Learning from and with each other in Paternoster

Paternoster is a small fishing and tourism town on the west coast of South Africa. It takes about two hours by car from Cape Town airport before you see the waves of the South Atlantic and the small white fishermen's cottages. There is only one tarred road leading to Paternoster, there is no public transport. About 2,500 people live in this small town, most of them "so-called coloured people". Most of them live in very small spaces and in modest conditions in the districts "Hopland" and "Kliprug". Their ancestors lived from fishing and even today there are still fishing boats that set off early in the morning, rattling, to return home in the evening with crayfish and snoek. Not every trip is legal, but for many men it is the only source of income and an attempt to ensure the survival of the family. At the same time, Paternoster has become a popular destination for tourists and Capetonians thanks to its picturesque location by the sea and its pretty architecture, and it offers an attractive range of restaurants and accommodation, some of which are highly priced. And so Paternoster represents a small reflection of South African society, where extreme poverty and pleasant prosperity are sometimes only a stone's throw apart.
 

We started our first engagement in Africa in 2016 in cooperation with St. Augustine Primary School in Paternoster. The underlying vision was to teach the children living here - from extremely precarious social backgrounds - practical competencies (life skills) so that they can learn to master their lives and create long-term prospects for themselves AND their village community. The idea was to set up an afternoon programme for the approximately 200 pupils and to have this developed and supervised by a team of German and South African volunteers. In return, we hope to give many young people the opportunity to experience a real understanding of the different realities of life in our world and, of course, to grow both humanly and professionally through this task. We are proud and grateful that we have succeeded in establishing such an exchange programme together with our many partners on site and in Germany, so that every quarter a new committed and motivated team of students (teachers, special education, social sciences, etc.) can start their voluntary service in Paternoster.

​

The purpose of our Stuttgart foundation, and thus the matter close to its heart, was and is the promotion of reading. And so

it was obvious that our experiences in Germany would benefit the children and young people in Paternoster: we founded the Paternoster Reading Club. We were able to win over Dr. Joan Kruger, a local writer in Paternoster who is already involved in the school, to run the club. She not only captivates the children of our children's centre but also mobilises and motivates many of her fellow citizens to join the reading club on Thursday afternoons.

​

In the course of time, the local fishing company provided us with our own building, in which we were able to give our idea of a "Life-Skill-Centre" its own space within the framework of afternoon care, and HOOPSIG (= Hopeful Outlook) was born.  Another great success was to inspire even more local people for our work and to motivate them to volunteer. And so today, for example, our great team of grandmothers provides the daily hot lunch in Hoopsig - for many children, by the way, the only hot meal of the day. As time went by, it also became clear that some of the children's problems could be avoided if we started much earlier with targeted offers, and so our volunteers' areas of work have expanded - from afternoon care, to support in the local kindergarten with learning gross motor skills (Kinderkinetics) and English teaching units, to outreach work with children and young people in the "Hopland" district.

We are aware that child and youth work and the social change it envisages takes time to achieve lasting success. Therefore, in 2016, our foundation committed itself to the community of Paternoster for 10 years of commitment in Paternoster in order to continue to work with passion and great commitment on the common mission: "To equip the youth of Paternoster for the future and to maintain their local heritage". We are supported by the non-profit organization founded by the foundation in Paternoster "Paternoster Project NPC".

​​