Die Arche - Gottingen (Lower Saxony)

Dear ARCHE-friends,

once again, we are so thankful for all your support – united, we can create a strong response to child poverty.

In this report, we want to share our impressions about people that never chose to become what we call them now: Refugees. Their distress has been answered by a heated political debate about numbers and borders instead of men, women and children. Everyone has formed an opinion about “how many should be let in” - but not only private persons forget that tasks do not end at the entrance gate of a refugee shelter.

Of course, refugee children and their families matter to us as well. Of course, we let everyone in – and we also hit the road to invite them… But read for yourself!

Back in summer, some of our older ARCHE-kids supported our youngest during a very special excursion: Equipped with ale-benches, colourful balloons, music and cheerfulness, we headed to a nearby container-settlement for refugees. We set up cool games and our kids even performed a play: Under the motto “You can achieve anything”, three cute piglets even beat an evil wolf. What our kids wanted to convey was that one never should quit but try to give everything for one’s dreams. At the end, a refugee child came to one of our ARCHE-pedagogues and asked: “Will you come again tomorrow?” Well, we would love to. But of course, our children cannot always fill a role for others. The challenges and issues they themselves must face every day do not stop. Hence, it is important that we do not take away from the attention we must give to all the children who are already used to coming to us.

So: What is our answer to this asking refugee child? We cannot come every day. But we invite everyone warmly to come to our houses – we strongly believe that our capacities are big enough. We were able to broaden them and to set up programmes considering refugee children’s backgrounds. We also invite their parents to language cafés that shall foster integration. Refugee children appreciate our answer: More and more kids visit our houses and find new friends. Thus, some finally settle into their new environment. Intercultural friendships are not only a good way to overcome cultural bias. We often notice that children learn something about themselves when they learn something about their friends with other backgrounds.

This report tries to emphasize our attitude in this topic: We must never forget love of neighbour. Our aspiration is to put that into practice.

Dear supporters! Thank you sincerely for enabling DIE ARCHE to be there for children in need. No matter what background they have. And still being considerate of that background. We would be very grateful if children in need remain close to your heart in the future.