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Strengthening the KAAD Network in Zimbabwe – Successful Alumni Seminar in Kenya
For over 15 years, KAAD has had a special commitment to on Zimbabwe as it has been one of the focus countries in Africa. In addition to the Zimbabwean scholars studying in Germany, there were also a considerable number of so-called “In-Country” scholars, who did Master studies at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare.
The network of alumni and scholars in Zimbabwe is called KASSA – “KAAD Association of Scholars from Southern Africa”. There have been intensive efforts in recent months to innervate the network and to give new vitality to it. Members Goddess Bvukutwa and Eugene Bagaragaza have made this effort and were advised by the chairman of the KAAD-partner committee, Dr. David Kaulem.
On the occasion of his second visit to Zimbabwe, the head of KAAD’s Africa Department, Dr. Marko Kuhn, was able to encourage and supplement the efforts of KASSA. He also participated in the KASSA-seminar, which was held on 06 November 2010 in Harare.
As Zimbabwe has been in a politically and economically very precarious situation for the past 10 years, some of the alumni left the country and are now working in the surrounding countries South Africa, Zambia, Namibia and Malawi. Nevertheless, KAAD has contact with many of the 45 alumni and the exodus to neighboring countries has proved to be less serious than expected.
For the seminar in Harare, 15 people gathered at the Jesuits’ Arrupe College. The theme of the seminar was: "Constitution Making in Zimbabwe and the Role of the Church ".
The network of KAAD in the focus countries not only consists of the alumni groups but also includes the partner committees. In Zimbabwe a new partner committee was formed in 2009 under the leadership of Dr. David Kaulem, which is based at the College of the Jesuits in Harare. Despite the difficult situation of the education sector in the country, it has proved to be possible to find suitable candidates for KAAD scholarship and to integrate the scholars in the KAAD network. Besides the ‘traditional’ fields of agriculture and engineering, there is a development towards a focus on issues of "Justice and Peace" (law students, political scientists, sociologists). The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe is very active in promoting civil rights and political participation, especially by means of the Catholic Commission of Justice and Peace – despite or because of the restrictive political climate in the country.
Numerous other talks and meetings were part of the visit to Zimbabwe: Consulting German institutions in Harare (German Embassy, Goethe-Zentrum, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Misereor office); discussions with the leadership of the African Forum for Catholic Social Teaching; visit the Catholic Chaplaincy at the University of Zimbabwe; talks with the Archbishop of Harare, Robert Christopher Ndlovu and Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Mumbure Mutume in Mutare; visit the University of Zimbabwe, the Arrupe College, the Women's University in Africa, the Catholic University in Zimbabwe and Africa University (Mutare); visits to secondary schools in church and government responsibility.
On the return trip to Germany, the department head stopped over in Nairobi where the East African alumni network KASEA held its annual seminar. Here the group is bigger than in Zimbabwe, because of the larger number of alumni. 35 people regularly take part in the annual seminar
KAAD-Alumni today
Dominic Ko Ko Lwin (Myanmar)
When Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in April 2008 and left 84.000 people dead and hundreds of thousands without shelter, it was Dominic Ko Ko Lwin, KAAD-Alumnus, who played an important role in the rebuilding process. According to Father Henry Eikhlein, director of Caritas Pathein, Lwin was as a Caritas project coordinator „of greatest importance for the success of the rehabilitation project”.