We started the 9th day of the workshop with an excursion to the intercultural youth organisations Amaro Drom e.V. /Amaro Foro e.V. which are organisations that empower Roma people with different kinds of projects (e.g. youth groups, children program, community building, contact point, volunteer program).
When dealing with discriminated groups of migrants it is very important to talk about the situation of Roma people in Germany and Europe. Antiziganism it is a widespread racist attitude which has received little attention in society and has a big impact in the mobility of Roma people in Europe and in their everyday life. Therefore we think that it is important to raise awareness and therefore include it in the program. Furthermore, it helps us to gain insights on work and life-experience of participants. Unfortunately, the presentation and the way of presenting was not convincing. We would have liked to hear more about the current situation of Roma people concerning the change of law (e.g.declaring more countries of origin as save) and the consequences, such as the deportation and activist movements against. We also felt that the presenting person was not really open, in the sense of responsiveness to our questions and differing opinions. So, even though we know now about the activities of these organisations, it did not meet our expectations.
Our next stop was a refugee shelter in Pankow. It has been previously a hotel, but it was not working very well. Therefore, two brothers bought the hotel at the beginning of 2015 and decided to open it like a refugee hotel, hosting 270 people of 17 different countries, thereby taking advantage of the current situation because the social authorities pay 15 to 25 € per person per night.
Despite the commercial aspects of the accommodation, there is a big network of social workers and a volunteers that are doing a great work within the opportunities in refuge shelter and in the city district of Pankow. For the first time we got to know a project that was having a more feminist perspective and was trying to include women in activities outside their family environment. It was also impressive to notice the well working cooperation between this shelter and the city district which allow children to go to the school without long waiting time.
Open Space
- Oppressed theatre
- Learning foreign language with theatre methods
- Decision making in city planning to integrate disadvantaged groups
