What makes us special

1. Difficult target regions

Experiencing difficulties in recovering from a war or being unable to provide free education due to heavy political repression, our target regions are often forgotten by the general public.

We encourage while others just provide emergency aid

Regions struck by ravaging acts of war often suffer from enduring instability and political distortions. Large development aid organisations focus on immediate aid in such places.
Our belief is however that those areas are in particular need for young, qualified people who can help rebuild their region or change repressive systems from within. We support these very people in these very places.

Our advantage: Flexibility

If the situation on-site is too dangerous, we invite young people from that region to study in Germany. Large exchange or scholarship organisations are inflexible, leaving those places out, because they cannot establish their usual structures there. We are more flexible and specialized on working in unstable regions. We collaborate with carefully chosen local groups and employees of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and we adjust pragmatically to what the local situation requires. This allows us to provide aid effectively.

2. A specific target group

Our immediate target group does not focus on children, the infirm or the hungry, but rather on motivated young people of integrity who want to take the problems of their home country into their own hands. We support university students because we believe that well educated young people can and should play a leading role in reconstruction.
As role models of social commitment and in cooperation with others in the implementation of their personal projects, our scholarship students are given the tools to contribute significantly to spread initiatives of self-help.

We support young people willing to carry out long-term reconstruction

Societies affected heavily by war and suffering from political suppression mostly lack qualified people taking leading roles in reconstruction. Development organisations often complain about the lack of a qualified local workforce; in such a void, the old corrupt former ruling class and the often brutal elites are able to take hold of leadership roles.
Our approach starts here! We support those with their own ideas who propose personal projects to improve the environment and infrastructure for themselves as well as for their fellow citizens who are unable to help themselves due to a lack of resources and qualifications.

Therefore: clear criteria

Grantees have to be in need since we intend to support those who would otherwise not have a chance to receive a good education. Our grantees should be talentedbecause our resources are limited and have to be allocated to those who can really make a difference. The most essential point, however, is that grantees aremotivated to contribute with their already existing ideas to development efforts and convey these credibly.
Furthermore, we particularly support women in their studies and respond to their specific situation.

Therefore: more than just financial support

By giving grants to our fellows, we mean to motivate them and show them that their dedication is appreciated and supported. Additionally, we intend to encourage them to actively counter corruption and future conflicts.

Fruitful Exchange
Hence, we interact directly with our fellows. Establishing direct contact between German and Congolese students, we facilitate fruitful and constructive exchange making clear that there are people who are willing to help.

Support of educational facilities
Therefore, we support educational institutions in our target regions, enabling them to provide better and more inspiring education.

Special support of individuals
Therefore, we cooperate with specialised organisations to offer additional education to our fellows. Qualifications in corruption fighting and conflict management will make our fellows more aware of these problems.

Personal Projects of our fellows
During and after their studies, our fellows promote projects to raise awareness of the situation in their home countries and to improve circumstances. Therefore, our fellows are not just students but will act as multipliers of their education and their knowledge. We provide them with support concerning the implementation of their projects. This support includes arranging contacts, giving advice, and may include providing financial and material support.

3. Direct relation

Students help students

Central to our identity is our own student background. Even though being a student is no requirement for membership and we welcome all committed people of all areas to join, universities are still our basis.
For that reason, we are able to stay at eye-level with our fellows. During our studies we face similar problems and challenges that they do.

Dynamic potential

Due to our connection to universities, we can access a continuously growing pool of flexible, young and energetic students. Since motivation and dissemination of knowledge are key parts of our philosophy, recruiting and instructing new members is essential to us. Skills and knowledge from our own studies can in different ways be useful in our work. What we are missing in experience, we acquire by consulting experienced experts and collaborating with well-established organisations.

Positive effects on ourselves

We explicitly welcome the positive effect on ourselves: As students in peaceful countries we are motivated to occupy ourselves intensively with the target regions. We get to know first-hand the situation of fellow students with completely different backgrounds. And working in a growing dynamic organisation we gain a variety of skills that may become helpful for us in our future.