Ehemalige Teilnehmende zum geplatzten Simbabwe-Austausch

Das Foto oben zeigt teil­neh­men­de Schü­le­rin­nen und Schü­ler des ers­ten Aus­tau­sches zwi­schen der Msi­te­li High School in Sim­bab­we und der IGS Sta­de. Un­ter dem Ein­druck der jüngs­ten Vi­sums-Ver­wei­ge­rung der deut­schen Bot­schaft für Schü­le­rin­nen und Schü­ler aus Sim­bab­we äu­ßer­ten sich vie­le Ehemalige:

Shelton:

Good day ever­yo­ne, I am Shel­ton Ts­hu­ma. I was di­s­ap­poin­ted and de­vas­ta­ted about the de­cla­ra­ti­on and re­fu­sal of the visa for my fri­ends be­cau­se th­rough this pro­gram the­re were go­ing to learn alot about the Ger­man cul­tu­re and it was go­ing to be their big­gest life ex­pe­ri­ence, most of them never board­ed on a pla­ne aero­pla­ne , it was go­ing to be nice ex­pe­ri­ence that they will never for­get .lets hope they will get the chan­ce of go­ing to Ger­man and feel the same fee­ling that we felt when we were at Ger­man. Thank you!

Sharmaine:

On the 23rd of Au­gust 2024, I board­ed an air­plane for the first time, all be­cau­se I cho­se to en­roll in a new school in the midd­le of the year.

Most or­di­na­ry Zim­bab­weans never get the chan­ce to tra­vel by air, let alo­ne to an­o­ther con­ti­nent. When I first ar­ri­ved in Ger­ma­ny, I was ho­me­sick. But as we were tra­ve­ling from the air­port af­ter landing back in Zim­bab­we, I rea­li­zed my life would never be the same. I was sur­roun­ded by not only my fa­mi­ly, but also my fri­ends, their fa­mi­lies, and my two te­a­chers. It was a jo­y­ous oc­ca­si­on, yet sur­pri­sin­gly, I felt sad.

Over the next few months, while stu­dy­ing for my fi­nal exams, my life felt brand new. To this day, a fire con­ti­nues to burn in me. That two-week trip to Ger­ma­ny fue­led a pas­si­on in me to work har­der, be­cau­se I rea­li­zed I did­n’t want that year to be the last time I ever board­ed a pla­ne or tra­ve­led the world.

Du­ring our two-week stay, I found a new fa­mi­ly in Ger­ma­ny who were so ca­ring to me that it still makes me emo­tio­nal to think of them. I also made new fri­ends at IGS Sta­de who will al­ways be a part of my me­mo­ries. I ex­pe­ri­en­ced mo­ments I can only de­scri­be as life-ful­fil­ling. I met so many dif­fe­rent peo­p­le and tra­ve­led to so many places that I still find mys­elf reminiscing.

I lear­ned about a new cul­tu­re and got to share my own. We work­ed hard each day to com­ple­te our ac­ti­vi­ty book for pri­ma­ry school stu­dents, and it was so ful­fil­ling to pre­sent it to the litt­le child­ren who were fa­sci­na­ted to meet new fri­ends from a dif­fe­rent cul­tu­re and walk of life. The ex­pe­ri­ence also brought me clo­ser to my Zim­bab­wean coun­ter­parts, and to this day, we still keep in touch.

I lear­ned so much about a coun­try I had pre­vious­ly only seen on a map and on te­le­vi­si­on. Words can only de­scri­be so much, but to live it and ex­pe­ri­ence it is a com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent feeling.

I hope this pro­gram will in­spi­re so­meone else and ch­an­ge their life like it did mine. I hope so­me­whe­re in Msi­te­li High School, an­o­ther person’s life is im­pac­ted just as mine was. I hope the me­mo­ries never stop over­whel­ming me, and that whoe­ver boards that pla­ne for the first time, just like I did, will che­rish that exact mo­ment as much as I do.

From A per­son who is fo­re­ver grateful!

Derric:

It ho­nest­ly hurts to see the pro­gram­me not con­ti­nue as we had ho­ped this year.

I still re­mem­ber how spe­cial and life-chan­ging my Ger­ma­ny ex­pe­ri­ence was in 2024 when I was do­ing A‑Level.

Kno­wing that an­o­ther group was re­a­dy to ex­pe­ri­ence the same op­por­tu­ni­ty, only for their vi­sas to be de­nied, is re­al­ly heartbreaking.

I feel for them be­cau­se I know first­hand what they are miss­ing out on.

I sin­ce­re­ly hope this set­back will not be the end, and that the pro­gram­me will con­ti­nue to open doors for more students.

Alister:

My time in Ger­ma­ny was won­derful it was a dream come true I ex­pe­ri­en­ced a time which others can only imagine.Meeting new peo­p­le get­ting to ex­pe­ri­ence a dif­fe­rent cul­tu­re from ours I tru­ly en­joy­ed and Im tru­ly sad to hear that some of my fri­ends and class­ma­tes could­n’t get Vi­sas which I was re­al­ly loo­king for­ward to so that they can also get a chan­ce to tra­vel and en­joy like we did and ex­pe­ri­en­ced the fee­lings we had.

