Asian-German Sports Exchange Program

German students giving swimming training to children at a Peace Village in Sri Lanka

Asian-German Sports Exchange Program (A.G.S.E.P.), is a non-governmental organisation operating in the development sector in Sri Lanka with a partner office in Essen, Germany. A.G.S.E.P. describes itself as Government Associated Organisation because of its consultancy status to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Disaster Relief Services and the Ministry for Rehabilitation & District Development.

Profile

A.G.S.E.P. works with volunteers; mainly with students from leading German universities doing undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the fields of economics, political science, social science, engineering, sport and other disciplines. The Asian German Sports Exchange Programme (A.G.S.E.P.)has been conducting sport events and international exchanges between Sri Lankan and European sport teams since 1989. The organisation is based in Marawila, in rural western Sri Lanka, and was founded by the current CEO of the programme, Dr. Dietmar Döring, who at that time was the national coach of the table tennis team. Dr. Döring saw an opportunity to use sport events as an avenue to enhance tourism and the relationships between estranged ethnic communities in Sri Lanka. The philosophy of A.G.S.E.P. is that sport is an ideal way of connecting people and transcending social, cultural, ethnic and religious cleavages. Sport provides a neutral platform for all participants, who are able to experience and learn from each other in a playful and open atmosphere.

A.G.S.E.P. intends to assist the divided ethnic groups of Sri Lanka to find peace by exposing the children of the island to children of other ethnic groups as part of sporting events.^[1][2]

History

The German Social education worker Dietmar Doering founded A.G.S.E.P. He was a national coach for the table tennis team of Sri Lanka at that time. Against the background of a long lasting civil war, A.G.S.E.P. defines since 1989 integrative sport events as peaceful intergroup sport encounters that popularise social values such as intercultural togetherness, respect, courage, commitment, and appreciation through active participation and exchange. Integrative sport events are planned, organised, implemented and staged in co-operation with the three major ethnic groups on the island, the Sinhalese, the Tamils and the Muslims.

Activities

Tsunami relief mission

Most Rev. Dr. Thomas Savundaranayagam, Bishop of Jaffna with German tsunami relief mission team members including Dietmar Doering, Sebastian Schmid, Kerstin Horaczek, Friederike Wagner-Vogel, Yvonne Seiler, Georg Schmidt-Colinet, Johannes Horstmann, Martin A. Bosshart and Sri Lankan Coordinators Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena and Rajkumar Kanagasingam in January, 2005.

German tsunami relief mission team members of AGSEP visiting tsunami-hit Mullaitivu in Sri Lanka in January, 2005

German university students with Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena and senior LTTE members at a tsunami siren distribution program in Kilinochchi in 2005.

AGSEP imported more than five million US dollars worth of medicines directly from Germany and distributed them to areas affected by the 2004 tsunami.^[3][4]

International Run for Peace

AGSEP organized the International Run for Peace in Sri Lanka in its bid to promote a lasting peace in the war-torn island.^[5]

Literature

German Memories in Asia

Justice Christopher Weeramantry (Third from Right), a former vice president of the International Court of Justice with Dietmar Doering (Fourth from Right), the founder of the Asian-German Sports Exchange Program, Rajkumar Kanagasingam (Extreme Right), the author of the book German Memories in Asia, German universities' internship students and others after a fellowship at Hilton-Colombo in 2006.

German Memories in Asia is a collection of memories by the author Rajkumar Kanagasingam, in his discussions with the German university students, who have been volunteering in Asia under internship programs; and a collection of facts by the author by further research on the discussed subjects.

It narrates Asian and European historical events, especially the German, since the Roman Empire era and about the Germans in Germany, Latin America, North America, East European countries, Australia and elsewhere in the world and their migrations, life styles, encounters and assimilation since ancient times.

It analyses the Franco-Prussian War and the Otto von Bismarck's diplomacy, Austria & the divided German states, German-Brazilians today, the Pennsylvania's Amish county & the Mennonite communities, the German colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Volga Germans in Russia under Bolshevist atrocities and the First and Second World War issues of Kaiser William II and his diplomatic chaos, Firebombing on Dresden, Danube Swabians and their expulsion, the U.S. President Gen. Dwight D Eisenhower in the crisis of starving German POWs and more.

It explores the author's encounters in his early days in the war-ravaged Jaffna in the northern part of the Indian Ocean's war-torn island and then in a tsunami relief mission there with German universities' internship students.

The book is a memorable testimony for German students' life and fashion in Asia.

International Master Games in Sri Lanka

Master Games Sri Lanka

AGSEP organizes International Master Games in Sri Lanka where competitors from a number of countries used to take part.^[6]

Players between the ages of 30 to 70 years used to take part in table tennis, badminton, football, handball and beach soccer tournaments which will be played in towns such as Negombo, Kandy, Trincomalee, Galle, Marawila, Puttalam and Hambantota. ^[6]

Teams from Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Scotland, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Russia, Ireland and Asian countries Japan, China, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam and Canada will compete in the Masters Games.^[6]

References

External links

• AGSEP Website (German)