My experiences at Eine Welt Forum Düsseldorf
by Theresa Ntloko
At the beginning of my voluntary service at Eine Welt Forum Düsseldorf in Summer 2022 I was clueless and had no idea what Sustainable Development or Fair Trade is, not to say that I regularly experienced culture shocks. At the beginning I only had a small information from what I learnt in school when I was in high school long time ago.
It was shocking news to me that there are people who are vegetarians and vegans because where I come from meat is the best feast ever and the only feast that is also ‘’luxury’’. The more I learned about the topics the more I got informed and and the more I got interested on the topic.
My tasks at the organization were really interesting even though some of them I was doing for the first time. But with the help of my colleagues everything went well. Among other things I did presentations at schools doing awareness-raising about stereotypes, prejudices, and racism. It was really interesting to hear student’s intake and have deep conversations and discussions about how stereotypes and racism affect other people and how we can deal with and avoid such behavior. The presentation was also an eye opener about how media influences stereotype behaviors and the output was positive.
Writing blogs and producing Instagram reels about different topics were also part of my tasks. I really liked the fact that I could choose any topic I like from the issues we deal with. I really had a lot of fun writing about the topic of my interest because that made everything fun and enjoyable.
Being part of the “Düsseldorf Kaffee” was also the best experience and learning about Fair Trade and how it makes a difference for people in the producing countries. The “Düsseldorf Kaffee” is a joint project of Eine Welt Forum Düsseldorf and the roastery VIER. It is a coffee that comes from Moshi, a small town in Tanzania, to Düsseldorf in a transparent and fully traceable way and meets the criteria of fair trade. This results in economic, social, and ecological advantages for producers, consumers, and the environment. I learned that choosing Fair Trade means standing with farmers for fairness and equality, against some of the biggest challenges the world.