Tobacco Awareness Ambassadors
Tobacco Awareness Ambassadors is a joint initiative of Shorten the Distance e.V. and the Greek Community of Cologne e.V. (GGK), which has been active since 8 February 1962.
The aim of the initiative is to raise awareness about tobacco and nicotine through education for sustainable development and health prevention in organisations,
schools, youth centers, and other institutions. To this end, we offer workshops and "smoke-free" seminars that combine development education with addiction prevention, cultural work, and
environmental education, using a multidisciplinary approach.
Asian women preparing green tobacco leaves: Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh
Our Services
We provide information about the dangers of tobacco consumption, the living and working conditions of tobacco farmers, the tobacco industry, the negative impacts on health and the environment and the United Nation (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Our workshops
In the Greek Community Cologne e.V.
As part of the "Third Places" project of the City of Cologne
Meet Me Halfway
04.06.25 at 17:00 - 18:30
or
17.09.25 at 17:00 - 18:30
Griechische Gemeinde Köln e.V.
Liebigstraße 120, 50823 Cologne
ambassadors.ta@gmail.com
LiebigQuatier Clean Up Day:
20.09.25 Cigarette Butts
Registration:
Our Approaches
Planetary Health
Only those who understand how their lifestyle in Germany affects the world globally can make informed choices and in the case of smoking, even improve their own lives. Our goal is to highlight a win-win for everyone involved. Act locally to make a global difference.
We explore questions such as:
How is my personal consumption of tobacco industry products connected to global structures?
What inequalities are there?
How can I contribute to an ecologically and economically fairer world and protect my health?
Global learning helps to make the world tangible and shows opportunities to take action and make more sustainable decisions.
Art and Culture
Many of the older visitors to the Greek Community of Cologne e.V. were former tobacco farmers before they emigrated to Germany. From these valuable stories, the GGK e.V. and the Diphthong Art Collective were able to develop a multimedia theatre project in Cologne about the German-Greek history of tobacco.
Our Background
Both organisations have a deep connection to the subject of tobacco. Historically, Greece was an important cultivation country for oriental tobacco. Up until the Second World War, German cigarettes contained up to 90 % oriental tobacco.
Today, Malawi is one of Africa’s largest tobacco-growing countries. Burley tobacco is grown there under extremely difficult working conditions, often by female farmers and children.
The experiences of the older Greek men and women, who worked hard as children in tobacco farming, reflect the current realities and situation of many Malawian families in tobacco growing today.
Shorten the Distance is a non-profit organisation that focuses on the prevention of child labour in the tobacco industry in Kasungu, Malawi. Our main initiative is the "Cultural Kitchen", which provides children and young people with a hot meal, recreational activities, homework support, and educational opportunities.
Hand on Heart
As part of the "Third Places" project by the City of Cologne at the Greek Community of Cologne, we, as Tobacco Awareness Ambassadors, successfully conducted the workshop “Better with Niko – instead of Nicotine.”
In doing so, we explored the following questions:
Where do our cigarettes come from?
Who grows the tobacco?
What’s in a cigarette?
How are the tobacco farmers doing?
What role does the tobacco industry play?
How can I contribute to a more ecologically and economically just world – while protecting my health?
