wortundtat – Help for people in need since 1977, supported by the DEICHMANN Foundation
Dr Heinz-Horst Deichmann founded the wortundtat aid organisation in 1977 after a visit to Indian slums. Faced with several hundred leprosy sufferers, he decided to provide long-term assistance. As a partner, he chose the organisation AMG India, with whom he initially developed village communities for leprosy sufferers. wortundtat supported this work for several decades. .
Start of the work – wortundtat brings help to India
After the death of the founder of wortundtat, Heinrich Deichmann (right), took over as chairman of the charity and has been following its work ever since. Here, he is on a visit to India.
Large numbers of schools and training centres have been opened in the state of Andhra Pradesh thanks to wortundtat. Here, people from the lowest social classes have been given good career prospects.
Special attention was paid to women and girls in the wortundtat establishments. Children were able to be released from exploitative working conditions. Doctors treated tuberculosis patients, people with polio, malaria or cataracts and many other illnesses in various medical facilities. People with disabilities who are given hardly any help by the state in India are treated by the workers here with respect and kindness. Today, AMG India is able to stand on its own two feet and has been continuing the work without support from wortundtat since 2021.
wortundtat – Impressions of the help provided in India
Babies and toddlers were given milk to provide them with a wide range of nutrients if mothers could not feed them sufficiently themselves.
Mother-with-toddler_India_wortundtat_health
Many settlements in India are not connected to the town’s water supply. wortundtat built wells.
In the Indian wortundtat schools, girls were given equal status to boys. Everyone was to be given the same opportunities.
In many villages, wortundtat set up primary schools. In this way, even the youngest could be offered a good education.
In India, school uniforms are normal wear for school pupils.
wortundtat ran many schools as boarding schools where children could live and learn. There was also plenty to eat there.
Pupils in the wortundtat schools in India learnt how to work with Office programmes early on.
This teacher was once a wortundtat pupil himself. He came from a poor family. Now he teaches geography.
Chemistry lessons are much more fun if you’re allowed to do experiments now and again.
wortundtat trained nurses in several places. They are very much in demand in India.
In the Industrial Training Center, young men and women were taught a range of technical skills.
Training to be electrical engineers opens up excellent prospects for the future to young people in rural India.
The wortundtat facilities in India pay no attention to what are considered typical male and female professions. This young women learnt metal working.
wortundtat finds new partners
After the start of the work in India, over the years wortundtat continued to find new partners, with whom it is still running aid projects today. Since the death of the founder, his son Heinrich Deichmann and the family have been continuing the work of wortundtat as originally intended – following the motto: “God loves people. We show them – in word and deed.”
Our mission
The name wortundtat (in English: word and deed) is both a mission and a promise:
wortundtat helps people in practical ways to live or survive, particularly if they are barely offered any other support. For this, in many cases, helpers deliberately seek out those in need so that they can tell them about the services offered and provide access to them. Rapid success is always pleasing. But where it is necessary, wortundtat is in for the long haul.
wortundtat treats the people in need with respect. All of those who are given support should feel, if possible, that they are welcome without any preconditions. Behind this lies the conviction that a person’s value and dignity cannot be measured or defined by origin, particular abilities, ideological beliefs or other aspects. The helpers make every effort to demonstrate this attitude in all their activities in the fields of social welfare, health and education.
God loves people.
We show them – in word and deed.
The principles of the work of wortundtat
wortundtat believes in helping people to help themselves. The organisation does not send any Germans out into the developing regions, preferring to work closely with local partners instead, allowing them to be responsible for implementing the projects. wortundtat relies on the fact that local supporters understand the concerns of people in need and can respond appropriately to their needs.
wortundtat is on hand to offer its partners ideas and expertise. The staff in Germany see themselves primarily as advisers and supporters to the partner organisations. They offer ideas about possible assistance and support the further development of projects.
wortundtat project coordinator Jakob Adolf (right) in conversation with a member of the KIUMA team in Tanzania.
wortundtat handles donations and other financial resources responsibly. wortundtat’s commitment is shared by a large number of donors. They can rely on the fact that every penny of their donations reaches the places they are actually needed. Further information about how donations are administered and used is available under Transparency.
All our principles have proved successful over the years. Experts in development cooperation have therefore repeatedly described wortundtat’s working methods as exemplary.
“You can either run away – or stay and help.”
For shoe retailer Dr Heinz-Horst Deichman (†), meeting leprosy sufferers in India was the catalyst for setting up the Christian aid organisation wortundtat e.V.
Our projects
1977
Dr Heinz-Horst Deichmann founds the Christian aid organisation wortundtat as the German partner organisation of AMG India.
Around 1980
In Greece, cooperation starts with the partner
1996
wortundtat starts work in Tanzania with its partner KIUMA.
2006
wortundtat supports the diaconical facility of its partner Gloria in the Republic of Moldova.
2009
wortundtat starts its work in Dortmund’s Nordstadt with its partner Star in the North.
2022
Today, AMG India works independently and has been continuing the work completely on its own account since March 2022.
