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Friends of Waldorf Education

Friends of Waldorf Education

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Why choose Friends of Waldorf Education?

Are you interested in helping people with special needs? Would you like to spend 12 months living and working in a foreign country, experiencing a new culture and getting to know the mindset, work ethic and social structure of Germany?

For many years the international organization Friends of Waldorf Education is active in the field auf Community Services and Volunteering. Besides sending German volunteers abroad, we also enable motivated people around the world to do a federal volunteer service in Germanys in anthroposophical institutions (schools, kindergartens, social therapeutic and curative educational institutions, biodynamic agriculture and many more) in Germany.

Website
www.freunde-waldorf.de
Founded
1971

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Staff Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with program leaders.

Fritz Ritzmann

Program
Incoming Program - Federal volunteer service in Germany
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Tell us a little about Friends of Waldorf Education and your role at the company.

Friends of Waldorf Education is an anthroposophical organization that arranges voluntary services, supports and provides a network for Waldorf facilities worldwide, and works with traumatized children and adolescents in war zones and disaster areas. It is my job to look after international volunteers that come to Germany for a year and to organize seminars for them.

At the moment I am supervising a a group of 25 volunteers and a group of volunteers that extended their stay in Germany; at an average I look after 75 volunteers per year. I give five seminars per group. Together with two pedagogically trained colleagues I work in a team of 7on the Incoming program.

How did you get involved in the volunteer industry?

There are two reasons: First, my family and I lived in central Africa for six years. Back then, I worked on the developmental service, thus my interest in international work was already kindled. The second reason is the fact that, during the time I spent in Africa, the “weltwärts” program was started.

Through the German embassy I was confronted with this project and they asked me whether I would accept volunteers into my project. I also looked after scholarship holders of the ASA who fulfilled an internship abroad as part of their studies.

What makes Friends of Waldorf Education unique?

The Friends isn't a regular business. The work atmosphere is very comfortable and stands out from regular organizational structures. We have a high degree of freedom to the way we structure our work, which is particularly attractive to me. Our volunteers respond very positive to the informal atmosphere in which the seminars are carried out. Because we arrange voluntary services in German facilities since 2006, we have a great deal of experience in this field.

In your experience, what characteristics make a good international volunteer?

The volunteers need to be very steadfast in order to engage with the, sometimes complicated, circumstances at their placement site and not to give up too quickly. They should also keep in mind that they lay the ground for the next generations of volunteers and therefore they should be willing to cooperate in with their respective organization.

Active communication is a key subject. Volunteers have to learn to address difficult situations in order to resolve them. Especially volunteers from a cultural background in which this is not practiced, are faced with difficulties.

What does the future hold for Friends of Waldorf Education?

From within, the Friends will have to uphold their identity as an association while reacting to political changes from without, in order to cope with changing requirements. It is our goal to keep in touch with former volunteers in order to maintain a worldwide network of volunteers, through which new projects can be initiated in their respective home countries.