Newsletter
July 2022 - internal
Dear Zugvögel and friends, once again a newsletter for you - big thanks to Lara and Maxie, who wrote everything you can read below, and to the tireless IT-birds (I think it was mainly Sandro and Pascal involved?), thanks to whom the newsletter can be sent nicely formatted again!
von Hauke
Content
Reports
Committee update
RG update
Reports
Anniversary
Where do you think you're going, baby?
That was the central question Carly Rae Jepsen shouted at us over the Bluetooth speakers at least three times a day at the Zugvögel anniversary with our partner organisations Esperance, Ts'ununetik and Aves de Paso in Berlin. During the four days from 23 to 26 June, we had productive discussions, laughed heartily, listened with interest and connected diligently at the Adventure Centre at Grunewald.
On Thursday, some Zugvögel lovingly prepared our seminar house so that one could admire the history of the association in the (endlessly long) corridor. In addition, with a lot of patience, a bed or tent was organised for everyone. In the afternoon, members from various RGs, from our POs and from the founding years gradually flocked in. A group of POs and three Zugvögel members started directly with the workshop on the prevention of sexualised violence, while the rest were busy with preparations and arriving. In the evening, everyone got together for dinner. When I arrived at the adventure centre at 10 pm, a queue of people was forming, corresponding to the years of involvement with the Zugvögel, Esperance, Ts'ununetik and Aves de Paso. My place was relatively far in front and made me realise how many people had already put a lot of time, energy and love into our work before me. A warm welcome.
Friday started at 8am with an energising breakfast buffet - thanks go out to a dedicated kitchen team! Afterwards, the POs presented the evolution of their associations' work, while the Zugvögel presented the evaluation of the volunteer programme. Unfortunately, I missed this slot. But I got out of my Uni Zoom meeting in time for a discussion about the Paro in Ecuador. Azu, Karina and Eva explained the tangled political situation around President Lasso. Margarita's questions about the plurinational state led us to the topic of postcolonialism. Felipe reminded us again of the power of institutions like the IMF. In the end, a sense of what I like to call "productive anger" took hold of me. More on that later. At the same time, Andrea taught us in the seminar house how to dance across borders. After the lunch break, the dancing continued with Margarita's political Zumba class. After washing up, I sat down (somewhat unprepared and clueless) with Kirsten, Dane, Sina and Domy, who discussed the Anti racism process support (RAP 2.0) of the Zugvögel. Several points were discussed, such as the attitude of the Zugvögel towards the return of the volunteers. There were aha-moments for the Zugvögel as well as Esperance and in the end everybody left the discussion relieved.
Apart from that, a hybrid event with former volunteers who had returned took place in the afternoon. 5.30pm we met again in plenary and around 6pm we headed to the panel discussion "Overcoming Borders: How can solidarity within struggles for freedom of movement look like?" in Wedding. On this occasion, our travel group very confidently took the Berlin public transport. The moderator Lisa Westhäußer created an inspiring evening with interesting questions answered by our guests Alassane Dicko (afrique-europe-interact), Muhammed Lamin Jadama (querstadtein) and Margarita Rodriguez (Tsununetik) - with longer and shorter digressions. Rumour has it, by the way, that the group of Zugvögel on their way back at a late hour in the underground was also very enthusiastic and dance-savvy ;)
At 8am on Saturday we compensated for sleep deprivation with vitamins and caffeine. From 9 am onwards, "visioning" was the order of the day. In small groups we talked about the new generation of Zugvögel members and a (surely soon again) stable association structure, activism in the local context of all the POs, the creation of a network for returnees and their project funding, and new ways of cooperation between all the POs. Concrete next steps were collected for each topic - the motivation was great. However, a summary would go beyond the scope of the newsletter. In any case, Laura convinced me to present what we are doing at one or another returnee seminar for North-South volunteers in this summer. Parallel to the visioning, the organising team met with the POs. Among other things, our exchange dealt with the allowances of the volunteers in Germany. After lunch, another session of the political seminar cycle took place for our current volunteers. For the first time, there was interpretation not only in Spanish and English, but also in Kinyarwanda. From all the feedback I received, this was one of the highlights of our anniversary. VisaWie also presented its political work and looked for future cooperation opportunities with the Zugvögel. At the same time, a group of former volunteers gathered around Taly and Yareni from Ts'ununetik to talk. 6 pm we met again for the plenary. The organising team thanked our founding members and our partner organisations in Mexico, Rwanda and Ecuador with certificates and a small gift.
With a lot of relief (on the part of everyone who had organised things up to that point) and pure anticipation (on the part of everyone who could enjoy the anniversary to the fullest without worrying), the party was set up. And like every party I've had the pleasure of celebrating with the Zugvögel so far, this one turned out to be a wonderful evening. A mix of Afrobeat and Latin music quickly got everyone moving. At an early hour, Domy and Jimmy did their best to teach us one of the basic choreos of Afrobeat. The Esperance crew also impressed the rest of the evening with skilful moves. Apart from that, of course, Salsa, Merengue and Bachata were not neglected. While some stuck to the basic steps, others swept through the hall full of passion and tact. Outside, groups of ducklings and owls (or uhus - I guess the terminology has changed?) formed. The night was long and, for some, passed sleeplessly into the morning.
