Atmospheric, moving and inspiring: The opening of our 2022 campaign took place in the well-attended Basel Cathedral. The theme of the campaign, the promotion of education for girls and young women, was present in many ways.
Around 150 visitors filled the pews of Basel Cathedral on Sunday morning, September 11. During the well-attended service, the cathedral congregation, together with Mission 21, opened this year's 2022 campaign, which focuses on education for girls and young women in Southeast Asia and Switzerland, under the motto "Thanks to education, we determine our own future.
The theme ran as a thread through the service, in many facets, intellectually stimulating as well as emotionally moving. That education also sounds good was soon heard by the Basel Girls' Choir. Their touchingly performed songs in English enriched this service.
International and impressive
The service was organized by the pastor of the cathedral, Lukas Kundert, and his team, as well as international participants from Mission 21. Guests from Nigeria, Tanzania and Indonesia conveyed the international character of the community and the activities of Mission 21.
In her sermon, theologian Claudia Hoffmann, a member of the Mission 21 board, impressively bridged the Old Testament with the life experiences of young women from Indonesia. In the Song of Songs, a young woman tells how she sets out to find her beloved, experiences exclusion and violence, but retains her strength and self-determination. In reality, Hoffmann says, women in ancient times were not self-determined. Today, girls and young women in patriarchal Indonesia are in a similar situation. Mission 21 and its local partner organizations are committed to helping girls. Parents are convinced that girls should also have access to education, and girls from poverty-stricken families receive financial support.
Education as the key to the future
Insights into the lives of girls and young women in Indonesia were also given at the end of the service by the Indonesian pastor Annie Pili Roboh. In conversation with Katharina Gfeller from Mission 21, she told us that young women from poor rural regions run the risk of being exploited by human traffickers. Support for education, on the other hand, is an important measure. The campaign, Gfeller added, supports educational work in Southeast Asia.
Mission 21 thanks the cathedral congregation for this joint opening service and is pleased about the start of the campaign. Until November 27, the focus is on educational work in Southeast Asia - and on education in Switzerland. Because the campaign wants to convey global connections to young people in Switzerland and enable them to experience that education is the key to a self-determined future.
Text: Christoph Rácz, Photo: Samuel Rink
â–º More information on the Mission 21 campaign and educational work
