This is how refugee children paint their homeland
Created: 09/28/2022, 11:29 am
By: Ulrike Osman
"This is my home": Some of the refugee children of the special painting course proudly show their works, which can be seen on the window front of the library.
Present at the opening (from left): Mayor Andreas Haas, Frauke Stechow and Margherita Moroder.
© Peter Weber
Home, what is that actually?
A place, close people - or just a feeling?
As part of a painting project, children from all over the world put down on paper what home means to them.
Germering – The pictures are on display as part of the Intercultural Days in the window front on the west facade of the city library.
Ten girls and boys between the ages of eight and 14 took part in the project as part of the municipal holiday care.
"It's children who live here," says Frauke Stechow from the municipal department for asylum coordination.
She doesn't want to harp on about it, but it's mainly children who have lost their former home through flight.
Everyone was initially unsure about the topic, but then enthusiastic about the matter.
Under the guidance of the head of the painting school, Margherita Moroder, they put their ideas on paper on large-format sheets.
Many had little experience with painting, certainly not with acrylic paints.
None of the images show a specific location.
Instead, nature can be seen: trees, meadows, flowers, birds, the sea.
When the sun shines on the west facade of the library, the colors develop a special luminosity through the tinted panes.
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Eight-year-old Ole was the only one who painted a house – one with lots of windows, even in the roof, that was important to him.
A girl depicted the starry sky including the full moon and Milky Way, and herself lying on the ground and looking at it.
Home is where you feel good.
For some boys this is the soccer field, for 13-year-old Sonja it is a basketball field.
She would like to start this sport, but hasn't found a way yet - home can also be a place of longing.
For Mayor Andreas Haas, it is "my grandmother's cake with the smell that goes with it," as he said at the opening of the exhibition.
Although Haas has lived in Germering since childhood, when he hears the word home he also thinks of Regenstauf, where his grandparents lived, of the holidays he spent there and the smell of cake in the kitchen.
"Home has to do with a feeling of security," says Haas.
"You feel connected."
Ziad Nouri from the Asylum Helpers' Circle is happy about projects like this one, because they give space for creativity to develop.
Most of the children from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Congo are still living with their families in asylum centers.
The cramped conditions would hamper their development, says Ziad Nouri.
"You can never really live it up." But the search for a new home in the form of an apartment is more than difficult.
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Asylum accommodation is to be significantly increased - the city wants to fight back
You can find more current news from the district of Fürstenfeldbruck at Merkur.de/Fürstenfeldbruck.