The association

© Meike Brückner

“Kinka” means “to do something together” in the Kara language and this is what our association should be about. To develop and to implement projects, that rise out of the necessities of the local people in southern Ethiopia. Cooperation and reciprocity in the form of neighbouring and social networks, barter partnerships, martial alliances are kept and cultivated as main surviving techniques of the people of South Omo. We would like to continue our work in that sense of solidarity and cooperation.

Our work is based on the ideal and financial support of the Kara and the neighbouring tribes of the Omo valley. Our agenda includes three main topics:

  • It is a centre for people from Kara and the region of South Omo who are personally in a difficult situation or in an acute predicament. By ideal and financial emergency relief (above all in health care) help should be given to this people.
  • We promote the financing of school education in the areas. If any student wants to perceive school education out of her own motivation we want to support her in this step by trying to takeover the cost of living in the distant marked towns. 
  • Moreover, the association promotes Kara and surrounding ethnic groups to represent their culture. This should be realised by offering a medial and personal platform that informs about history, culture and developments in South Omo and that implements different projects which promote the international exchange.

The association was founded by people who exert themselves to take responsibility for a region and for people they worked with. They have fundamental knowledge of the region and their academic education concentrates on the fields of African studies, anthropology, law, human geography and sociology. Taking over responsibility should not mean to develop dependencies for the purposes of one-sided development aid. Rather the concept of the association ties together the emergency help with the support of a lasting perspective for the region of South Omo. By the support of school education of youngsters a process gets promoted by which the local communities are encouraged to react and to meet the challenges of the modern age competently in the long run. Without financial support it is not possible for the students to attend higher education. The parents cannot support their children, because their subsistence economy creates no monetary income, which would be needed for accommodation, food, school uniforms and materials. Still sometimes the families try to finance the education of their kids by selling their cattle or goats, which ends in a financial collapse on a permanent basis.

The support in emergency situations offers some security and protection in cases of personal need, if it is due to illness, drought or great misfortune. By offering financial support and coordination of donation calls we want to give straight help to the affected people.

Our master on site: This association would not be successful without our partner in Ethiopia, Mr. Dunga Batum Nakuwa. Himself a Kara and very concerned about his group of origin he is the representative of the Kara tribe in the Ethiopian Parliament and worked a district lawyer in the region of South Omo. For Kinka e.V he is the local spokesmen, supervisor and assistant.

The association was founded 2014 by Nadine Brückner, Meike Brückner, Kristin Liebner.