Anläßlich der Indienreise dreier Reisegruppen aus Nienburg, Hildesheim und Buschhoven im Oktober 2009 wurde in Indien eine Festschrift herausgegeben. Wir wurden gebeten, einen Text über die Entstehung von Arivu und das Zustandekommen des Schüleraustausches zu schreiben.
Nachfolgend der (englische) Text, der dann veröffentlicht wurde:

About “Arivu” and the “ENSA” Students’ Group

In 2006, a group of teachers, students and parents from Albert Schweitzer School in Nienburg visited India. Back home, some of them founded “Arivu – Zukunft durch Bildung” (Arivu – Future through Education). They started to raise funds and to promote their cause. At the Albert-Schweitzer-School the so called “India Project” was already well known and Arivu is always in close contact with the school. So the aim was to make the group known to a wider public. Information leaflets were printed, the website www.arivu.de was introduced and Arivu took part in some yearly events in the city of Nienburg. They sold things at the flea market which is part of Nienburg’s yearly “Altstadtfest” (festival in the old town), made and sold Christmas decoration and advent wreaths at the farmer’s market and took part in the Christmas market of non-profit and self-help groups. All these activities are now well established in Arivu’s calendar.

Arivu’s goal is on one hand to support students at St. John’s Home on Neerpair campus, on the other hand to raise public awareness for developmental issues like global dependencies, cultural differences and the interaction between countries of the North and the South. The statutes of “Arivu” list as one goal the encouragement of direct contacts between German and Indian students. Therefore it was just a logical step to find some interested students and plan a trip to India.

A project was proposed to ENSA (Entwicklungspolitischer Schueleraustausch = School Exchange Projects with Partners in Developing Countries) which is commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Arivu was chosen among 22 other groups and received financial and pedagogic support. The group met with two trainers for a preparation seminar and continued to prepare for the project during regular meetings. After the trip a follow-up seminar will take place in order to reflect the experience and to plan future activities.

The project of the ENSA group is called “From school yard to workplace: Finding one’s job in India and Germany”. First of all the group wishes to focus on the personal encounter in order to get to know their partners. They like to find out about similarities and differences, about personal tastes and about ideas and plans for the future. Excursions to Chennai and to other places of interest will take place and there will be much space for games and time to relax. The idea is to focus on “textile” so there will be a visit to the Fashion Institute located on Neerpair campus. The students will work together and produce either a T-Shirt or a bag or just a piece of cloth. Various techniques like dyeing (Batik) and embroidery will be tried out and hopefully a nice self-made piece will be the produced.