11 Dec 2010 – Meeting – Frankfurt, Germany

Today, 10 people met up in Frankfurt: YEPs who were on expeditions, YEPs who were on Selection Camps and future YEPs who are planning to apply for upcoming expeditions. The participants came from as far as Switzerland or Austria to attend our actions considering hunger, the Borneo Act project and Pangaea promotion.

After everyone arrived, we sat down in a café and first shared our past experiences with the new Community members. Then, Becci introduced us to the main topic of our meeting: hunger.

Nearly every fourth second one child on earth dies of hunger and in India more than 200 million people are underfed. For confronting people with the reality and making them think about their unsustainable behavior, the Young Explorers demonstrated the passerbys how little for example Africans or Indians have to eat every day and how much Germans have in comparison. We had made cookies out of polenta, flavoured with curry and pepper which we offered on the christmas market. The polenta represents the maize pap, which is the basic food of many people in Africa.

But raising awareness wasn‘t our only goal. We also wanted to raise money for the upcoming Act project in Borneo. So we asked people for voluntary donations for the cookies or the postcards. Along the way, we also promoted Pangaea itself and handed out lots of flyers.

We split up in three groups, each got polenta, flyers and postcards and we set off. We were immediately swallowed by the crowd that shifted through the market. Every group did their job differently, but in the end all of us were content with the result. We talked to many visitors of the Christmas market and most of them were willing to listen, take flyers and give some money. Some even „dared“ to try a polenta cookie, but many people didn‘t want to taste them. It was raining most of the time and after everyone had cold hands and feet, we decided to stop, warm up and slowly get back to the main station.

It was great to have a mixed group of experienced and new Young Explorers. We could not only spread the Pangaea message and raise awareness of hunger, but also get in contact with each other and share our knowledge.

Participants

from Germany

• Rebecca Berker
• Simon Straetker
• Alexander Groos
• Saskia Bauer
• Theresa Kaiser
• Pauline Stephan
• Clara Blasius

from Switzerland

• Tiziana Gees
• Luana Chaves

from Austria

• Sophia Paul