The project “OPAT Welcome without Paternalism” aims to contribute to strengthening the perception of people with refugee experience as actors of (development) policy action. The current perception of refugees as recipients of aid stands in the way of equal cooperation. To overcome this hurdle, awareness must be raised on the part of the majority society and empowerment must take place on the part of people with refugee experience. Through the project, the target groups are empowered to behave in a discrimination-sensitive manner on the one hand and empowered to speak up for themselves, point out discrimination and contribute to a change in society in the long term on the other.
On April 24, 2020, a symposium will take place in Berlin to bring together refugees and solidarity initiatives! You can find more information here.
A special focus is on the so-called welcome culture. This professional and voluntary work is immensely important because it makes it easier for many people to arrive in Germany. A common feature of the very different actors in this field is that they are predominantly characterized by people without their own/direct refugee experience. The perspective of those affected is missing here. In this work, both in the media and in direct cooperation, refugees are often turned into objects, passive victims who must be helped and spoken for. Self-organized refugees e.g. from The VOICE and others have often pointed out this problem and their own solidarity work to change racist structures in German society.
Following on from this, we want to counteract these imbalances with our work. For several years now, we have been offering workshops critical of racism and privilege for solidarity groups/initiatives. The target groups are enabled to behave in a discrimination-sensitive manner and are strengthened in their ability to work with refugees on a more equal footing. Refugees are given the opportunity for empowerment at the same time. They are encouraged to speak up for themselves with self-confidence, to demand their rights and not to simply accept discrimination. That is why, after our first successful OPAT project (2016-2017), we are further developing our offerings in the second edition. In the course of the first OPAT project, the glokal publication “Welcome without paternalism. Help and Solidarity in Support Work” was created, which can be ordered here.
The project includes three offerings:
1. awareness-raising workshops for solidarity groups/welcome initiatives:
Write to us if you want to reflect on your own work and make it discrimination-sensitive. We always tailor our offerings to the needs of the groups and have extensive preliminary discussions to ensure that the workshops address the concerns of the groups. We inform about openly advertised events in our newsletter.
2. Empowerment for People with Refugee Backgrounds:
We want to create a space where people who have experienced fleeing their home countries and settling in Germany can share their experiences and support one another. Together, we want to explore how we can address and refuse to accept harm and discrimination—such as what supporters, authorities, and others say and do. In the long term, we want to consider strategies for political organizing and, if appropriate, test them out together. Feel free to contact us if you’d like to organize an empowerment event.
3. Training Series on Political Education for People with Refugee Experience
In this training series, running from May 2018 to June 2019, we are offering up to ten people with refugee experience the opportunity to receive training as facilitators and advisors in political education, so that they can lead the formats mentioned above themselves in the future. In accordance with the group’s needs, the following topics will be covered in five three-day seminars:
1) Empowerment
2) Methods for working with groups
3) Dealing with dominance and power dynamics in group work
4) Introduction to the systemic, power-critical educational approach
5) Reflection on one’s own role
6) Designing your own workshop format
Previous experience working with groups is beneficial but not required. Please feel free to contact us if you’re interested or unsure whether this training program might be a good fit for you. We especially encourage women with refugee backgrounds to apply.
All modules will take place in Berlin.
For registration and questions: opat[at]glokal[dot]org
You can find the flyer here in German, here in English, and here in Arabic.
The project is funded by ENGAGEMENT GLOBAL on behalf of the BMZ and the Landesstelle für Entwicklungszusammenarbeit Berlin.