Sponsoring aid projects 2024

Children receive reading primers and are happy.

After a successful funding year in 2023, where we have been supported by friends so helpfully, we have been able to carry out some project promotions as e.g. educational and youth work for disabled and disadvantaged children in rural regions in southern Africa, in cooperation with Tikato Germany the technical vocational training school in Koudougou, Burkina Faso and to continue the musical training of young musicians of the Wetzlar Young Symphony Orchestra (JSOW).

We have started our foundation planning for the funding year 2024 and were able to bring in individual, outstanding project participations and our own initiatives and funding from a wealth of inquiries:

1. Supplementary funding for the YOUPSA “After School Enrichment Program” – South Africa

Supplementary funding for educational work for children in rural South African areas an “After School Enrichment Program.” This is our fourth follow-up funding.

This program by ourselves we have set up during our joint visits to South Africa and some schools we visited on site together with Ray and Alexis the organizers  of YOUPSA (Youth Potential South Africa).

We could see that for children from disadvantaged families, especially in the poorer rural villages, it makes difficulties for them to have access to supplementary educational measures or even their school-based performance fall behind. The “After School Enrichment Program” supports these disadvantaged children after their daily school, motivates them to constantly learn, helps with homework and strengthens their position in the school and village community.

On our homepage we reported on our latest projects in collaboration with YOUPSA.

We always receive feedback from Ray and Alexis, who tell us how our funding is being used successfully and we also inform ourselves on site from time to time.

For 2024 we are planning a 4th follow-up funding with our long-standing partner YOUPSA.

2. Supporting a smaller orphanage in a small community near Eldoret,

Together with the Kenyans Emily Verbeke and her sister Janet, we have been involved in several educational projects run by the “Verbeke Homes” for several years. There they founded an association “Verbeke Homes” and have set themselves the goal of giving young people the chance to find a way out of poverty. You always need funding to take in orphans or needy children and young people and to look after them. The younger children are sent to school at the Morissio Education Center, the older young people go to the next higher schools and some are also supported through to university. The trained teacher Janet Kemboi runs the home and takes care of all the needs of the 10 children and young people currently in care. The small home is self-sufficient and cultivates the arable land provided using its harvest yields. This is help for self-help. Everyone helps out after school. To make the difficult field work easier, we were able to donate the funds to purchase a tractor a few years ago.

We have shortly arranged a meeting with Emily Verbeke and her sister Janet, who are currently visiting Germany and who founded the aid project “Verbeke Homes”, for a funding discussion and an exchange on a follow-up project.

3. Co-promotion of the technical vocational training school CPET in Koudougou / Burkina Faso

In this funding project we have planned to support the working group of Tikato “Brot für die Welt” in Burkina Faso again. In 2023 we supported the vocational training school in Koudougou / Burkina Faso in a cooperation project with TIKATO and CPET. There was erected an extension building built up by the trainees themselves. Our foundation provided the funds for the missing material to produce the metal windows and doors for this building.

Locksmiths, bricklayers, draftsmen and electricians are trained in Koudougou, and with their qualification after completing their training they much easier find a permanent job. Here, too, we have shortly agreed to a new project discussion with the head of the TIKATO working group, Ms. Heidi Stiewink, for which we would like to provide a new contribution to further expand the school project.

4.  Co-funding of the project “Stop violence against girls with disabilities” in Mozambique” with “InPower/Light for the World”

We would like to support a new cooperation project with “Light for the World”, in which we were already have been involved in 2022. We have sponsored visual aids for children in need in the countries of Ethiopia, Mozambique and Uganda. We are currently in exploratory discussions for our second follow-up project. The focus of the new project will be to participate on a special initiative “InPower” in Mozambique, “End violence against girls with disabilities in Mozambique”. The managing director, Dr. Astrid Pietig from our partner, Light for the World, , presented the important project:

“Girls and young women with disabilities often face double discrimination. They are discriminated against because of their gender and are also excluded from many areas of life because of disabilities. They are also often affected by violence. Disability is often seen as a “curse” for the family. There is a superstition that it can be driven away through violence.

In order to specifically support children and young people with disabilities, especially girls, and to provide them with a safe learning and living environment, we pursue a holistic approach based on 4 levels: the “individual level”, the “community level”, the “advocacy level” and the “school level”. All levels overlap with each other.

We will participate as a co-partner in the “Individual Level” program section, in which children and young people learn how they can defend themselves against sexual assault. They therefore act as an important mouthpiece against violence. For this purpose, a training program will be carried out including the topic of inclusion. “No Means No” should become a permanent fixture in Mozambican schools. Not only are the pupils trained, but also adult trainers. In addition, the disabled children receive individual support, including regular home visits from rehabilitation assistants for psychosocial support and medical care in order to carry out rehabilitation exercises. The helpers also ensure that children who have not yet gone to school are prepared and motivated to attend school.

For us, this project has a special meaning that fits particularly well with our foundation philosophy, namely to provide disabled children with a safe learning and living environment and to integrate them even better into the village community, for which disability is a superstitious curse. At present, we select one school which we will support in Mozambique for this program.

5. Support for the “Young Symphony Orchestra Wetzlar” (JSOW) for musical work with young musicians

The Dieter & Bettina Wulkow Foundation intends to once again support the youth work of young JSOW musicians with a grant in 2024.

The amateur orchestra has been playing since 1987 and aims to introduce young people to classical music. Every year the approximately 60, mostly young musicians play a series of concerts, which are rehearsed together over many hours of practice and performed to perfection to the delight of the many listeners. Classical, but also romantic and modern orchestral works, film musicals and religious works are performed.

The mix of studied musicians, experienced amateurs and young aspiring talents reflects the ideal composition of the Young Symphony Orchestra. As a rule, JSOW performances are free for listeners, but the orchestra relies on donations to support the young musicians and cover their costs.

Wetzlar, December 3rd. 2023