Paving the Way: Tandems with Refugees
The aim of the project is to initiate tandems between refugees and people who would like to support them. Newcomers with a distant homeland can come into regular contact with others who are rooted here, receive information, learn to understand cultural customs, speak German and reorient themselves regarding their job perspectives. Tandems provide the charm that another can be promoted individually and according to her/his needs. They do not replace integration courses or JobCenter offers. Rather, they should encourage and take away the fear of authorities, help to open (inner) doors and make it easier to cope with what is new and different in our society. The path of integration may be rocky for some; small steps can be taken and the hurdles removed with concrete support. Paving the way…
The project is addressed to newcomers living in the district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf and Berliners who are eager to support them. weltgewandt provides several workshops dealing with the development of tandems, intercultural learning, networking, self-organisation and the promotion of employability.
The workshops are embedded in activities to promote exchange in an informal but protected environment. So far, it was a film afternoon about Syria, a cooking performance, a city tour, language cafés and a theatre project. The workshops on competence analysis and on the question of professional orientation were documented in detail (Dokumentation-WS-03.03.171.pdf, Dokumentation-WS-13.04.171.pdf, Dokumentation WS Bewerb.gespräche 10.08.17, Dokumentation WS 11.10. Berufswegeplanung), also those on gender roles in intercultural exchange and on the labour market (gender-specific division of labour, Dokumentation-WS-11.05.171.pdf, Dokumentation WS 04.10. Die Kunst, “nein” zu sagen) and on how to keep tandems ‘sustainable’ (Dokumentation-WS-21.06.17.pdf). All documentations are in German.
The project was funded by the Local Social Capital Marzahn-Hellersdorf.