Non-Governmental Organization

Indienhilfe was founded in 1980 as a non-profit association located at Herrschingen (Germany). Since 1998 it has been included in the list of recommended charities of the German institute for social affairs (DZI).

The organization's targets are to tackle poverty in India through different projects, to promote fair trade, to establish partnerships between German and Indian communities and schools as well as to promote education and global learning. Indienhilfe offers:

• a one-world media center which provides books, topic lists, slides, movies, teaching materials about India and many other countries, as well as about global learning, world religions, the Agenda 21 and fair trade (consultation and rental service at arranged times);
• consultation and assistance to organize projects in schools and kindergartens;
• search for partner schools in West Bengal and assistance in the relations between German and Bengalese partners. At the moment four Bavarian schools are cooperating with Indian ones, helped by the Indienhilfe team in Germany and an Indian team in Calcutta, who try to solve their problems of mutual understanding so that they can meet each other's expectations and communicate successfully;
• help in the organization of travel to West Bengal. Meetings with Bengalese counterparts are very important for maintaining successful partnerships. Indienhilfe can assist interested schools on the basis of its extensive experience in managing group travels as well as the necessary preparations.

With these initiatives, Indienhilfe aims at making people aware of different local and global realities and making them feel closer to distant communities. A further objective is to promote a greater sense of responsibility for social matters and to promote solidarity. Opening up our minds, meeting people from other countries and establishing relations with them are preconditions for the mutual understanding between different cultures, for eliminating prejudices and reflecting on our own lifestyle.

The KED was founded in 1970 by the Lutheran Church of Bavaria with its main focus on promoting education on development policy in Bavaria. The KED`s educational work focuses on helping people understand the structures and relations that exist in our globalized world. It also tries to contribute to the creation of a just and more humane society according to the idea of One World. The KED`s aim is to make people
aware of the problems and the potential of their partners all over the world in order to enable them to act on the basis of greater awareness.

Providing information and promoting education through:

• A library and database related to development policy on the Internet.
• The lending of books, magazines, brochures, educational and adult education material on topics related to global learning (slides, videos, CD-ROMS, games dealing with development policy, boxes with information material about Brazil, oranges, cocoa, toys, soccer, coffee.)
• The lending of fully prepared exhibitions (People Without Land movement in Brazil; interactive coffee tour; AIDS – let`s get away from pigeonholing.)
• Advice and continuing education for professionals.
• Seminars, lectures, presentations, talks and discussions on issues related to development policy.
• Activities and information desks at church events, local church congresses, and similar events.
• Study assistance program for foreign students (STUBE - Studienbegleitprogramm).
• Work related to Brazil: assistance for the partnership work in Bavaria.

Cooperation with initiatives and networks:

• Koalition gegen Straflosigkeit (alliance against impunity). Justice and truth for the victims of the Argentinian military dictatorship.
• Fair Play / Fair Toys – humane working conditions in the toy industry.
• Clean Clothes Campaign – humane working conditions in the textile industry.
• Development needs debt relief – www.erlassjahr.de
• Fair Handeln Bayern (Fair Trade Bavaria).
• Eine Welt Netzwerk Bayern (One World network Bavaria).
• Landesarbeitskreis Bayern "Schule für Eine Welt" (Bavarian state network: "school for One World").
• Runder Tisch "Globales Lernen" (global learning).

Public relations work:

• Biennial newsletter,
• Biennial supplement in the Bavarian Sunday newspapers
• Regular email newsletter.

Financial assistance for projects and financing of activities related to development policy in Bavaria.

International program for volunteers:
Going abroad for one year. Ecumenical learning in Latin America. Program for volunteers between 18 and 27 years of age.