© DAAD Tunis/privat

The programme’s partner organisations can be found all over the world and include, for example, Goethe Institutes as well as the DAAD. Farid Amrouche, 23, started his kulturweit voluntary service in Tunis after completing his Bachelor’s degree in September. We asked him about his time at the DAAD Regional Office Tunis:

1. The voluntary service should be a win-win situation – for the volunteer, but also for the host organisation, in this case the DAAD Regional Office Tunis. How can this be successful?

Kulturweit offers young people the opportunity to become actively involved in a partner organisation of the programme and at the same time to live abroad for a longer period. In this process, kulturweit volunteers can acquire new language and cultural skills and also gain important (first) work experiences. The stay in the host country is complemented by several activities from the programme. All volunteers must participate in three seminars and complete a language course in one of the host country’s languages. Suitable volunteers are suggested to the host organisations through an application process that takes into account the wishes of both the host organisation and the applicant.

Almost all host organisations work with young people who are of a similar age to kulturweit volunteers. This helps volunteers to quickly make new acquaintances and thus gain access to the country they are living in. At the same time, the host organisations benefit from relevant, practical experiences that kulturweit volunteers bring with them. During my time, I contribute to the weekly scholarship and study counselling session in the DAAD Regional Office Tunis. Since I recently completed my Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences and am currently enrolled in the Master’s programme in Political Science at the University of Cologne, I can share some experiences about my student life and talk about topics like housing situation, living costs and rural and urban differences.

2. What about your tasks and responsibilities as a volunteer/intern?

My work at the DAAD Regional Office Tunis mostly takes place in the centrally located office in a side street of the Avenue Habib Bourguiba. Among other things, I draft communication materials for the website and social media channels, create presentations and carry out various research tasks. I find regular events particularly exciting, as they bring together interesting people from politics, academia and civil society and give me the opportunity to get to know new people and learn more about various topics.

Personally, I really enjoyed the “Maghreb Academy”, which took place at the beginning of my voluntary service. At the week-long event, the DAAD Regional Office Tunis invited young students from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia with a connection to German studies to Tunis to work together on the topic of “waste prevention” and to develop the students’ German language skills. In addition to workshops, excursions and group working sessions, experts on the topic of waste prevention were invited to provide insights on the situation in the Maghreb. My task was to contribute to the organisation of the event, where I was able to meet new people and acquire knowledge about different topics. The Maghreb Academy was a successful start to my voluntary service.

3. What do you personally take from the voluntary service?

The voluntary service allows me to get to know the work of the DAAD from the perspective of a Regional Office and to be involved in its daily business. In doing so, I gain insights into topics in the field of international higher education cooperation and get to know different higher education landscapes in the Maghreb. The international environment in which the DAAD Regional Office Tunis operates, whether through academic cooperation with various universities, scholarship selection of students or synergies with other international organisations, shows me that I would like to continue dealing with international topics both academically and professionally in the future. I am also continuously improving language skills in Arabic and French, in which my colleagues help me with day by day. They are all very good with languages and speak German, English, French and Arabic fluently.

Besides my working circumstances, Tunis as a location offers a variety of opportunities to participate in different cultural occasions and events. Regular international festivals welcome artists and musicians from all over the world. Many events also try to draw attention to pop cultures of the Global South in order to extend the Eurocentric mainstream with other perspectives. For example, there is the annual Carthage Film Festival, which is dedicated to African, Asian and Latin American filmmakers.