About us

When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.

Desmond Mpilo Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 1984)

The Africa working group was established at the same time as Umverteilen! and is made up of a handful of volunteer activists. We usually meet once a month to discuss project applications and to decide on the allocation of funds.

In the early years of our work, support for the struggle against apartheid in South Africa was our top priority. Following the end of apartheid, that regional focus was abandoned, and we now also fund projects in other African countries.

We are dedicated to promoting social, economic, cultural and political human rights. We support projects in Africa that aim to promote political awareness, increase self-determination and encourage participation in political decision making. This leads us to focus on funding grassroots, women′s and self-help groups that work towards peace, social and political change and improved living conditions in their countries.

We support groups that have been established to demand the rights and services that have been denied their members. We consider the exchange of information among these groups, and networking at the regional, national and international levels to be important components of this work.

Because gender equality and sexual self-determination are matters of great importance to us, we support organizations and initiatives actively opposing discrimination and violence in any form and working towards the social acceptance and legal equality of LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) people.