placed in countries in the south as part of a reintegration measure.
In 1994, at the request of the World Council of Churches, DÜ arranged election observers for the first free elections in South Africa . This resulted in the DÜ program for election and human rights monitoring . In 1995, 2588 written applications for overseas employment were received. 25 courses for orientation, selection and preparation were offered for 346 participants; there were 195 ongoing contracts. In the case of those who had emigrated overseas, the professional groups from the fields of technology and education came first before health, agriculture, social affairs and administration. The focus countries were Tanzania (38), Ethiopia (20), Papua New Guinea (18), Nicaragua (18) and Cameroon (16). Within the framework of the “Ecumenical Service in Germany” (ÖDD) program, in which specialists from the south work in Germany, as well as the domestic programs for returnees and “temporary advisors”, there were 22 contractual relationships. In 1999, DÜ was one of the initiators of a peace service and became a founding member of the Civil Peace Service consortium . The consortium places specialists in conflict regions of the world according to the principles of the EhfG. These should support the development of peacebuilding structures for long-term peacekeeping.
As an independent organization, DÜ placed a total of 3,985 development specialists up to and including 1999 and implemented personnel placement programs in Germany and personnel development programs abroad. DÜ had an impact on the public through returnees. They brought their experiences and knowledge from their work overseas to the church and society in Germany. While it was first specialists in basic services such as doctors, nurses and craftsmen who were placed overseas, DÜ has developed into a personnel service for the placement of consultants and trainers in the management of social services and culture overseas.
Integration into the evangelical development service
Until 1995, the Church Development Service had considerable growth rates due to the good church tax income of the Protestant regional churches. In 1994 alone 132 million DM were received in grants from the regional churches and the military chaplaincy. From 1995, however, there were more inquiries about the structure and costs of the AG KED, to which DÜ belonged. Synod, Church Conference and the EKD Council found a summary into a single work as a suitable way to achieve synergies and savings. In 1999 the new Evangelical Development Service , EED , was created through the merger of the Evangelical Central Agency for Development Aid, DÜ, the EKD Church Development Service, the Ecumenical Missionary World Service and institutions of the AG KED . This is based in Bonn and started working in 2000.
DÜ sees itself as a personnel agency for the development work of the Protestant churches in Germany. The number of dressings wearing DÜ had grown from eight to 30. Traditionally, DÜ was involved beyond the borders of the partner countries of German mission organizations, for example in Central America , Cabo Verde , Guinea-Bissau , Mozambique , Zimbabwe and Cambodia . This partner network was brought into the EED. 108 new contracts were concluded in 2000. In 2001 the DÜ office moved from Leinfelden-Echterdingen to Bonn. The "Services in Übersee eV" became the "Services in Übersee gGmbH". The domestic work of DÜ was integrated into the domestic work of the EED. The Ecumenical Peace Service in Palestine and Israel was created together with Bread for the World , the Evangelical Mission Agency , individual mission agencies and Pax Christi as a German contribution to the corresponding program of the World Council of Churches , which was founded in September 2001. In 2008, the new magazine welt-sichten was formed from the magazines “der überblick” and “eins Entwicklungspolitik” .
Perspectives
By the end of 2009, a total of 5098 skilled workers with overseas services had left. In 2009, EED provided a total of 24.1 million euros for the personnel program. The EED participates in the development policy volunteer service weltwärts and is the central office for the Evangelical Forum for Development Policy Voluntary Service .
In some cases , we worked in cooperation with friendly organizations such as Missionswerke, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe , Kindernothilfe and Peace Brigades International . In the integral program of the new joint work, the Evangelical Center for Development and Diakonia , which will be formed by 2013 at the latest from the Diaconal Work of the EKD and the EED, the personnel service should continue to play an important role.
literature
- DÜ, in: Jörg Ernst: The development policy public relations work of the Protestant churches in Germany and Switzerland , Lit Verlag, Münster 1999, ISBN 978-3-825845728 , from p. 50.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Productive strangeness and the appeal of working with people: 40 years of overseas service (2010) ( Memento from March 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ 50 years of overseas services (2010) ( Memento of October 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ EWDE: Töchter und Beteiligungen , brot-fuer-die-welt.de, accessed on June 25, 2015.