“Many things work as we do here,” praised Father Firmin Koffi. “With us” means: in the largest slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The 32-year-old works there alongside other religious as a pastor and social worker at the same time. And “here” meant Caritas Dresden’s youth assistance center, which he visited on Wednesday for the national opening of “World Mission Month”. The holiday commencement service will take place on Sunday in Dresden.
Kenya is at the center of this year’s “World Missionary Month” (October). Under the biblical motto “I want to give you a future and a hope”, the Catholic organization missio Munich presents project partners who are committed to helping people and their concerns in the East African country. This is considered a beacon of hope and is one of the most stable countries in the region. The state is a refuge for thousands of immigrants from much more difficult regions of origin such as Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.
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With the Father’s visit to a Caritas facility, the humanitarian organization missio Aachen wanted to promote a change of perspective. A one-way street from the rich north to the poor south should become a mutual give and take; So said in a nutshell the president of the missio Aachen, Dirk Bingener. “We can learn a lot from each other,” he stressed.
the word “mission” has fallen into disrepute
For many, however, the word “mission” no longer sounds right. For centuries it has been closely associated with colonialism and the oppression of non-Christian cultures. At the same time, the annual World Mission Day in October represents the largest Catholic solidarity campaign in the world, in which over 100 countries are collecting donations.
So the mission is completely different from before and on an equal footing: in Dresden, the motto of the meeting was “Social work from Kenya meets social work in Dresden”. And indeed, experts from both countries approach many things in a similar way, as the meeting demonstrated. When Father Firmin reported how he encouraged the often uprooted and impoverished people in slums of about one million to help each other and network, Christian Georgi nodded. “We too first ask ourselves what people expect from us and how we can help them,” confirmed the head of the youth assistance center.
Social commitment of people required
Georgi saw this as confirmed by his host from Kenya. “We have well-developed government support,” she admitted at the same time; “But when it comes to helping people from one person to another, it is often lacking. A country like Kenya is a model for us.” An assessment shared by the vicar general of the diocese of Dresden-Meissen, Andreas Kutschke. Social commitment is not only a fundamental task of the Caritas Association, but also of the ecclesial communities, he warned him.
Jessica Seifert reported on how effective help can be. When she was 17, the Dresden Youth Assistance Center hosted her in her own accommodation for young single mothers. “I became self-employed there and learned to take control of my life.” At the age of 25, she is now training to become an educator in the Caritas facility, as she proudly noted.
At the beginning of “World Mission Month” Bingener also spoke of a “drop of bitterness”. Despite federal government interventions, missio failed to convince a number of young Kenyans to come to Germany as additional guests to share their experiences with Christian initiatives. The head of the missio Aachen accused the German foreign ministry of discriminating against young Africans.
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