Leather Workshop
Since the end of 2016 Visioneers is offering, a Leathersewing Workshop for women powered by the support of the idea-contest “local social capital”. A team of six persons, consisting of refugees and germans are leading and organizing the workshop
Mouod from the Iran and graduated as an electric engineer. He came to Germany as a refugee. He is leading the workshop, so a first step to integrate in the german labour market is established. He speaks Farsi, English and german and can help a lot with occasional language barriers.
Fateme is also from the Iran and graduated as a grafic designer. She is able to help the different participants with the different worksteps in Farsi, English and german.
Steffi studied product desing in Berlin and is supporting the team and members with her creative talents. She was working many years in Africa developing and leading several social projects in the field of design. She is happy and excited to bring in her knowledge to Visioneers.
Vera is studying social work in the last semester and can bring in her achieved knowledge from the university career and gain new practical experiences. Especially she was excited to take the chance to work in a team with very different origins. Additionally projects with women is something she is really dedicated to.
Linda and Maria are our two interns and support the workshop voluntarily in organization and execution.
At the beginning, the workshop took place once a week in Café Connections in Berlin-Schöneberg. Due to the fact of raising interest of people, especially from the refugee-place Heckeshorn, the workshop is now located at Wannsee every Thursday.
Our vision is to enable women through this workshop an easy access to the german language and culture and to give them a slight insideview of the national labour market
Every Thursday when we meet on the afternoon we start with a group conversation. Some women are there every Thursday, some are there the first time. After getting to know each other and introducing the project, we start. We are producing different leather products like wristbands, bracelets and key fobs. The individual projects get planned from Mouod, Vera and Steffi and the idea is to handcraft those products with simple tools so everybody can get active and participate with their work. The Projects at the refugees homes differ slilghtly. At first the workshop-team has to identify oneself and gets registered. The team mostly consists of four persons. Two are preparing the room (getting the material in place, put snacks on the table and build up some games for the kids). The two others are trying to motivate refugees in a direct approach. The most women are directly excited and recognize us so they come over to participate. Very often the kids are helping to understand because their german is more advanced. Like that the contact to the women is getting created and afterwards a mouth-to-mouth marketing takes place. A lot of women in Wannsee are interested to get away from their daily routine and get creative, additionally they feel comfortable in that private, personal environment. To give the mothers the space to get creative and work we are preparing games for the children’s and are looking after them.
Through the creative work together as one team with the refugees, the socials skills with each other increase significantly and a link between the refugees from the different cultures and us, the german volunteers is forged. The focus is the communication in german and the work in a team.
The participating women are really interested and chatty and understand nether less of some language barricades what is necessary to do for the work steps. Especially it is a huge pleasure for them to see the success in creating something, which they can take back home. Additionally the exchange of words and opinions in a private round with other women is a big surplus. We are looking forward for a lot of creative and informative Thursday afternoons at Wannsee, where we always have fun in a good, easy atmosphere.
We are saying thank you for your support!
