Projects
Since 2017, the Free State of Saxony has been funding school classes for some 800 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.
The Arche noVa association facilitates school classes in Lebanon for Syrian children living in refugee camps there. Lebanon, which is no larger than Saxony and has a population of 6 million Lebanese, is home to 1.5 million Syrian refugees.
A total of approximately 800 children are receiving primary-school education as part of the project. The teaching staff consists of around 40 persons, most of whom also fled Syria. The project began in April 2017. Saxony has been facilitating the classes ever since, providing some 250,000 euros in funding for this every year. And the school certificates are recognised by the Lebanese government. The Lebanese 'Social Support Society for Education', which raises approximately half the project costs, is the local partner.
State Minister Oliver Schenk visited the project in 2018.
German Government and Federal States Programme (Bund-Länder-Programm)
In 2015, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) established the German Government and Federal States Programme (Bund-Länder-Programm), which enables the Free State of Saxony to carry out a larger project together with the GIZ (German Society for International Co-Operation) and partner countries in the Global South.
Saxony made the most of the emerging opportunities right from the outset. As early as 2015, the GIZ and the Saxon State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport lodged an application to carry out a mining-safety project in Mozambique. Specialists from the organisations joining forces at the Geokompetenzzentrum Freiberg help Mozambican mining professionals set up administrative structures, increase security and establish rescue services.
In 2020, Prof Christoph Lübbert and Dr Amrei von Braun, chief physician/associate professor and senior physician at Leipzig University's Centre for Infectious Diseases, initiated a co-operation with Uganda. Dr von Braun had spent two years working at the Kiruddu Referral Hospital in Kampala. The project helps improve diagnostics and more targeted use of antibiotics, reducing antibiotic resistance. It offers tremendous benefits for both parties. Tropical disease specialists from Leipzig assist Ugandan doctors in Kampala and gain experience in treating patients suffering from tropical diseases. And Ugandan doctors have also visited Leipzig. The project runs from June 2021 to February 2025
A second BLP project was introduced in 2022, building on from that of the university hospital. Most people who contract infections in Uganda initially seek remedies in the form of medicinal herbs. The nature in this tropical country is one of abundant flora, and the herbs are often based on empirical knowledge. The project is being carried out by Leipzig University, Prof Leo Kaysser, director of the Institute for Pharmaceutical Biology, and Dr André Gerth and Frank Müller from Geninsa e.V. Prof Kaysser and his team analyse ingredients, while Mr Müller and Dr Gerth help two NGOs produce medicinal plants so that these no longer have to be collected in the wild, but can instead be produced under standardised conditions.
- Fact sheet on German Government and Federal States Programme Saxony–Uganda – 'Strengthening infectiological capacities in Uganda' (*.pdf, 0,79 MB)
- Factsheet on German Government and Federal States Programme Saxony–Uganda – 'Standardising the Use of Traditional Medicine' (ger) (*.pdf, 0,85 MB)
- Factsheet on German Government and Federal States Programme Saxony–Uganda – 'Standardising the Use of Traditional Medicine' (eng) (*.pdf, 0,83 MB)
