FSA YOUTH EXCHANGE –
Der besondere Schüleraustausch mit Südafrika
Was bedeutet FSA? Die 3 Buchstaben stehen für: Freundeskreis Südafrika - Friends of South Africa
Seit über 20 Jahren organisiert der FSA erfolgreich einen Schüleraustauch mit Südafrika für Schüler im Alter von 13-19 Jahren.
FSA Youth Exchange ist der englische Name unseres Austausch-Programms.
Der FSA ist eine Privatinitiative und wurde 1996 von Lodie de Jager, einem gebürtigen Südafrikaner und High School Lehrer sowie ehemaligen Gastfamilien ins Leben gerufen. Der FSA gehört keinen politischen, kirchlichen oder parlamentarischen Organisationen an. Der FSA ist sowohl in Deutschland als auch in Südafrika gemäß den jeweiligen Gesetzen ordnungsgemäß registriert.
History of the FSA
Pressemitteilung anlässlich des 20-Jährigen Bestehens des FSA 2016
Lodie de Jager, South African citizen, founder of the FSA was a German teacher in Bothaville in the Free State when, in 1984, he structured a visit to Germany for his South African students learning German. This visit developed into the youth exchange programme between South Africa and Germany.
One thing led to the other and then the South African Department of Culture took over the exchange programme. During this time Lodie accompanied the South African participants to Germany as their contact person in Germany and for the necessary support during their time in Germany.
From 1991 – 1996 Lodie was stationed in Germany from where he organised the exchange programmes for the South African participants to Germany and also for the German participants to South Africa.
In 1996 he returned to South Africa and founded the FSA Youth Exchange Programme with initially one and later two offices in Germany. In an attempt to better coordinate the programmes, FSA Germany was recently restructured and effective from August 2018 there will be only one FSA office in Germany. This German office, located in Bielefeld, Province North-Rhine-Westphalia, will invite, select and prepare German students to take part in the programme to South Africa, source German host families and will be responsible for the South African participants during their stay in Germany.
In South Africa the FSA head office is stationed in the Limpopo province with a sub-office in Gauteng. The Limpopo-office invites, selects and prepares the South African participants for the visit to Germany. The Gauteng-office sources South African host families for the German participants and is responsible for the German students during their visit to South Africa. FSA is the abbreviation for Friends of South Africa and reflects the deep relationship between Germany and South Africa.
Since 1985 the FSA is an all-inclusive programme with no tolerance for racism or sexism. The FSA philosophy is that understanding and tolerance between diverse cultures can only be established and furthered when we realise that difference does not equate wrong. For this to realise, communication and exposure between diverse cultures are vital.
Since 1996 to date approximately 5 000 South African candidates had the opportunity to take part in our programme to Germany and the same number of German candidates were exposed to the South African culture as part of the programme.
The goal of FSA South Africa and FSA Germany is to provide an opportunity where young people from South Africa and Germany are exposed to a different culture, they have the opportunity to act as young South African and German ambassadors and very important, they get the opportunity for personal development and maturity.