For the first time, the district's foreigners' advisory council awarded integration prizes to voluntary asylum workers.
Your commitment shows that refugees can only really arrive with persistent support.
About the winners and their great, voluntary commitment.
District - A Söckinger who does homework and excursions with refugee children. A field finger who gets jobs for young men. A woman from Starnberg and a woman from Oberbrunn who bring women from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan together with locals. And a group from Weßling who teaches German to refugees during film shoots. All of them were awarded the integration prize on Monday evening in the district office by the district's foreigners' advisory council. A five-person jury evaluated the proposals from society and selected the winners. The award, endowed with 1250 euros in each case, was presented for the first time. The second chairwoman of the Foreigners Advisory Council, Larissa D'Avila da Costa, emphasized: “We want to honor those who take their own initiative and help others independently of the government. That creates solidarity,Integration, empathy and diversity in our society. "The winners:
Norbert Franken helps refugee children with their homework
Norbert Franken sat in front of around 25 listeners in the district office and talked about a foreign boy who cannot speak a word of German.
“But he's got it with numbers.
It's amazing at what levels you get together. ”Every Tuesday and Thursday, the Söckinger Franconia goes to the asylum accommodation in Percha to practice math and German with children in a playful way.
Since five years.
Officially, his voluntary service is called homework supervision.
But it's much more than that.
The pensioner played mini golf with the youngsters or accompanied them to the Circus Krone in Munich.
“You don't have a chance to learn German outside of school,” he said.
When many refugees suddenly came to the district, Norbert Franken made a conscious decision to do this voluntary work.
Also to have a job in retirement.
In the meantime, the groups of asylum workers have become much smaller.
Franken hopes “that others will agree to help”.
Uschi Koch-Bagli provides jobs for young asylum seekers
Nothing is better for integration than work: Uschi Koch-Bagli not only represents this conviction - she lives it. When around 120 young men, mainly from Afghanistan and Eritrea, came to Feldafing in September 2015, she first set up a clothes closet in the former post office building. Then she helped the refugees get internships, one-euro jobs and apprenticeships, and supported them in dealing with authorities. The fact that things went relatively quickly is due to one of Koch-Bagli's characteristics, as laudator Walter Föhr said: "Patience is not exactly her strength." She also has "an aversion to injustice, an indomitable will and astonishing energy".
After a serious bicycle accident, she visited an Eritrean twice a week at the Murnau clinic. At some point, some of the young men said "Mama" to Koch-Bagli.
She herself says modestly: "The migrants themselves have achieved the greatest achievement." And: "I know only a few people who are happy without a job - regardless of which country they come from."
Susanne Temmler and Nadia Tihli bring women together
“Completing a German course doesn't help if refugees have no contact with locals”: Susanne Temmler from Starnberg represents this basic conviction.
Together with Nadia Tihli, she started the “Women's meeting with refugee women” initiative in August 2016.
The participants in the monthly get-togethers at the Starnberg senior citizens' meeting come from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran - but also from the district.
Age or religion only play a minor role.
A selection of the diverse activities that the pandemic severely slowed down: Cooking together, swimming lessons, an information event on the German school system, a visit to a museum in Munich and a boat trip to Tutzing.
Neighborhood Aid Weßling makes films with refugees
The special prize in the “Children and Youth” category went to the community of Neighborhood Aid Weßling under the direction of Monika Toews and Ulrike Roos von Rosen.
The group even made it onto the big screen in the district office.
The trailer for the self-made film “Prince Achmed and the Fairy Queen” could be seen.
Roos von Rosen spoke of a "language bath" when she talked about the film project with refugees and locals.
“Learning is automatic.” Some parts of a word had to be said several times, today they speak German relatively fluently.
Three feature films have since been made.
Actors who now live elsewhere also remain loyal to the group.
Roos von Rosen summarized in one sentence why: "It's just a pleasure."
