Sustainable development

Light for the world is an international organization that focuses on development projects for blind persons and persons with disabilities in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Southeastern Europe. Light for the world works together with local partners, eye health clinics and disabled peoples organizations.

The Federation for Social Defence (German: Bund für Soziale Verteidigung, BSV) is an independent, non-governmental organisation based in Minden, Germany, that unites people and organisations of pacifist and antimilitarist conviction. The BSV was founded in 1989 as an umbrella organisation to promote social defence and other alternatives to the military, and to work for total disarmament. Its creation was the result of a big conference on social or civilian-based defence held in Minden, Germany, a year earlier. Currently, we actively support civil rights groups in Belarus and Ukraine, are engaged in advocacy work to promote the concept of Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping (UCP), and seek to counter the militarization of youth in (German) schools through peace education.

Forum for Freedom in Education is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation, which has been active in Croatia since 1992 and was registered in 1998 in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Associations.

The main goal of Forum is to introduce the educational standards of the contemporary democratic society into the Croatian education system.

The members of the Forum are education experts, experienced practitioners and academics, professors and teachers, parents and students that want to improve on various education issues.

During the past 20 years, main activities of the Forum include creating and implementing education programs for methodological training of the teaching professionals, non-violent conflict resolution, health education, civic education, student scholarships, and training in the field of methodology of teaching.

The German Toilet Organization (GTO) is a non-profit NGO, which was founded in Berlin in the October of 2005. Our aim is to protect the environment and improve public health by raising awareness about and providing people with clean and sustainable toilet and wastewater treatment systems.

The Pantheater Hamburg e. V. is a group of professional actors who perform their own plays for children, adolescents and adults all over Germany. These plays are related to development policy in our One World. The group acts in schools, cultural centres, theatres and congregations, but also at public events, such as the Church Congress, meetings on the national level, conferences, congresses, fairs, as well as at events and project weeks in the context of global learning, development policy and environmental policy.

Bookable Event: Explorations in the One World

"Explorations in the One World" are multimedia and scenic travel narratives intended to provide information and encourage commitment to various subjects in an entertaining way. The explorations in Chile, Mexico, India, South Africa, Tanzania, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil and Ghana deal with the struggle for democracy and social justice, fair trade, the situation of street children, racism, the privatisation of drinking water and solar power. They also deal with dignity, identity and much more.

This event includes the performance of an act and a subsequent dialogue with the audience. Moreover, the actors offer to participate in follow-up workshops.

In collaboration with German and Filipino associations, the organisation aims to implement and support projects concerned with environmental education, conservation of species and resources, and development cooperation in order to facilitate sustainable society development.
The organisation's concern is to motivate others to act responsible with regard to the principle of sustainability and North-South equitability, as well as teaching the necessary skills.

In our charitable organisation, experts on educational matters and coaches from the Brandenburg and Berlin area are working on the following topics:

• adult and youth education in politics (development policy, ecology, development of democracy, civic participation, questions concerning human rights, migration, etc.)
• intercultural communication
• mediation and conflict management, mediation training and parental training
• organisation counselling
• anti-discrimination training
• study travels focusing on political and cultural matters and related to natural history in (Eastern) Germany and Eastern Europe

In terms of language and culture, we have gathered experiences and established contacts particularly with (Southeastern) Europe, Turkey, the Arab States, Israel, Latin America and Africa.

Hilfswerk Austria is one of the largest Austrian non-profit-organisations operating internationally in relief and development, and a member of the Austrian Hilfswerk. Our mission is to help victims of civil wars and natural disasters and to carry out development cooperation projects world wide, as well as providing development education.

The workshop “Solidarische Welt e. V.” (founded in 1980) wants to offer possibilities together with the world store in Augsburg for united action beyond borders. This includes educational work, fair trade, the work for a humane asylum and the support of single projects abroad. We work independently, of benefit to the public and regardless of political parties. Our work is performed in an honourary capacity and full-time. We offer regular series of events: Asia days, African weeks, fair week and peace actions. Moreover, single events, an educational material place, a public library and a north south-info archive. We publish north south information for teachers regularly.

The Landeszentrale für Umweltaufklärung Rheinland-Pfalz is an institution founded by the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It reports directly to the Minister of the Environment and is based in the ministry responsible for the environment and forestry in Mainz. The national centre was founded by a cabinet decision on 1 February 1990. Its objective and task are to inform the population about environmental concerns and to motivate them to learn an environmentally sustainable lifestyle. The crux of the matter is the following: We have already been living beyond our means for a long time. We live at the cost of following generations. And, still, we refuse all too easily to believe that terms like ‘climate catastrophe’ and ‘ozone hole’ are real threats. We continue to live as if the supplies of natural resources and energy sources were inexhaustible, as if water, soil and the atmosphere are able to indefinitely absorb toxic substances. However, an acceleration of this development is foreseeable. About 20 percent of the global population use approximately 80 percent of the resources for themselves and are responsible for the corresponding share of the environmental damage. When the remaining 80 percent of the global population follow (why shouldn’t they?), the collapse of the system ‘earth’ will not be long in coming. We have no choice but to introduce sustainable development that brings economic and social interests worldwide in accordance with each other. It does not help much, though, to point a finger at ‘the others’, the industry or the government. It is up to all of us. The first step towards change is a change of (environmental) thinking, which is what the LZU demands. And everyone has to participate.