School center: Great solidarity with Ukraine refugees

Created: 03/30/2022, 06:00

Sleep instead of exercise: the gymnasium of the secondary school on Adalbert-Stifter-Strasse serves as emergency accommodation for refugees from the Ukraine.

© sh/archive

Three schools, one shelter.

Living together in the Geretsried school center works smoothly.

Neighboring clubs also offer support.

Geretsried – Instead of horizontal bar and balance beam, there have been partitions and beds in the Adalbert-Stifter-Halle for about two weeks.

Many Ukraine refugees - around 900 were registered in the district by Sunday - are accommodated there before they are referred to private accommodation.

While buses regularly arrive at the school center, classes at middle and junior high schools continue undisturbed.

The middle school students, who otherwise use the Stifter Hall, now do sports with the neighbors.

"Realschule and Gymnasium immediately offered us alternative dates," says Deputy Headmistress Claudia Rosen.

"That went great."

School sports can continue to be taught

The high school students do not have to cut back because of this.

"Thanks to the new triple gym at the school center, we have sufficient capacity for physical education classes," explains headmaster Christoph Strödecke.

Restrictions are hardly noticeable for the Realschule students either, adds their headmistress Christine Venus-Michel.

The gym situation is very good, also thanks to the new swimming pool.

School operations and emergency accommodation run side by side.

"We're more likely to notice it as onlookers," says Venus-Michel.

Nevertheless, the students deal with the topic of war.

"We try to catch that in class," explains the headmistress.

Not least because children of Ukrainian and Russian descent live together in Geretsried, it is apolitical.

"We want to raise awareness for peace and tolerance."

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School families want to support refugees

The SMV campaign, which was organized independently by the students, also shows that this works well at the Realschule.

As reported, some young women and men as well as teachers stood on the meadow in the form of a peace sign and photographed it from the air.

They wanted to show their solidarity with Ukraine.

"They did very well," says Venus-Michel.

The students, teachers and parents at the high school also want to carry out campaigns to support the refugees.

However, that is not yet ready for a verdict, as the planning is still ongoing, says Strödecke.

"On the part of the school family there is great sympathy and great willingness to help for the people who have fled from the Ukraine," says the headmaster.

The Saftladen youth center is also close to the accommodation.

The sponsoring association for youth and social work wants to set up an offer for young people as quickly as possible, says Hannah Schreyer, who heads the Integration Aktiv coordination office.

A low-threshold language course is also being planned.

"I'm not allowed in because of Corona, but I can hand in flyers," reports Schreyer.

She got a calm impression of living together in the accommodation.

Family meeting is open to refugees

One of the flyers that ended up with the Ukraine refugees this way came from the Wuselvilla family center.

As is well known, the former mothers' center is also only a few steps away.

The team hosts a family café for Ukrainian families on Tuesdays from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

But you are also welcome during the daily opening hours, emphasizes Betül Cakir-Möckl, who coordinates the open meetings.

The invitation has already been accepted with thanks.

"For the children and families, it was more the mothers who came, it's a nice opportunity to have a bit of normality," says Cakir-Möckl.

The adolescents in particular would have liked to use the ball pool, toys and handicrafts in the Wuselvilla on the first two dates.

"We want to offer them a feel-good space."

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