In 2006 Jan Holzapfel, Matti Spiecker and Tim Lehmann, three students of the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany, set off for an eight-month journey around the world visiting developing countries mostly, and focusing on sustainable best practices initiatives founded by social entrepreneurs. Their aim? Sensitise fellow German Students on Sustainable Development-related issues, encourage social engagement and collect data to form the basis of a global study undertaken at their home university. They even managed to partner with Ashoka Germany, the Schwab Foundations, over 20 schools and several other NGOs before even setting foot out of the country.
During the expedition they reported live to classrooms, reporting over 45 hours of video interviews and other materials. The project visits were documented in 40 reports; moreover, Matti Spiecker went as far as establishing a foundation (Stiftung Welt:Klasse), which he directs, to enable young people to get first-hand experience of developing countries.
In 2006 they were awarded the Oikos Student Award for their project, and have recently compiled their experience in a book titled ‘Expedition Welt – Vom Abenteuer sich zu engagieren’.
For more info, visit:
http://www.stiftung-weltklasse.de/
