United in one team playing volleyball

That was really fun to play together with the kids from the camp!

Next to my refugee kids project, going to school every day and playing the violin, I really enjoy playing volleyball in the girls-team of the TSV Birkach in my free time (not much left ...). During one of my last visits in the camp, that actually was our volleyball training hall until the refugees arrived in Stuttgart, I felt that it would be great to bring some variety into the kids daily routine. How about playing volleyball with my team? I asked Georg, our trainer, if I could invite some of the kids to train and play with us. Georg was immediately enthusiastic about the idea and so I asked five of the kids over to our training on a Friday afternoon.

I set up the training and asked the girls from my team to take one refugee kid each. Together we introduced them to the basics of volleyball, did some exercises and played the ball across the net. Although we could not talk, playing together worked out perfectly! It was a lot of fun for everyone and for my team-mates it was a new experience, too. May be we can do it again?!

No matter what nationality, we were all united in one team.

European Commission recognizes Refugee Kids of Stuttgart

I was happily surprised when I found my blog being recognized on the  Facebook page of ECHO, the Humanitarian Aid an Civil Protection department of the European Union in Brussels.  ECHO is the European partner organization of the UNHCR, the Refugee Agency of the United Nations. They regularly post new stories about refugees on their Facebook page. Worth liking! 

They received lots of interesting comments for their post about my blog on their Facebook page and some good discussions started from there.

ECHO also has a very interesting blog themselves where they report about refugee kids and other disasters where they provide aid. Go, check it out! 

Tolle Doku im ZDF!

Gestern Abend nach dem Heute Journal lief im ZDF eine tolle Dokumentation über eine Flüchtlingsfamilie mit vier Kindern aus Aleppo/Syrien. Schade, dass sie erst so spät im Programm war – die haben deshalb sicher viele von Euch verpasst. Aber man kann sich die Sendung auf der ZDF-Mediathek nochmal ansehen. Hier der Link dazu:

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek#/beitrag/video/2728170/Das-Schicksal-der-Kinder-von-Aleppo

 

Radio SER Barcelona reports about Refugee Kids of Stuttgart

When I received a message from a Spanish journalist from the radio station SER Barcelona that he wanted to come to Stuttgart to talk with me about my Refugee Kids of Stuttgart project, I could hardly believe it! Marçal Sarrats found my blog when he was researching about refugee kids in Europe.

Last Sunday he came to Stuttgart with his assistant especially for the interview. We met in front of the refugee camp in Birkach. I had not been interviewed before and it was a bit strange because normally I interview people. That way I could experience the other side, too – and It was a great experience! I will not forget it!

After he had interviewed me he spoke with our neighbor Madelaine Linden who informed him about the situation inside the camp and he had a chance to talk with refugees from the camp. At the end he recorded some sound-bites to spice up his report.

On Monday evening his story was already broadcasted on Spanish radio. He reported for more than 10 minutes about my project, which must have really impressed him! 

Listen to the original broadcast here:

Listen to the original broadcast here

Listen to the original broadcast here

Next to his radio broadcast he put the story on to the SER website, which also contains videos and photos.

I would like to say thanks to Marçal Sarrats and his assistant for coming to Stuttgart and reporting about the refugees and my project.