The death of Klaus Böhme, a long-time member of the Board of AKO Aktionskreis-Ostafrika e.V., is deeply felt.

I met Klaus Böhme for the first time in Summer 2014. I wanted to work with him, but his trip to Tanzania was imminent, so we quickly agreed that I could accompany him for a few days.

Tanzania presents its visitors with an abundance of friendly people and incredibly beautiful impressions. Nevertheless, I was unsure whether a commitment was right for me.

On the third day, we travelled to a meeting of the residents of the Njia Panda water project, which Klaus had completed after many years of intensive work. Together with Tanzanian partners and funds from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, he had set up a water supply system for a growing community of up to 16,000 people.

Klaus Böhme thought about sustainability. When he tackled something, he did it right. He wanted projects to be able to function later on without German help, and he had succeeded here.

Now it was time to hand over the project into the hands of the community for which he had organised it. Fr Kiesel accompanied us. We came together at a meeting place, a hotel, tables under a sun canopy, set up in a large rectangle, room for about 30 people. Elected officials from the neighbouring communities and representatives of the Water Committee arrived, most of them in their finest clothes, very colourful and all very official. The atmosphere was friendly, but official.

Then the meeting began, the obligatory introduction of all participants, Klaus stood up, introduced himself briefly, I also had to introduce myself.

Then, each participant presented their concerns, their worries, in detail, without interruption from the others, until the last word. Then there was clapping and the next person stood up and began to speak.

The meeting lasted more than two hours. I couldn’t understand a word, it was hot, tired from the journey and all the impressions, I fought hard against my eyelids, which wanted to give in to gravity. Very rarely, Fr Kiesel whispered something to Klaus. I was impressed that Klaus followed everything calmly and with concentration; he obviously understood Swahili well. It must have been one of many meetings he had already attended. He sat upright and without any sign of fatigue or lack of concentration, watched by all eyes without interruption.

After a lengthy farewell, the meeting came to an end. Back in the car with Fr Kiesel, I expressed my respect for his understanding of the language so well. ‘I didn’t understand a thing,’ was his succinct reply.

At that moment, I learnt something from Klaus: listen. You have to listen to people. Only those who have listened to everyone can then have their say and be taken seriously.

Klaus understood that. The success of a project is based on treating people with respect. Klaus had planned half a day, including travelling to and from the site, just to show these people his respect and to signal to them that they were important to him.

Now Klaus had aroused my curiosity, and I decided to join in; I wanted to see more of Klaus.

I still think of this anecdote every time I have a conversation in Tanzania. It will be my lasting memory of Klaus.

Klaus was an engineer, he was a businessman, he was an entrepreneur, he was an administrator and he was a trustee. Klaus had a goal when he set out to do something and a plan and strategy for achieving it. What Klaus promised was kept. Klaus was correct. Klaus was reliable. How we miss such people in troubled times like today. All AKO helpers could rely on him, and everyone in Tanzania also knew that Klaus did what he said he would do.

Klaus was a skilful speaker, in German as well as in English. He could be charming and humorous, Klaus could cast a spell over people, convince them, win them over to his cause.

However, he knew that if he promised, he had to deliver. And he did.

Klaus gave the organisation a structure, he began to think about the future, he used his talents and his reputation for AKO. Under his leadership, membership numbers rose and donations continued to increase. To this day, regular donors and large sums of money donated to AKO can be attributed to Klaus’ connections and his reliable management of donations. He laid the organisational foundations for obtaining funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and organised the DZI donation seal for the association.

Klaus had all the qualities you need to run an association. In 2010, he received the Medal of Merit from the President of the Federal Republic of Germany for this work.

In my view, however, none of this was characteristic of him. Since that meeting in Tanzania, my label for him has been: Klaus is a philanthropist. He was a philanthropist and humanist. It was important to him to do good to people, and he always treated other people with an awareness of the dignity of every human being and at eye level. Klaus loved people and wanted to give something back for his good fortune.

His family always came first. When children or grandchildren needed their grandparents, when his Fee needed him, he was there. When I was looking for Klaus and got the message from the office that he was in Austria with his family, I knew I didn’t need to come with AKO.

In 2018, he decided to devote his time entirely to his dear wife and family and did not stand for re-election to the AKO Board. He handed over a well-organized organization.

Many members of AKO in Traunstein, all over Germany and many people and friends in Africa are mourning the loss of Klaus Böhme. The world lost a very special man.

On behalf of the Board of AKO Aktionskreis-Ostafrika e.V., we are mourning with his family and would like to express our deepest sympathy and gratitude to his wife and his whole family for his work for AKO.

Ruben Wend