Four Friends and a Circus Tent…
The “Zeltfestival Heidelberg” (tent festival) is an event that takes place for several days at the “Pädagogische Hochschule” in Heidelberg, the college of education. A circus tent sets the scene for concerts, drama groups and raging battles between improvisational artists and poets. Outside the tent you can buy cold drinks and home-made flatbread and relax in shaded chill-out spots among cushions, crates and benches – open-air lounges equipped with couches, TVs and paper lampions that rock in the breeze. A blend of circus arena and bohemian ease.
Just like the „Friends of the Mmabana Foundation“, the Zeltfestival is mainly organised by students. They eagerly take part, display great flexibility and open-mindedness.
Yesterday early evening we set off from Mannheim to Heidelberg. We arrived at the Neuenheimer Feld just before seven o’clock and after Rebecca, our contact person and one of the student organisers, showed us around, we set up our booth right next to the rear entrance of the circus tent. Thus we positioned ourselves right in the chill-out area where the visitors waited before the next show, meanwhile enjoying a cold beer at the bar or filling their growling stomachs with crispy grilled sausages and olive-and-feta-dampers.
We hung a hand-painted poster on a hoarding, placed a desk and bench in front of it and we decorated them with photos from Choma. Naturally, the people were shy at first so we decided to mingle a bit. We grabbed a handful of Mmabana-pens and flyers and sat down on the couches, crates and cushions to chat to our drama friends and tell them about the project. With great success! Nearly everyone bought a pen for 1 €, the flyers were received with great interest and the volunteer program aroused much curiosity. Irrespectively of whether for themselves or for their younger siblings, people repetitively asked about the possibility of volunteering in Choma. Questions were asked, thoughts exchanged, curiosity shown, admiration displayed and cooperation proposed: Carolin, member of the student council at the Heidelberg University, offered to delegate the team to future events of a larger scale. Thomas, who is himself in charge of a project in aid of dealing with the past, gave us a 30 € donation because of our evident commitment. Thank you so much for your support!
In less than two hours we managed to tell many people about our project, got rid of plenty of pens and gained a number of newsletter subscriptions. In addition, we won two potential volunteers for the project and collected over 50 € worth of donations. Results we can be proud of! That’s why I want to say many thanks not only to all friends who participated that day (Gregor, Kerstin and Natalie) but also to Rebecca from the “Zeltfestival” for her big help and to all supporters for their interest in the project!
Thank you very much from Heidelberg, Pauline!
