“In 1990 I travelled to Mexico for the first time when I was part of a work program. Since then my enthusiasm for the cordiality of people in Latin America has never left me. What I appreciate about partnership work is that we learn from each other – based on faith – and that we get to know one another’s culture and try to share. This is an important and substantial contribution to understanding between peoples. The gap between poor and rich is even more apparent in the partner countries than in ours. Help for self-help based upon the ideas of Blessed Adolph Kolping is therefore a motivation and responsibility at the same time. Especially climate change is a big challenge: weather-related disasters, bad harvests, droughts – it’s about caring for God’s creation. How can we manage altogether to conserve habitats without giving rise to movements of refugees. And we must not think in a one-way process: what exactly can we do in our Kolping Families and what can be done by our partner Kolping Families? “By sharing both joys and sorrows, one grows together.” Our partnership work is based on this quote by Adolph Kolping.”
Markus Brügger, Representative for international partnership work, Kolping Diocesan Association of Paderborn
