Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen
de

Online Magazine

A Community Magazine for and by Global Civil Society

The magazine has a clear focus: civil society. All content comes from local activists who are experts in their field. They report on human rights, migration, culture, dialogue and climate issues.

Some of the articles were published before by other newspapers and media outlets.

Articles

Emilia Dieniezhna conducting an interview during her time as a fellow in the CrossCulture Programme, Berlin 2022

Writer in exile

By Diwakar Rai

Journalist Emiliia Dieniezhna fled Ukraine when Russia invaded her country in 2022. Now she is giving her people a voice in Germany.
A young man namend Konstantin, 18, is standing in the middle of an empty workshop. He is studying sculpture. The war tore his family apart. Photograph: Ben Shermann

The new war generation

By Alaiza Pashkevich & Ben Shermann

The young people in these portraits are forced to grow up between the front lines. They live with death, among the ruins, without a clear future. A journey into everyday life in a hard-fought region.
Volunteers planting trees in East Amman. Photograph: TAYYŪN Research Studio

Forests in the desert

By Rawan Baybars

Jordan is one of the driest nations on the planet, but Deema Assaf believes that with time, patience and new conservation techniques she can turn it green again.
Here, refugee mothers and children from Ukraine find a place where they can feel safe and receive counselling. Photograph: Natalia Sergheev

Life on the edge of war: the Moldovan activist helping Ukraine’s refugees find new homes

By Natalia Sergheev

Three-quarters of a million refugees have crossed Ukraine’s border with Moldova since Russia invaded. A year ago, Constanta Dohotaru volunteered to assemble food parcels for them; today, she helps to run a multi-organisational peace initiative, raising funds and providing support for thousands. The human rights campaigner talks about how the “small country with a big heart” responded to the crisis, the toll that activism has taken on her mental health – and why Moldova’s own fight against corruption still goes on.
In September and October 2022, thousands of trucks and cars waited daily in kilometre-long queues at the Russian-Georgian border. Photograph: Oleg Morgun

Difficult neighbours

By Sandro Gvindadze

Russians fleeing mobilisation are putting huge pressure on Georgia’s citizens, in a country already wary of its neighbour’s might.
Screenshot of a website that is not accessible. "The connection has timed out" is written as the reason, why the website can not be shown in the browser.

Freedom of Speech or "Extremism"? Lukashenko's ongoing crack-down on independent media in Belarus

By Alaiza Pashkevich

Attention has shifted to Russia´s aggression in Ukraine, while little is known about the human rights violations in Belarus. This article highlights five Belarusian media whose editors or entire outlets were declared extremists by the state.

"Iranian women need the world's help"

Interview with a legal expert

An Iranian legal expert explains the current (legal) situation in Iran.
A man, sitting and looking sad. He holds a plastic cup or bowl in his hand. Photograph: Muhammad Abuzar

Escaping the chains of debt

By Muhammad Abuzar

In Pakistan, the poor turn to a sophisticated network of philanthropists to avoid the shame of borrowing from family and friends.
Jamila Mammadli, a model sitting in a wheelchair, gets her hair and makeup done by two women. Photograph: Ismayil Fataliyev

The catwalk with a difference: adaptive fashion comes to Azerbaijan

By Ismayil Fataliyev

An enterprising student and a designer want to make attractive clothes that people with disabilities can wear – and model too

Videos

These video portraits were created as part of ifa's "Mobile Reporting" workshop. The topics focused on people who caught the workshop participants' attention through their socially responsible actions. In six sessions, participants learned online how to produce stories as a video journalist using their own smartphone.

Co-Curation

The co-curation consists of five alumni from the CCP network who meet regularly with the coordination of the magazine. The co-curation takes a critical look at the online magazine and its processes. It ensures the ownership of the community and actively avoids a Eurocentric imprint on the magazine through regular page criticism. For example, the co-curation has helped to develop a fee schedule for commissioning and the editorial guidelines.

Its members are elected for a period of two years. 

Maria Koltsova

Maria Koltsova is a journalist from Russia specialising in human rights issues. She holds a Master's degree in human rights and democratisation in Eastern Partnership and Caucasus Countries from the Centre for European Studies. Maria has worked for a range of international and Russian independent media, writing about political repression, LGBT+ rights, migration, domestic violence and other issues. In 2018, she participated in the ifa CrossCulture Programme, where she spent two months at Deutsche Welle. 

Musa Wantiti

Musa Wantiti is a Libyan Civil society activist with over 10 years of work experience in the field of human rights and peace building. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in data analysis from the University of Gharyan-Libya. In 2018 he participated in the ifa CrossCulture Programme where he spent his scholarship with the Nuremberg Human Rights Centre (NMRZ) for three months. He was chosen as a CCP country representative of Libya for the period 2020-2023. 

Nezha Sadik

Nezha Sadik is an international consultant in gender and communication, a journalist, and the co-founder of the organization Women for Diversity and Peace. Nezha’s broad professional experience include communication and gender, journalistic techniques, research, public-relations and media. She was a CCP fellow in 2020 at the host organization Deutsche Welle.

Samia Tamrin Ahmed

Samia Tamrin Ahmed is a communications professional from Bangladesh and was a CCP fellow in 2013. She interned at Kulturaustausch Magazine of IFA in Berlin. Currently she is based in Prague, Czech Republic, assisting in Erasmus+ education projects at Mise Hero s. r. o. In Bangladesh she worked in academic publishing, a think tank, an NGO as well as in a United Nations project that supported the national Human Rights Commission.  

Zineb Bettayeb

Zineb Bettayeb is an Algerian IT Specialist and a former cultural journalist with over 13 years of work experience. She graduated with a master's degree from the University of Algiers and had obtained many certificates in different fields. Being engaged in several civil society projects, related to the preservation of cultural heritage in Algeria as well as participating in many relief campaigns to low income families, led her to be part of ifa Cross Culture Programme in 2018, where she worked with the Deutsche Unesco Commission for three months. 

Contact

Tim Hülquist

Charlottenplatz 17
D-70173 Stuttgart

Telephone: +49.711.2225.299
Email: crossculture(at)ifa.de

Jana Theis

Charlottenplatz 17
D-70173 Stuttgart

Telephone: +49.1522.663.18.14
Email: crossculture(at)ifa.de

Funded by Germany's Federal Foreign Office.