Sunday was spent enjoying a last breakfast together. Then the Zugvögel-Orga-Team met once more to work on the content. At 11 a.m. everyone met for a plenary session to review the three days and to distribute a few kind words. At this point, I would like to thank all the people from Esperance, Aves de Paso and Ts'ununetik who travelled to Germany for our anniversary and of course all the Zugvögel who coordinated this trip! I (and I'm sure everyone else) was very happy to meet you all in person for once. During the closing plenary, there were also people scurrying around the house to gather their seven things for departure. There were both some hearty and a lot of fleeting goodbyes. This is no problem at all, as I look forward to seeing some again at the arrival seminar for the next generation of volunteers, others via Zoom and hopefully many at the General Assembly in November. Thanks also go to those who cleaned the adventure centre at Grunewald in the end, while others (including me) were already on the train heading home!
So where do I think we're going?
To answer this question, I would like to return to my "productive anger" above. My studies deal a lot with global inequality. I wrote my first term paper on the Franc CFA as the neo-colonial currency of West Africa. Reading into such topics is insanely interesting, but also very depressing because my term paper doesn't change the situation. I love working with the Zugvögel (in the finance team, as a companion and hopefully in September for the first time as a teamer ;)) above all because it gives me the feeling that I can concretely do something to turn the world around according to my ideas. In the flock of Zugvögel, Aves de Paso, Ts'ununetik and Esperance, I transform "anger" about the North-South power imbalance in international financial institutions like the IMF, which we all share, into "productivity". I believe that "anger" will be with us for a while because the world order is unlikely to change overnight. Therefore, I would like to thank all those who also uphold the demand for productivity. Our anniversary was a clear, beautiful proof that we have done many things right, but that we can also continue or rethink our work here and there. I don't know exactly where we want to go. But as long as we all share a common goal - political work against global inequalities and a high-quality volunteer programme - the journey can be the destination in good conscience, right?
von Maxie
Committee update
FreDi
Hello dear Zugvögel,
The contracts for the next 5 volunteers have been signed by the host organisations (Yay!!) and the jittery search for host organisations has finally come to an end.
We are very happy that Anita and Honorine from Rwanda, Ana and Yamileth from Mexico and Diana from Ecuador will be joining us in September!
Anita will be at the Waldorf School in Cologne, Diana at the Rasselrübe Music Kindergarten in Lüneburg, Ana at the Hollerbusch Children's House in Lüneburg, Yamileth at the Heinz-Fitschen Haus Children, Youth and Family Centre in Osnabrück and Honorine at the Iwalew House in Bayreuth.
Now we continue with the visa application in the partner countries, flight bookings, host family search in the RGs and the organisations for the arrival seminar (+ of course the final seminar). In the next few weeks, the accompaniment workshop will also take place.
By the way, Rita is now taking over Sina's position as accompaniment coordinator and Sophia is taking over Kirsten's position as seminar coordinator. It's cool that you're here :) And many thanks to Sina and Kirsten for their great work over the past years!
At this point, a small request: Both the final and arrival seminar teams (RG Bonn and RG Leipzig) are still looking for support. Feel free to contact the two RGs if you would like to support them in any way!
By the way, the next FreDi meeting will take place on Sunday 10.07 at 7 pm. Put the date in your calendar, we are looking forward to lots of FreDi energy! (Link will follow in the next few days by email)
See you then and best wishes!
von Lara
RG update
Bayreuth
Hello dear Zugvögel,
It has been a long time since we contacted you with a newsletter article from Bayreuth. In fact, it was simply because very little happened in the RG Bayreuth in the last few months.
Directly after the anniversary, however, we took a lot of positive Zugvögel energy and motivation with us and last Wednesday, for the first time in a long time, we held an event on the topic of "As Birds Do - About freedom of movement and cultural work" at the Iwalewahaus (Paul's host organisation). Together with Paul, Maxie and I (Lara) gave a talk about freedom of movement, the weltwärts South North programme, our work as Zugvögel and the process of getting visas. Afterwards, there was a discussion and question and answer session with the small but very interested audience.
We were also very happy that Karina, Azu and Eva from Aves de Paso visited us that day! After the event, they were able to see where Paul works and we all got a guided tour of the Iwalewahaus and the current exhibition. We ended the evening together with a drink in the beer garden.
With this energy we want to continue! In the next few weeks we want to participate with a stand at the Day of the Good Life and maybe also organise one or the other racism-critical/postcolonial city tour through Bayreuth (we have been working on this for a long time, but unfortunately the project has not really been finished).
Best regards from Bayreuth!
von Lara