Lucerne Marcel Willems helps children in Africa and India

The Lucerne-based Marcel Willems became a starvation aid worker in Africa and India

He teaches children the school of life

Guido fields

Lucerne Marcel Willems helps children in Africa and India

The Lucerne-based Marcel Willems became a starvation aid worker in Africa and India

He teaches children the school of life

One man, one mission: Marcel Willems from Ebikon LU motivates young Indians and Africans to take their own lives into their own hands. He is being celebrated for this and could soon become a TV star in South Africa.

When Marcel Willems (54) stands in front of the children in Africa or India, he is in his element. The 300 students listen to him spellbound as he tells stories, stares at her and then suddenly laughs at them. Or they bawl when he sits down on the floor and tries to get up like a baby, falling over and over again.

The Lucerne with Dutch roots can not help it. “I just have to help people – maybe because as a boy I had to take care of my blind brother,” he says. Three years ago, he began to show students in poor countries how to discover their potential, and finally realize their dreams. “I want to bring some light into today’s often so bad world,” says Willems.

With laughter you can get far

In front of huge classes, he tells of idols, such as the Indian cricket star Mahendra Singh Dhoni (37), who have repeatedly struggled to reach their goal. Willems does not need a TV set or PowerPoint presentation for his stories. His only tools: his voice, his gestures and his ability to respond to people and to want. With role-plays, he shows the students how best to go through life: who laughs at others gets back a laugh.

No, simply sending money to India or Africa is not his thing. “I rather share my energy, give the children motivation for life. That’s more useful for them, “says Willems, who reports on his projects at www.swisspathway.com. The children walk two hours through the desert in the Masai Mara region of Kenya to listen to him. After the performance, they ask him for an autograph on his arm when there is no paper.

“So what goes deep under the skin”

Again and again it comes to encounters that touch him deeply in the heart. In 2016, when he was asked at a school in Varanasi, India, where mainly simple crafts are taught, to ask the children about their career aspirations, one of the girls answered “nothing”. Like his parents, he does not need a good education.

At such moments, Marcel Willem’s talent as a coach is in demand. He took his time asking the teenagers what she would later say as a mother to her own children if they asked for homework help and she could not find an answer. When he returned two years later, the Lucerne learned that the young woman was now studying at a proper school. “Listening to something like that gets under my skin,” says Willems.

Soon own TV show?

These days he meets TV producers in South Africa. The media have become aware of the Swiss and want to develop with him a television program in which he regularly motivates children. The trips, the overnight stays, everything Willems pays out of his own bag. The costs are high, but the pay is the same. Willems: “Cheerfulness and smiling faces are the nicest things you can get.”