Caravanes

Caravanes Association

On 2026-04-04 0

The Caravanes Humanitary Association, led by its president Harry Drotz, has spent several years promoting international openness and solidarity, particularly toward French‑speaking West Africa. Its work is grounded in a simple conviction: understanding others begins with meeting them and cooperating.

The Cooperative Momentum of the Caravanes Association

Understanding Others Begins with Cooperation

Caravanes draws on an exceptional field experience: 17 humanitarian missions and 22 journeys, including 14 crossings of the Sahara between 1987 and 1992—four completed solo and ten as expedition leader for convoys of three to seven vehicles. These missions took place across numerous countries in North and West Africa, including Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Tunisia.

These stays not only made it possible to deliver tons of medicine to remote bush clinics, but also to build a remarkable collection of photographs, slides, and everyday objects. Presenting these collections is now at the heart of Caravanes’ activities.

Conferences as Spaces for Exchange

The goal is clear: to inform, raise awareness, and, when possible, inspire new vocations in humanitarian work.

Caravanes engages with a wide range of audiences—students, retirement‑home residents, trainees, associations, clubs, and more.

The conferences offered are not limited to a presentation; they become spaces for dialogue where people observe, question, and compare ways of life. Screenings and displayed objects provide a concrete entry point into the daily lives of the communities encountered, helping participants grasp their diversity.

Transmission as a Collective Learning Process

This approach, grounded in lived experience and dialogue, aligns with the spirit of APAC: transmission is not a top‑down process but a collective learning journey.

Participants are encouraged to step outside their own perspective, recognize other realities, and view international cooperation as a reciprocal form of openness.

The objects presented play an essential role. They make cultural practices tangible and easier to understand. The photographs offer a direct and respectful view of the people encountered, far from stereotypical representations.

In an educational setting, these materials become powerful tools for reflection: people observe together, interpret together, and learn together.

Because it transforms each encounter into a shared experience and each piece of knowledge into a common good, the Caravanes Association fully embodies the values of cooperation.