Asylum helpers are looking for supporters for homework help

Created: 08/17/2022, 06:00

By: Verena Moeckl

The new school year will pick up speed by October at the latest.

In order to give the children of refugees a little support, the Dachau Asylum Aid Association is looking for voluntary supporters.

© Patrick Pleul/dpa

The primary school children in the refugee accommodation on Himmelreichweg in Dachau are facing a strenuous school year.

The number of volunteers who have previously helped the children with their homework has fallen sharply.

The Asylum Helpers' Group is urgently looking for volunteers.

Dachau

– Vroni Kuhn is concerned about the coming school year.

Just four volunteers have signed up to help with homework in the refugee accommodation on Himmelreichweg in Dachau.

"My concern is that we can no longer do justice to the children," Kuhn fears.

The 31-year-old is a teacher at the middle school in Dachau-Ost.

For two years she has been helping refugee children with their homework.

She has been in charge of the accommodation in Dachau-Süd for a week.

On average, two to six primary school children are cared for there.

"In order to give the children the best possible support with their homework, we need two volunteers every day," says Kuhn.

That was the case until recently.

Above all, older people who are already retired were involved.

But then Corona came.

Many volunteers took a break at first, but have now stopped altogether.

Because of Corona, many older helpers have stopped

At the same time, there were also many new volunteers, reports Kuhn's predecessor, Ursula Burkner.

“These were mainly younger people who were no longer able to do their jobs or their studies because of Corona.” But that has changed again in the meantime.

They could return to their old jobs or continue their studies as usual.

This is a fiasco for the group of helpers, because there are no volunteers in the coming school year.

And just from October, the children would get a lot of homework.

"We won't be able to handle that as well now," says Kuhn.

The way the group of helpers for homework supervision on Himmelreichweg is currently set up, Kuhn cannot even have one person every school day.

Not to mention being looked after by two helpers.

And there is another problem, says Ursula Burkner, who has been taking care of school support in the asylum working group for eleven years.

Some families get the chance to leave the asylum accommodation and move into their own apartment.

What sounds good at first, however, can become a disadvantage for the children.

Because there is no homework help.

"The children are then in a worse position," says Burkner.

The number of helpers is not sufficient to make home visits to affected families.

"It would be nice if we had more helpers, then we could also cover this area." Because the need is just as high among families who live in private apartments as in refugee accommodation.

In concrete terms, this involves three families in Dachau, each with two children.

Burkner would like them to be considered as well.

But for that to succeed, more helpers are needed.

“No prior pedagogical knowledge is necessary,” emphasizes Kuhn.

"We'll take everyone!"

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Once a week, two hours

The volunteer group Asylum Dachau is looking for volunteers for the coming school year for the refugee accommodation on Himmelreichweg in Dachau, who will help primary school children on a fixed day once a week for two hours with their homework.

It's about motivating the children to read to them, to practice with them and to play together after the work is done.

If you are interested, volunteers can email veronika.kuhn@web.de or ursula.burkner@t-online.de.

You can find more current news from the district of Dachau at Merkur.de/Dachau.