Bielefeld, 26.02.2013

Statement on the controversy about the brochure: “Where can I go to weltwärts? “by the weltwärts department of Welthaus Bielefeld

Dear people from glokal e.V., dear people who have worked with the above mentioned brochure so far, dear all who are involved in the preparation for weltwärts volunteers.

We are writing to you because we also want to participate as a weltwärts sector in the debate about the above mentioned brochure. Your open letter has led us to deal with the criticism internally at Welthaus Bielefeld. We decided together that we wanted to educate ourselves on racism and cultural concepts. Nevertheless, there are different opinions in Welthaus Bielefeld, so we can only speak for our area here.

We find the criticism of the brochure justified. It is a great challenge to challenge and deconstruct stereotyping images in all of our minds when preparing weltwärts volunteers. In our development education work in the weltwärts program, we try to develop an understanding of their own role with the volunteers. We contextualize with them the stay in the South so that they can be able to be open and perceive the local context in a differentiated way.

We are in a constant learning process and do not see ourselves as experts. We want to provide inspiration and give volunteers a space to explore racism, power relations, global contexts, and language and imagery. For us, these are elementary components of the pedagogical accompaniment of weltwärts volunteers – from selection to return.

In a combination of country-specific and cross-country preparation and follow-up, we seek to address, problematize, and contextualize these issues. This is, as already mentioned, not an easy task and also we as weltwärts organizers and pedagogical facilitators have to question ourselves again and again and reflect on our own images and attitudes. In doing so, we try to make it clear from which point of view we are speaking and can speak.

Within the framework of our pedagogical support, we only work with excerpts of the criticized brochure and do not recommend it to others, even though there are certainly exercises that we consider useful. In its present form, the brochure cannot be used without comment.

We thank you for the suggestions and are looking forward to continue an open and constructive discussion about non-racist educational concepts with all interested parties and with the educational support of weltwärts volunteers.

For the weltwärts team:

Barbara contactor

Veronika Kirschner