Gertrude:

We had a love­ly ex­pe­ri­ence in Ger­ma­ny in 2024.We lear­ned so many new things and en­ga­ged with won­derful people.

It was tru­ly unfor­gettable for all of us.

We were so ex­ci­ted that our fel­low stu­dents were go­ing to at­tend and have the same ex­pe­ri­ence. Like we did. It is so he­art­brea­king that their vi­sas were not approved.We are very di­s­ap­poin­ted. We know how much they were loo­king for­ward to it.

We re­al­ly wish they could also get this chan­ce to learn and connect.

Sharon:

Tra­vel­ling to Ger­ma­ny for the first time was an unfor­gettable jour­ney fil­led with ex­ci­ting new cul­tures, beau­tiful sights, and rich lear­ning mo­ments. I gai­ned so much va­luable know­ledge and per­spec­ti­ve th­roug­hout the trip, ma­king it a tru­ly eye-ope­ning edu­ca­tio­nal ex­pe­ri­ence. Ho­we­ver, my he­art sank when I lear­ned that some mem­bers of our group were unable to get their vi­sas . Over­all, I am deep­ly gra­teful for my own trip, but I sin­ce­re­ly hope my miss­ing team­ma­tes get their chan­ce to ex­pe­ri­ence Ger­ma­ny soon.

Trisha:

As a par­ti­ci­pant that has been part and ex­pe­ri­en­ced this first va­lue of the ex­ch­an­ge pro­gram ‚l feel it should re­main and con­ti­nue for more ye­ars to come be­cau­se this pro­gram is not just about go­ing to Ger­ma­ny but it builds re­la­ti­onships and equips stu­dents with know­ledge about how other peo­p­le live, learn, and survive.Learning more about their cultures.Every stu­dent de­ser­ve to be part of this experience.

Bukekile:

The Ger­man ex­ch­an­ge pro­gram to me (Bu­keki­le) has been more than an ex­ch­an­ge pro­gram, whe­re you get to Ger­ma­ny for two weeks sight see and come back.It has gi­ven me two fa­mi­lies that care about me and i know can al­ways vi­sit when i go to German.It gave me siblings and fri­ends that i am still in cont­act with till day. It gave me an op­por­tu­ni­ty to get on a plane,and now i work hard that it wasnt the last time i vi­sit an­o­ther country.I lear­nt a lot and ex­pe­ri­en­ced things far than my own understanding.I was re­al­ly de­vas­ta­ted hea­ring the news they were de­nied the visa.. the thought they womt get to ex­pe­ri­ence all the things we did is very sad and he­art­brea­king. We pray this is not the end of the program.

Carla:

Ich als ehe­ma­li­ge Teil­neh­me­rin des Aus­tauschs fin­de es sehr scha­de, dass die Visa der sim­bab­wi­schen Schü­le­rIn­nen ab­ge­lehnt wur­den. Das Wie­der­se­hen der Part­ne­rIn­nen, die wäh­rend der ers­ten Rei­se enge Freund­schaf­ten ge­schlos­sen ha­ben, wur­de da­durch ver­hin­dert und das war mei­ner Er­fah­rung nach ein un­glaub­lich wich­ti­ger Aspekt nach ei­nem gan­zen Jahr, in dem man sich nicht ge­se­hen hat. Ich hof­fe sehr, dass der Aus­tausch in den nächs­ten Jah­ren wie­der beid­sei­tig und auf Au­gen­hö­he statt­fin­den kann.

Ida:

Ich war ge­schockt als ich ge­le­sen habe, dass die Simabwer*innen kein Vi­sum be­kom­men ha­ben.
Dass eine fi­nan­zi­el­le Si­tua­ti­on oder ein be­stimm­ter Le­bens­stan­dard für ein Vi­sum für ei­nen zwei­wö­chi­gen Schü­ler­aus­tausch ent­schei­dend ist er­scheint mir so wi­der­sprüch­lich. Dass wir Deut­sche uns kaum Ge­dan­ken ge­macht ha­ben, ob wir vor Ort un­ser Vi­sum be­kom­men zeigt mir wie­der mal sehr, wie pri­vi­le­giert ich in bin. Den Sim­bab­we­rin­nen wird ge­ra­de auf­grund ei­nes un­fai­ren Sys­tems ein Stück ih­rer Frei­heit und Mög­lich­kei­ten ge­nom­men. Das fühlt sich ein­fach nur un­ge­recht an.

Lykka:

Ich habe den Aus­tausch mit auf­ge­baut. Es ist eine Frech­heit, dass un­se­re Part­ner aus Zim­bab­we kein Vi­sum be­kom­men ha­ben. Alle wol­len im­mer in­ter­na­tio­na­ler wer­den und Kon­tak­te Knüp­fen, aber ver­hin­dern trotz­dem ei­nen Schul­aus­tausch. So kann man auch kei­ne Part­ner­schaf­ten ha­ben für die Nachhaltigkeitsziele.