Erasmus: Hajar in Augsburg

Posts über unser Erasmus-Projekt erscheinen in Englischer Sprache – Übersetzung? | Posts about our Erasmus project appear in English – Translation?

Hello, My name is Hajar El Bouazaoui and I am a Business Management Student. I came from Spain (from IES Aljada – one of the Werkstatt’s Erasmus partners) on the 5th of March 2024 for a six week Erasmus internship at the Werkstatt Solidarische Welt in Augsburg, Germany. And here I´ll share my experience with you.

First Day in Augsburg

The 5th of March was my first day in Augsburg. I went to see the company where I am going to work. By the way it is called Werkstatt Solidarische Welt. I liked the target of the company (an association promoting Fairtrade) and I was looking forward to work for it.

After that I went to see the “Fuggerei“. It is a place in Bavaria in Augsburg and it’s the oldest existing social housing complex in the world. A city within a city with 67 buildings and 142 residences as well as a church. Jakob Fugger founded the Fuggerei in 1521.

Meeting some partners

The next day I was visiting some of the partners of Werkstatt Solidarische Welt and they are :

Cafe MAK: they bring coffee from Africa and especially from Tanzania. MAK Africa stands for direct and fair trade. They maintain direct contact with the coffee farmers in the Meru region of Tanzania where founder Allan was born. It is important to Allan and his wife Katharina that a fair price is paid for every kilo and that your cup of coffee is genuine.

 

 

Grandhotel Cosmopolis: is not a usual hotel. Based on the idea of the social sculpture it accommodates refugees, artists, musicians, and travelers under one and the same roof. Various projects and activities at the Grandhotel offer space to try things out, think critically and make changes. The main aim is to bring about a change in the way people with a history of flight and in asylum policy are treated, as state and municipal support services are not considered sufficient.

BtE – Bildung trifft Entwicklung: is a consortium of ten development education organizations, who network and mentor people returning from volunteering, train global learning multipliers and work for a more sustainable and fair world. Since October 2017, the Regional Education Centre Bavaria, based in Augsburg, has been coordinating educational events on global learning as part of the BtE programme.

Tür an Tür: offers a lot of services and information for refugees. They also initiate, organise and design projects for the labour market integration of migrants and refugees. And there is also a coffeshop and a place where people can learn the German language. Here I started learning German as well.

Sightseeing in Munich

Next I am going to a new city. The weather was fine and it took almost one hour to go to Munich. I went there with my host family. I was so happy that day because visiting it was one of my objectives. I went to the famous Munich museum (Deutsches Museum) and the Theatine Church. Also I met a lot of nice people there from my country.

Learning about Fairtrade

I went to see and know the store “Weltladen” (fair trade shop) and knowing the concept of Fairtrade. Fairtrade connects consumers, companies and producer organizations and changes trade through better prices for smallholder families and decent working conditions for workers on plantations in countries of the Global South. Since they were founded in the early 1970s, they have been driven by the vision of a fair and sustainable world. In Germany there are around 900 “Weltläden” and several thousand fair trade groups; across Europe there are around 2,500 fair trade shops.  I don’t know of any fairtrade shops in Murcia … yet.

Besides, there were some students visiting the store to learn more abot fairtrade also and so I got to know them, and it was so nice to explain some stuff and talking to them.

My main task was to maintain the social media channels of the Werkstatt and Weltladen. To do this, I took photos and videos of individual fairtrade products or local activities and events such as World Water Day. I was also involved in preparing a campaign to recruit new volunteers for the “Weltladen” in Augsburg that was founded in 1980.

 

 

Munich again

I went to Munich again to see the Münchner Dom – also called “Church of our Lady” and also the Marienplatz, the heart of Munich.
The weather was good. It was raining and I like the rain.
In the Münchner Dom I went to the top of the building and I saw the city from above. It was looking more than wonderful.

With a wagon to the castle

I was in another city, in Füssen. I went there with my best friend. We took the train and it took us two hours. The train was so full of people who were going to the same place where we were going to, we met all the nationalities there. We went to see Neuschwanstein castle. It was looking wonderful and the nature there is literally very beautiful. In Füssen we took the wagon to take us to the right place. It was my first time taking a wagon and it was so nice. We also visited the “Weltladen” in Füssen.

World Water Day

My company has organized an event on the 22th of March 2024 for World Water Day (Weltwassertag). This is an annual United Nations Observance focusing on the importance of freshwater. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis. So the target of my company was to educate people of the importance of water and that its presence is what keeps us alive and we must not waste it. We provided information and samples at the Augsburg City Market and talked to buyers about how much virtual water hides inside our food. Did you know that there is more water in chocolate than in beef? You can check your own water footprint here:

What is Virtual Water?

 

Lake view

On the 31st of March (Easter Day) I went to visit the third biggest lake in Bavaria in Dießen am Ammersee. It was looking very beautiful, the water was very clear and the flowers surrounded the whole place. All the plants were green, it was a very relaxing and soothing place. There are homes of the fishermen, and also in that lake there are many boats that take people to other places of the Ammersee. So by those boats people can travel from Easter Sunday to “Kirchweih”. The oldest passenger ship still in regular service today is the 1908 launched paddle motor ship “Diessen”.

Farewell…

I can say that I liked so much this city of Augsburg. It is literally wonderful and people here are so nice and helpful. Also I got so much information about fairtrade how does it work and its target and I am sure that I will buy more fairtrade products in the future.

Advice : Do not be shy just because you do not speak German (the majority of people here speak English), if you need help just ask for it.

 

All posts about the Erasmus project can be found here

 

 

 

 

 

 

erstellt am: 10.04.2024 von Julia Kabatas

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