Bernadette Hartmann

Dr. Bernadette Hartmann would like to see more young volunteers / she has been running the Monze support group for 30 years and helps wherever she can in Zambia

"You have to be a bit brave," says Dr. Bernadette Hartmann about her work in Zambia. The Lüdinghausen native heads the Monze support group, which supports the Felizitas parish's African partner parish, Sacred Heart. Bernadette Hartmann can hardly count how many times she has been to Zambia herself. "Venomous snakes and scorpions are insidious. Even a young hippopotamus who just wants to play with you and lifts up your little boat is not a pleasant encounter. But that can't stop you from doing something. And my motto is: there's nothing good unless you do it." Doing something - and doing it on a voluntary basis - is something Bernadette Hartmann encourages many more people to do. There is a lack of new blood, she says. And volunteer work is so fulfilling.

A lively partnership for 52 years

Bernadette Hartmann has been a vet for almost 50 years. Together with her husband, she set up the health center for small animals in Brochtrup, which her son and daughter-in-law have now joined together with other young vets. She looks after the apprentices on the vocational training committee of the Westphalia-Lippe Chamber and is a mediator. She is a member of the parish council of St. Felizitas parish. She is involved in the library committee. And she has been head of the Monze support group for 30 years. Her absolute passion!

When St. Felizitas started working in Monze in 1972, Zambia was the fifth poorest country in the world and people were starving. At the time, Miserior had called on church communities to find a partner community to help. "There are hardly any of these partnerships left today," says Dr. Bernadette Hartmann. "We didn't just want to be a figure in a bank account, but above all to maintain a lively partnership at eye level through constant exchange. And we have achieved that: 52 years of partnership is something quite rare!"

School construction, AIDS aid, microloans

The Förderkreis has now built three tuition-free community schools especially for orphans in Monze, as well as a training center where adults can train to become carpenters, bricklayers, tailors and housekeepers (the goods and services they produce during their training help the students to support themselves at the school). The Förderkreis supports the hospital with donations in kind, has purchased an ambulance and built a facility in which urgently needed infusion solutions can be produced. "The plant can produce 52,000 liters of infusion solutions a year," says Bernadette Hartmann. "We make sure that the pastor has a car so that he can also reach the 15 outlying parishes. The Förderkreis also provides hunger relief, AIDS aid and education, student exchanges and microloans to single mothers who want to become self-employed in order to guarantee their children's education."

Living in the here and now

"Dr. Bernadette" is the name given to the woman from Lüdinghausen when she is out and about in Monze. When she and her husband are guests in Zambia, they spend the night in the rectory. There is close contact with Sister Sylvia Kambombi and Pastor Miyoba Maanya, who were guests in Lüdinghausen as recently as June. "Getting to know each other's cultures and ways of life is important to us," says Bernadette Hartmann. "And sometimes worlds collide. Sister Sylvia was amazed at the many maize fields that exist in Germany. While in southern Zambia, 80 percent of people's diet consists of coarse maize meal, which is cooked with water to make a kind of porridge and is a much sought-after source of food, I had to explain to her that we use maize here as animal feed and for biogas plants." She was ashamed of it.

She says about the fascination of Zambia: "The people are so friendly, so warm, so grateful, living in the here and now. When you visit, they slaughter their last chicken to share it with you."