South Africa Initiative of Aachen / Aachener Südafrika Initiative

We, the South Africa Initiative of Aachen, are a local organization in which presently five to six members from South Africa and of the Euregio Aachen carry out voluntary work on South Africa. We are a member of the Third World Forum and the Welthaus in Aachen.
Our group has existed since the beginning of the 80s when supporting the people of South Africa in their fight against apartheid. After the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, we decided to continue with our work as the problems caused by apartheid do not suddenly disappear, neither the apartheid in the minds nor the immense economic differences between black and white. Since then, the focal objective has been the discerning solidarity with the young democracy in South Africa in close cooperation with NGOs. At the moment, we are concerned with topics like economic policy - in particular the Lomé Convention -, free trade agreements, health policy - especially AIDS -, problems of debt relief and the coming to terms with the past in South Africa and the SADC countries.

We organize events and take part in campaigns, such as the debt relief campaign.
It is our aim – especially with the public here in the North - to spark an interest in and raise aware-ness of the fact that South Africa and the whole region of Southern Africa still need our continued solidarity, that we as Europeans bear a certain responsibility in view of our colonial and recent past and that, not least, the North can learn and profit too from mutual understanding and cooperation.
Furthermore, we have, through personal contacts, built up a long-standing cooperation with Keric, a socially and ecologically orientated grass-roots organization in the township of Khayelitsha, Cape Town. On our initiative, the partnership between Welthaus Aachen and Keric eventually came into being, from which developed an agenda partner-ship between the cities of Aachen and Tygerberg/Khayelitsha. Within this partnership, we closely work with the Welthaus but also with the Agenda 21 Office of Aachen and the Carl Duisberg Society.