Rosi Gollmann

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Rosi Gollmann in a project in India

Rosi Gollmann , actually Käthe Rosalie Gollmann (born June 9, 1927 ) is the founder and honorary chairwoman of Andheri Hilfe and co-founder of the Rosi Gollmann Andheri Foundation and its chairwoman.

life and work

Rosi Gollmann was born the youngest of three children to a merchant family in Bonn. She studied theology and taught as a Catholic religion teacher in Bonn and Cologne vocational and vocational schools. In 1959, Rosi Gollmann became aware of an article by Stern that described the plight of Indian foundlings in an orphanage in Andheri near Bombay (now Mumbai ). To alleviate this, she and her students brought hundreds of parcels with essential items on the way. Her first trip to India in 1962 changed her life completely. On her return she tirelessly drew the attention of the people in Germany to the need in India, gathered more and more like-minded people around her and motivated them to share.

In 1967 Andheri-Aid Bonn was founded. The main objective in the beginning was to secure the daily handful of rice for the approximately 800 children of the orphanage St. Catherine's Home in Andheri. In the following years, Andheri-Aid experienced a continuous development process with Rosi Gollmann as its first chairman, from combating symptoms such as hunger and illness to questioning and resolving the causes: a development from the approach of purely charitable aid to partnership-based development cooperation. Street children and child laborers , disabled children and their families, and underprivileged women became important target groups.

The content of the development projects was never the allocation of alms , but targeted help for self-help through awareness-raising, motivation and the involvement of the people affected in self-help groups. “Man cannot be developed; he can only develop himself ” is a principle of this help. In the same way, it was always about the people in Germany. The sensitization to the responsibility for the “ one world for all” and as a result conscious rethinking and active “negotiating” in their own country did not let them rest. It campaigned in groups, schools, churches and associations as well as in individual encounters for solidarity with the poor and the disenfranchised, for full recognition of the human dignity of these poorest people. She actively contributed to German development policy bodies and her development approaches - e.g. B. tackling socially “hot topics” - was not ignored on a political level either.

The demands increased so much that Rosi Gollmann reduced her school service to half of the compulsory hours in 1971 and finally, at the age of 55, gave up school service entirely in order to be free without restriction for the growing tasks of Andheri Help. During her first visit to Bangladesh in 1974, Rosi Gollmann was confronted with the plight of more than a million blind people. In January 2003, the one millionth eye surgery under the Andheri Aid program took place in Bangladesh. 34 years after the founding of Andheri-Hilfe, Gollmann handed over the chairmanship of the association to Elvira Greiner in 2001 at the age of 74 and became honorary chairman. In 2002 she founded the Rosi Gollmann Andheri Foundation , the sole purpose of which is to support Andheri-Aid Bonn projects. The foundation capital exceeded the million mark after just five years.

In the book: “A better world is possible” , Rosi Gollmann, together with the authors Franz Alt and Rupert Neudeck, calls for a Marshall Plan for work, development and freedom. Important message and core of their concept: "Development must not come from outside or be imposed from above." Help for self-help is a postulate of the development work of the organization.

Awards

bibliography

Web links

Commons : Rosi Gollmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Love in a practical way - using the example of Andheri-Hilfe ( Memento from December 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on sonnseite.com
  2. ↑ WDR Homepage ( Memento from November 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ List of winners ( memento from January 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Bayreuth Model Prize. In: bayreuther dialoge 2019. Retrieved on August 20, 2019 (American English).
  5. ^ Generalanzeiger Bonn: Clara honorary award for Rosi Gollmann. Retrieved October 18, 2015 .
  6. ^ Rosi Gollmann - World's Children's Prize. In: worldschildrensprize.org. 2017, Retrieved May 3, 2017 .
  7. ↑ First award of the EINEWELT and Rupert Neudeck medals by Federal Development Minister Dr. Gerd Müller. In: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Retrieved December 13, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Gollmann, Rosi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German founder of Andheri-Aid Bonn and the Rosi-Gollmann-Andheri-Foundation
DATE OF BIRTH June 9, 1927