Mission statement for volunteering
For more than sixty years, Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste has enabled different generations to take a self-critical look at history and to take a politically responsible stand for a just and peaceful world. Currently, ASF sends up to 170 volunteers for a one-year service in 11 countries in Europe, Israel and the USA.
They engage and work in projects that address discrimination against people based on religion, sexual identity, skin color or language. The volunteers work with Holocaust survivors and their descendants, with socially disadvantaged people and in historical-political educational work. The volunteers are characterized by an interest in the topic of remembering the National Socialist era and an openness to ideological diversity. They actively work against anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of group-based hostility.
The critical appropriation of one’s own history, getting to know other narratives and understanding the relevance of history for current relationships are, in our view, essential foundations for warding off anti-democratic and anti-human attitudes and promoting justice and peace.
Important partners for our work with volunteers are non-governmental organizations, churches and religious communities. Not only the volunteers are in a constant productive learning process, but also the volunteers and staff and the partners involved.
