January 2016 Newsletter Check out what we've been up to this month |
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I hope you all had a great start to the New Year. After a successful AGM in mid-January, we recommenced our activities and slowly got back into our routine. In the meantime a series of regular activities will be happening in Schöneberg. A special thanks to the active volunteers and cafe connections who have facilitated this. |
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German & Guitar lesson Every Tuesday Angelo will be teaching German lessons to small groups of refugees whilst at the same time Simon, from the Neue Musikschule Berlin, will be giving guitar lessons to others. |
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Creative Wednesdays Since September every Wednesday Visioneers has organized a weekly sewing workshop with refugees in Café Connections. After initially working with children, women and men of various nationalities from a nearby refugee center, and making, for example, colorful handbags, we eventually decided to focus on unaccompanied adolescents aged between 14 and 17 years, mainly from Afghanistan. On Giving Tuesday as a kick off to the day 35 unaccompanied teenagers turned up for the crafting activities. Meanwhile, we have a group of ten to fifteen regularly participating boys. The progress, which the adolescents have undergone in the few weeks is immense. The sewing courses are an integrative project, with fun and being creative together as the primary focus. We laugh a lot, and in so doing playfully overcome language and cultural barriers. The team that supports the participants consists of volunteers, some of whom also have creative backgrounds, whilst others themselves are still learning German, such as Omar from Syria or Laura from France, thus showing we can all learn from each other. |
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Football training Whilst some sew, another 20 - 30 refugees play football with coaches across the road in the nearby sports hall. |
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Music Session From mid-February, we invite you to join us for an ‘encounter with music’ – students from a performing arts school for young people and their teachers want to play music and sing in many languages with the unaccompanied adolescent refugees.
Do you like music and exciting encounters – drop by Café Connections at 17.00 – we look forward to seeing you there! | | |
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Corporate Volunteering On Monday, the 25th of January 2016, we ran a joint cooking event with DaWanda. Issam und Omar headed the project together with Robert Bernau and Anni. This was a pilot project, which we would also like to offer many other companies. It was a fantastic evening with, as usual, delicious Arabic food. |
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Youthservice & Hangout Also, the youth service and hangout at the Baptist church in Wannsee was once again well attended and over 100 young people were excited about spending a great evening playing games and eating. The next youth service will take place on Saturday, 26th February at 16.30. | | |
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Costa Rica Mission David, our Costa Rica project leader has taken the long journey to Costa Rica and will be warmly welcomed by the team in Limon on his arrival on the 3rd of March. So far 5 volunteers have signed up so we still have 2 spots remaining. Again, we need donations of materials to complete construction of the bathroom facilities. Thanks also to the non-profit organization, EduOwl, who will be supporting us with construction. | | |
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I want to thank all of you for your support, time and assistance in the various roles and groups within VISIONEERS and look forward to a shared 2016. Warm regards, Natascha. |
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