The contact between the Vocational Schools 1 of the Gifhorn district in Lower Saxony and the Saint Germain School Complex in Agona Swedru in Ghana was initiated by Tim Pauls, who has been active as a volunteer project manager for the St. Germain School Complex for many years in addition to his function as a teacher. Lessons preceding the initiation trip included the exchange of profiles and e-mail or WhatsApp addresses between German and Ghanaian students. All participants showed a strong interest in extending the exchange to a real encounter. The cooperation between the schools is supported on the German side by the NGO “Fair in Braunschweig e.V.” and on the Ghanaian side by the NGO “Young and Lonely Foundation”, which is associated with Saint Germain School.
The vocational schools 1 of the district of Gifhorn (in cooperation with the NGO “Fair in Braunschweig e.V.”) defined the target group for the initiation trips as pupils and political science teachers of all professional disciplines who want to experience and shape global learning in intercultural dialogue through exchange with Ghanaian partners.
The motivation for carrying out an initiation trip was to build a long-term partnership with the aim of planning and implementing joint projects. There was also a desire to strengthen and expand one-world and sustainability topics in political and subject-related lessons. With the realization of the joint school project, a broad network of extracurricular partners was established, which enabled interested students to spend practical time in Ghana during their training. Interested parties from various disciplines were given the opportunity to strengthen the aspects of “school partnerships”, “school without racism” and “sustainability” in the classroom and to shape global learning themselves. This programme was successfully executed. We are calling and inviting your institutions for such a vibrant exchange programs with ST. Germain School Complex, a developmental project school by YLF.