“We are all familiar with the pictures of impoverished, starving Africans on the posters of major aid organisations,” says Stella Rothenberger. After working as a volunteer in South Africa, Tanzania and Ethiopia, the Frankfurter with Dutch roots wanted to get away from this model of westernised development aid. “In 2005 my husband, a couple of friends and I came up with the idea of establishing a small organisation that deals with these issues in a fresh and positive way and doesn’t campaign with the images of Africa that we are all familiar with. That’s why we chose the name PfefferminzGreen,” says Stella Rothenberger. Their work focuses on close collaboration with local non-government organisations (NGOs) in sub-Saharan Africa. All projects are planned together with village communities, start small and have the potential to grow by themselves in line with the bottom-up principle. Stella Rothenberger and her Frankfurt-based organisation are now looking back on 16 years. They have built youth centres and wells in Africa, set up bee projects in villages that produce honey to secure income for families, and granted many interest-free micro-loans so that people without their own capital can establish livelihoods independently – from cafés to sheep farming. How does the organisation fund these projects? A solid base of generous friends who provide support has now become established. In addition, PfefferminzGreen regularly organises dinner parties and concerts, sales of self-produced products and appeals for donations to fund the projects in Africa.
For several years, the organisation has been working with the local partner organisation AIM to promote the rights of women and girls. One particular challenge is the socially respected practice of FGM (female genital mutilation), in which the external female genitalia of young women are partly or fully amputated in violent practices. In Sierra Leone, there is a centuries-old secret society for women known as the Bondo Society, acceptance into which is a key goal in women’s lives. The Bondo Society celebrates the transition from childhood to adulthood. Among other things, the young women learn various culturally important customs and relevant skills within the community. Circumcision is the main criteria for acceptance. “The fact that FGM is practised within the secret societies and that the ‘soweis’ – women who perform circumcisions – are highly respected in the community makes it difficult to fight against this ritual. In Sierra Leone, measures and campaigns to combat female circumcision are successful only if the social context with regard to religion, culture, witchcraft and community life is understood and taken into account,” says Stella Rothenberger. The magic word: education. PfefferminzGreen and AIM are currently building schools where future generations will be educated about women’s rights and FGM at an early stage together with their parents. In 2019 the two NGOs established a small tailoring workshop as a training centre for women in Sierra Leone. Here former circumcisers are retrained as tailors and have already been commissioned to sew pillowcases, slippers and bags for the Frankfurt hotel LINDLEY LINDENBERG. During the outbreak of COVID, the tailors sewed face masks to protect people in the villages. They are currently producing aprons in bright West African materials, which PfefferminzGreen will “sell” in return for donations before Christmas 2021. 100% of these donations will be passed on so that they can be used for the expansion of the tailoring workshop. “All the women that I have met in Sierra Leone have a strong interest in bright and beautiful textiles. However, very few women can afford fabrics. The opportunity to learn the craft in the tailoring workshop and sew clothes fills the women with pride,” says Stella Rothenberger.
The biggest achievement in the fight against FGM? “In December 2019, we celebrated our biggest success: More than 100 girls were officially accepted into the Bondo Society without taking part in the traditional ritual. For the first time in Sierra Leone’s history, circumcision of the girls did not play a role in the acceptance of new members and a group of soweis spoke out publicly against FGM. The girls spent several weeks during the school holidays in the secret Bondo Bush, where they were trained by the former soweis. The director of AIM, Rugiatu Neneh Turay, said: “We want to eliminate all harmful traditional practices but keep the beauty of the Bondo Culture.” With the initiation at the end of 2019, this was fully achieved for the first time. “It would be great to find a fashion company that is interested in our work. As well as making beautiful products, we could bring about a rethink in development aid together,” says Stella Rothenberger. The future of the fashion industry could be just that: a healthy, social value chain with winners on all sides.
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