Celebrating 15 years of partnership with Germany

The Lewis Balink Foundation recently hosted the “New colours for the rainbow” conference on 11 and 12 November 2016.
The aim was to celebrate 15 years of partnership with Germany`s South Africa Forum North Rhine Westphalia and other organisa-tions from South Africa like Destea, Fair Trade Tourism South Africa and The Future of Eco Tourism, and from Germany – the One World Net North Rhine Westphalia and Suedafrika Hilfe.V. and Clownschools for Life with partners from Mpumalanga.
The delegation paid a visit to some of the projects around the Parys/Tumahole area like TSHAD, Tokoloho Foundation, Lehlohonolo Day Care Centre and Lembede Primary School. Guests from South Africa and Germany also witnessed the Sevengardens programme as well as the vegetable gardens at AM Lembede, Sindekile and Selogile primary schools. They also had the opportunity to interact with the young learners.

The Sevengardens network started with a small garden and workshop in the Free State in 2011 to introduce methods of producing colours from plants,  and then using them for paintings, dyeing of clothes or colouring your walls. The international initiative aims to combine informal learning for a global world with personal responsibility and an indivi- dual’s potential for development.
The group experienced some impressing development since the first conference in Tumahole in November 2014, but there are still many things to be done. Dr Moeletsi and Ephraime Mosibi, the South African coordinator of the programme, pledged their commitment to an official partnership between Sevengardens and the Department of Education. Besides this, a group of young environmental activists, together with Caroline Ntaopane from WomIn – African Women United Against Destructive Resource Extraction, and some members of the Vaal River Environmental Justice Alliance, agreed upon a new network which they want to start, based on common environmental goals.
The Friday started with a warm welcome by Dr Almud Pollmeier from Suedafrika Hilfe e.V. and the Lewis Balink Foundation.
Gabriela Schmitt, speaking on behalf of the South Africa Forum NRW, introduced the history of the former Mpumalanga Forum NRW. This Forum was founded in 2001 and supported lively international cooperation  over a distance of more than 10 000 kilometres. Over time, more than 100 organisations and individual persons came together under this roof  –  originally based on an official memorandum of understanding between the provincial Government of Mpumalanga and the Government of North Rhine Westphalia.
Nowadays, the civil society has a number of ties across the borders of Mpumalanga – directly to the Free State.
After several discussions, more than 80 participants at the conference witnessed the premiere of the cooperation between Clownschools for life Z from Nelspruit in Mpumalanga up to Düsseldorf in Germany with a group of people from TSHAD.
The social and encouragement project, founded in 2006, will now start a pantomime team in Tumahole.
The premier of the Free State Province, Mr Ace Magashule,  accompanied by the president of Madeira, also  attended part of the conference.