Exhibition: Capturing Concerns – Capturing Perspectives

Unsere Photoausstellung ist eroeffnet!

Am Donnerstag haben wir endlich unsere Photoausstellung in der Makerere Art Gallery eröffnet. Nach tagelangen Vorbereitungen, die vorallem Katrin, Jessi und Sibille auf sich genommen haben und einem ziemlich stressigen Donnerstag ging es dann endlich los. Sogar der deutsche Botschafter war da und hat uns in einer kurzen Rede in unserem Tun bekräftig.

Die Eröffnung war ein großer Erfolg und auch gestern waren stets interessierte Besucher in der Gallerie anzutreffen. Wer also noch Lust hat: Die Ausstellung läuft noch bis einschließlich Dienstag an der Makerere Universitiy Art Gallery, Kampala!! Ansonsten lohnt es sich auch am nächsten Mittwoch NTV Uganda anzuschalten, da wird dann hoffentlich nochmal ausführlich berichtet! :-) Wir freuen uns auch schon sehr auf die Zwillingsausstellung in Berlin!

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Eines der Bilder die vor wenigen Wochen hier in Nsambya entstanden sind.

Aus unserer Eroeffnungsrede:

„Whenever I walked through the streets of Kampala in the past five weeks, people, especially the younger ones used to call me in a certain way: They called me Mzungu, Mzungu! Well, what they see is that I am different. And what many of you are most likely to see here tonight are eight young Germans from Berlin. I definitely agree with you, but still, we are much more than what you see. Give me the chance to explain who we are.

There is one thing that we have in common. All of us came here for the sake of one certain organisation and one certain project. This organization I am talking about is Commit to Partnership Berlin e.V. Commit is actually a quite young organization in many aspects. For one, it was founded as late as 2005, though the core group was already founded in Munich some years earlier. But not only the organization but also its members are from quite young age, since most of us are students.

Commit has manifold characters, many of us come from different parts of Germany, from different backgrounds and we follow interests in various fields.

Still, there are several things that we all share and we actually spend a lot of our spare time with. That even give us reasons for sleepless nights, for never ending discussions, for headaches and even becoming workaholics at a very young age. But also reasons for at least a bit of joy and fun from times to times. I can tell you, these things happen right now and they did happen the past weeks. They don't happen somewhere, but right here among us. I am talking about the inter cultural dialogue between individuals, their exchange of ideas and concepts an the mutual search for answers on today´s urgent questions.

We want to create relationships between people of different continents, countries and cultures, which can then be an addition to those big global ties created by economy and politics. We think that these individual links can help all of us to live in a future that is shaped by peace and mutuality.

Here in Uganda, we have been cooperating with CRY and the Rainbow House of Hope Uganda on an equal basis for the past five weeks of our program. Our three organizations came together to reach one particular aim: fostering peace among Ugandan youth. We seek to create a greater awareness for the causes, the problems , the effects and the solutions of conflicts. Sounds like a plan, doesn´t it? Well, let me tell you, it is much easier to make you listen to me than them!

Don´t think we brought a proper box full wit wisdom and solutions... When we were working in Budondo Sub County close to Jinja last week, our participants asked us for gifts and souvenirs from Germany. Indeed, all the gifts that our mutual team can offer were sown and harvested right here in Kampala and Jinja through long lasting workshop sessions with our colleagues and Ugandan youth.

Within the last five weeks we worked with more than 500 youth mostly from secondary schools. We have been tackling several topics which we considered to be important when thinking of a peaceful society. These topics included for example the several identities that we have and that can unify and divide us, stereotyping as an agent for cracks between people and gender roles as well as the struggle for gender equality as a basic necessity for any peaceful society.

Our program was run by sixteen members of the particular NGOs, but evidently, much more people have worked towards making it a success. Commit Berlin doesn't only include these eight people you can see here tonight but much more members that made this project possible and who supported us throughout the whole time with their work in Berlin. All members have different responsibilities, some of them such as fund raising, public relations, setting up trainings schedules for the teams or acquiring new project partners. A second part of Commit Berlin is focussed on work concerning global learning. Should you be having any more questions, feel free to come and ask us!

This photo exhibition is part of our program and shows results of an inter cultural dialogue that was undertaken by German and Ugandan youth.

They made snapshots from their daily life and everyone of them selected two pictures which were then donated for this exhibition. One of these shows their personal concerns: They took pictures of things that oppress them, make them unhappy, fearful or even angry. The second picture shows the opposite: It expresses what they sense to be liberating, what makes them appy and hopeful and which might be perspectives for today´s and tomorrow´s life.

We invite you to take a look at these pictures. Maybe you will find similarities, maybe you will find differences. But we are sure that you will experience some ties that connect all of us in the end.

Be aware that you are the ones in who's minds the real exchange will take place. You can see both, the pictures from Kampala and the pictures from Berlin.

Thank you.“ (Text von Janina und Andi)

Watching.

Discussing Perceptions.