
Fr Stefan Hippler, co-founder and chairman of the HIV/Aids organisation HOPE Cape Town, was presented with the Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz), Germany’s highest civilian award, by Germany’s consul-general Matthias Hansen (far right) in Cape Town.
Fr Hippler, who is from Trier diocese in south-western Germany, works as a Fidei Donum priest in the archdiocese of Cape Town. He came to South Africa in 1997 to begin what would be a stint of 12 years as the chaplain of the German-speaking Catholic Community of the Cape Peninsula, with which he founded what was first called Project Hope in 2001.
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