Update March 2020

Coronavirus requires immediate end of B360 internships
and expert assignments.

On February 1, a group of students from our partner universities in Namibia and Zambia started their three-month internship at Swiss companies. In parallel, a team of experts travelled to Namibia and South Africa for voluntary teaching assignments. Although the Coronavirus disease had already befallen people in China and other Asian countries, it was at that time no issues in Europe and Africa.

Meanwhile, the virus has spread at unprecedented speed to all continents. On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared SARS-CoV-2 as a pandemic. Governments took drastic measures in many countries, among which Switzerland, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa where B360 is active.

It is currently impossible to predict how the disease will develop in the future, for how long we will be affected and until when borders will remain closed and travel restricted or impossible. As we absolutely prioritize the health and safety of our experts and of our interns including their families, we sadly had to make the decision to terminate the current Southwards and Northwards programs for the time being. Jointly with our partners, we arranged for both the interns and the experts to be immediately repatriated to their respective home countries. 

In the meantime the interns have safely arrived back in Namibia and Zambia. The experts who were on assignments at NUST in Windhoek and at TSiBA in Cape Town, are safely back in Europe. All further expert assignments planned for the first semester have been cancelled. Hopefully we all will soon be able to return to normality.

A big thank to all the internship companies, host families, partner universities and Knecht Reisen for their support and excellent collaboration. A very special thank you goes to the B360 crises management team that did an outstanding job in very difficult times.

We will keep you posted. Keep healthy!