Two doctors from Austria and the Maasai – Diepresse.com
Christine Wallner and her daughter Cornelia have built up a clinic and several schools in Tanzania, financed by donations and tourism. Young Maasai want to open opportunities in tourism.
« That, » says Peter, « is the Kilimanjaro. » Strictly speaking, it is just a picture of him that he points to. But a picture with importance – because the highest mountain of Tansania hangs in front of the highest class of the school in which the boy is currently completing its training.
« /> Peter points to a picture of the Kilimanjaro. Erich Kocina
« Language is English, » he says. This is the language you have to master in order to be able to work in tourism. And that is exactly the goal that the pupils of the « Africa-Amini Secondary School for Sustainable Tourism » have in Momentella: to find a job in an area where there is good money to make. And in which you can pass on your traditions, your identity. « I want, » says Peter, « Tour guide. »
A unique project
It is a unique project, this school in northern Tanzania. Anyone who is trained here not only learns the content prescribed by the state, but also gets knowledge of the environment, sustainability and health on the way – and some soft skills. For example, talks with tourists who attend school.
This has now gained a lot of security. Some of his classmates are much more shy, whispering rather instead of talking, lower their eyes. But in the end they too should appear confidently, exist during job interviews – and also have no fear of visitors.
« /> The pupils wear the traditional clothing of the Maasai. Erich Kocina
« You always ask me: Are there new guests again? » Says Cornelia Wallner-Frisee. She had the idea of combining a secondary school with vocational training. And to give so many children in the region an opportunity. And that is not the only project: the Africa Amini Alama initiative has already built up a total of ten schools, four secondary schools and six primary schools with Montessori classes-Montessori because of this so that the children learn creativity.
« There is a lot of discipline in the families, » says Wallner-Frisee. « You have to be calm, you can’t talk. A child will grow up here if it can work. » Through the playful of Montessori you get to know a different childhood. « It is almost an extension, or even the beginning of a real childhood. »
New paths in a country characterized by traditions is one of the approaches that are lived at Africa Amini Alama – in German « Africa, I believe in you ». And the DNA of this organization also lives in its protagonists. It all started with Christine Wallner. The lawyer studied a society life in Vienna as a wife of the then casinos Austria general director Leo Wallner. When she got bored, she studied with 40 medicine, became a doctor – and at 60 she followed an old longing and went to Africa.
Start in a hut
Here she set up a small doctor’s office – in a hut. And because she filled a gap, it didn’t take long for it to ask for it to build an entire medical center. That was in 2007. A year that is also important for Cornelia Wallner-Frisee. Christine Wallner’s daughter, like her mother, came to the opening of the station. And decided that she and her two children stay in Tanzania.
