The result of a project at the Montessori school in Inning was the result: a book about three refugees in the Starnberg district.
The 14-year-old author Laura Kennedy tells the stories of the refugees on 70 pages and wants to draw attention to their fate.
Hechendorf
- For a long time Laura Kennedy did not have to think about which topic she would dedicate herself to in her project work at the Montessori school. Although the eighth grader from Hechendorf had other ideas, she quickly rejected them. “I wanted to tell the stories of the refugees - the beautiful and the not so beautiful parts of their lives,” says the 14-year-old. For three months she researched, conducted interviews and wrote down the stories of three refugees from Hechendorf, Seefeld and Andechs. “Numbers become people” is the end result.
Laura Kennedy met the first of the three protagonists some time ago. Six years ago, when Ali, who comes from Mali, came to Ammersee, the Hechendorferin went to the asylum seekers' home with a friend to get to know her new neighbors. “I was curious and we talked to each other,” she says. Today it became a friendship. She has also known the second refugee, who tells his story in Kennedy's book, Ali from Iraq, for a while.
19-year-old Nassime is the only woman to round off the Hechendorfer's project work. She fled from Afghanistan to Iran in her mother's womb. Since the family did not feel they belonged there, the then twelve-year-old Nassime and her siblings made their way to Germany. "She experienced terrible things in the process," says Laura Kennedy. "It was very tough." Shootings and persecutions were part of escaping to a better life. Today Nassime lives in Seefeld and is doing an apprenticeship, while she also works in a café. “She feels integrated, speaks good German and has made friends,” says Laura Kennedy.
However, all three refugees share one concern.
How is your future in Germany going?
Although Nassime and the others have been living in Germany for years, it is not yet certain whether they can stay forever.
"In the end, they are afraid of being deported," says Laura Kennedy.
"There is no real perspective for the future."
Ali from Mali managed to do an internship at the kiosk at the Pilsensee lido in Hechendorf after a long back and forth.
"He doesn't get a work permit," says Kennedy.
However, the young man enjoys the tasks in the kiosk's kitchen.
His favorite dishes: cheesecakes and tarte flambée.
“I want to show that refugees are good people and have no bad intentions. With the book I want to draw attention to the stories of asylum seekers around here, ”says the Hechendorferin. She had 100 copies of her 70-page work printed in Tutzing. So far, the book has only been available at the Strandbad kiosk on Pilsensee for seven euros. However, Laura Kennedy and her mother plan to display the book in the local community libraries. So that even more people can hear about the stories of the refugees.
