Network Meetings
Ejo-Connect organizes a network meeting for its members twice a year. Also new interested people, young people with a basic interest in the partnership between Rhineland-Palatinate and Rwanda, are always welcome! The common weekends should provide the space for exchange and planning and are essential for our work. The participants bring each other up to date and plan in small groups the projects that are coming up in the next months. In addition to planning projects, learning together is very important to us. For a few years now, we have planned time at the network meetings to learn new things about development policy issues. For this purpose, we invite speakers who tell us something about Rwandan history, the SDGs or workshop planning, among other things.

Netzwerktreffen 2021

Endlich war es so weit. Zwischen zwei Corona-Wellen konnten wir uns im November endlich wieder zu einem Netzwerktreffen in Mainz treffen. Dort hatten wir die Gelegenheit, neue Mitglieder willkommen zu heißen und unsere Arbeit zu planen. So entstanden neue Blogbeiträge, die in den nächsten Wochen und Monaten auf unserer Webseite veröffentlicht werden, also bleibt gespannt! Außerdem hatten wir ein virtuelles Treffen mit der ruandischen ejo-connect Gruppe und haben für sie auch ein kleines Video erstellt, um unsere Mitglieder vorzustellen. Auch der Spaß kam beim Tanzen zur Musik „Ye Ayee“ von Yvan Buravan nicht zu kurz. Außerdem gibt es eine wichtige Neuerung: Wir haben nun endlich einen eigenen Instagram-Kanal (@ejoconnect_germany)!

Network Meetings 2020 - for the first time online!
We, too, had to adapt to the constraints of the Corona pandemic. That's why we held our 2020 network meetings online. Even if personal contact suffers, we were still able to exchange ideas this way and, inspired by this, we were also able to plan the online lecture series on postcolonialism. In April, we also reached a lot of new interested people this way and in general, a location-independent meeting also offers advantages - especially if you are not in the same city or even in the same country. With this newly discovered way of organizing network meetings, we also want to organize cross-national meetings between the Rwandan and the German Ejo-Connect group in the future.

2. Network Meeting 2019 - Mainz: An insight in Rwandan history
Ejo-Connect met for the 2nd network meeting 2019 at the end of October in Mainz. At this network meeting we were able to listen to a lecture on Rwandan history by Innocent Sahinkuye. Among other things, it was about the history of Rwanda before colonization, the colonial period under the Germans and Belgians, as well as the time after the independence of Rwanda.

 1. Network Meeting 2019 - in Kaiserslautern: Further education is key
On the weekend of 27.04. to 28.04. 2019, the first Ejo-Connect network in 2019 meeting took place at the Catholic University Community Kaiserslautern. The meeting focused on the exchange of information on the status of Ejo-Connect, the introduction of new members, the exchange of experiences and project planning. Also at this meeting we wanted to educate ourselves together and continued the topic "How do I design a workshop?" in order to prepare projects at schools etc.. Of course, the personal exchange and a nice time together should not be missing.

How do I design a workshop?
On Saturday, 09, March 2019, Karin Sahinkuye (Youth coordinator for the project office "Promotion of participation of young people in the partnership work Rhineland-Palatinate - Rwanda") gave us a seminar on the topic "How do I design a workshop?". Karin gave us many tips on how to organize and conduct workshops. Her professional experience in designing seminars was very helpful and we could take a lot with us! We especially liked that we could try out many of the techniques right away, so the training was very interactive. In total, we were 9 participants, three of whom were new prospects. In total we were 9 participants, of which three were new members.
Insgesamt waren wir 9 Teilnehmer*innen, drei davon waren neue Interessent*innen.

2. Network Meeting 2018: (Conflict-) Resources in Rwanda and Eastern Africa
At this network meeting, the focus was on setting our agenda for the next six months on the one hand and on the topic "raw materials in Rwanda" on the other hand. Nico Beckert (expert promoter for raw materials and raw material policy) gave us an exciting lecture on the topic "(Conflict) Raw Materials in Rwanda and East Africa". Among other things, we dealt together with the following questions: Which raw materials are actually mined in Rwanda and East Africa? How are they used in our country? Who profits from the extraction of raw materials and what human rights violations occur in mining? When do raw materials become conflict raw materials? And what does all this have to do with us? We realized how relevant the topic is and had lively discussions afterwards. Of course, such a weekend should also be fun, which is why we played table football during the breaks.

1. Network Meeting 2018 - in Mainz: School exchange on eye-level
Unser Ejo-Connect Jahr hat gut angefangen, so hatten wir ein erlebnisreiches Wochenende vom 20.04.2018 bis 21.04.2018 in Mainz zusammen. Besonders gut gefallen uns der Ausflug nach Schloss Freudenberg, um neue Energie zu tanken und das restliche Jahr 2018 zu planen. Freitags hatten wir unseren erfolgreichen Workshop „Reflektierter Schulaustausch auf Augenhöhe“ mit einigen Ruanda-AGs aus der Umgebung, welche zusammen mit uns ihre Vorurteile und ihr Handeln reflektieren durften. Wir haben uns sehr gefreut über das positive Feedback und den Besuch der Referentinnen Barbara Scharfbillig (Bildungsreferentin im Kolpingwerk Trier) und Karin Sahinkuye (Bildungsreferentin im Haus Wasserburg). 

2. Network Meeting 2017 - in Kaiserslautern: Stereotypes and racism in development cooperation
An important concern for us is the joint further education during our network meetings! On 18.11.2017 Amanda Steinborn from ebasa e.V. gave us a lecture on "Stereotypes and racism in development cooperation". The interactive lecture, which among other things addressed the history and future of development cooperation, was really exciting and gave us many new impulses. In addition to the lecture and the planning of new projects, our meetings should not be without fun and time for personal exchange. So we really enjoyed the relaxed end and singing in the evening.

1. Network Meeting 2017 - in Frankfurt: A meeting with the ministry of the interior and sport
At our network meeting in Frankfurt on 22-23 April 2017, we received a visit from the Ministry from Salvatore Mele, who was then a new member of staff in the Rwanda department and responsible for school partnerships. We exchanged our wishes with each other and new ideas and suggestions emerged. Salvatore also gave us a short guided tour of Frankfurt.

2. Network Meeting 2016 - in Kaiserslautern: Baking cookies!
At our network meeting from 12.11. to 13.11.2016 in Kaiserslautern, we collected and worked out new project ideas. In addition to drumming together, we got in the mood for the Christmas season by baking cookies.