Finding + supporting mentors for pupils in Berlin

Dear donors,

like mentioned in our last report, on 25^th of May the annual festival for the neighborhood took place again, which is organized in community centers all over Europe. We spent a nice afternoon with neighbors, supporters and friends with music, food and shows from groups practicing in our community center.

Since we had numerous interviews with interested volunteers, we were able to offer another workshop for them in the end of June. Unfortunately, not all of the interested volunteers were able to make it due to illness or work, but four of them participated in our workshop. In July summer break started for our school kids in Berlin, what means that a lot of new mentees as well as mentors are on holidays. But we still try to match some of the mentors and mentees that stay in Berlin for summer and will continue when school starts again in the end of August.

We already talked about farewells of mentees and mentors in our last report. In July unfortunately another mentor told us, he has to end his involvement in the program because he moves to Italy for at least one year to continue his studies abroad. This mentor/mentee match signed their contract in February 2016 and the mentee, a boy, is almost 14 years old. So, we arranged a little farewell here and talked about the reason why we have to end it, what they experienced together and what they think were the highlights. The mentee answered that everything they did was great. He and his mother were really thankful for the time the mentor spent with him. We looked at the documents of 2016 and remembered that they made a drawing instead of writing down what they want to do together (as you can see on the picture). Looking at the picture, they realized, that they actually did almost all the things they agreed on and, of course, even more. But there was one thing they didn’t do so far – a barbecue together. Since we always suggest also having a more personal farewell together as a last meeting, they decided to do a barbecue in a few weeks.
The mentee is not interested in a new mentor because he is now old enough and also shares every free time with friends. But we asked if his little sister is interested, since she already mentioned sometimes she would love to have a mentor as well. So we try to find a mentor for his little sister.

One highlight for all the kids that stay in Berlin during summer break will be the trip to an evening session of the European Athletics Championship. This year the European Athletics Championship takes place in Berlin between the 7^th and 12^th of August. We, as the project PaSch, asked the organization if it was possible to get some free tickets for our mentees and mentors, so especially the mentees would be able to get the opportunity to visit a special sport event like that - and also be able to visit the Berlin Olympic Stadium. Luckily, they agreed and offered us free tickets. So, we are happy that around 20 (!) mentees and mentors are able to visit the European Athletics Championship together on 7^th of August - though it is summertime and a lot of the mentees are on vacation. We will definitely report the next time about our joint trip to the European Athletics Championship.

What will be next?

We are looking forward to offer another workshop for mentors and match some more new mentor/mentee couples.

We are excited to offer a recycling and waste workshop in our community center during the Berlin volunteer days in September and will definitely invite our matches to first help clean our district and then, during the workshop, learn about what waste and recycling is all about and even what you can do with waste – sculptures and other useful stuff.

We say thank you for your donation and your support and a great summertime for everyone!

Dear donors,

We want to let you know what happened in our project since our last report in February. We told you about a workshop we offered for new volunteers. So, when the volunteers absolved their training, we start to match and we were able to bring together some mentees with their new mentors. One moving story about a new mentorship is of a mentee that I know since 2013. He already had a mentor for 3 years, starting here when he just turned 8. His family is from Chechnya and his mom was really happy to find out about the project and was very thankful for the mentor sharing time with him, help him with homework and by talking German with him also enhance his German skills. His mom hardly speaks and understands German, so she is not able to support his son. After around 3 years of being in a close mentorship and also having a very good relationship to his mom as well as to his elder sister, the mentor told me she had to end the mentorship because she wasn’t able any more to support her mentee weekly due to her job and personal reasons. We arranged a farewell which was really hard and sad for everyone after 3 years of almost weekly meetings. The family was really thankful for all her support. We talked about their experiences, their highlights, what they achieved and learned from each other and made sure that they keep in touch and see each other once in a while to not lose track. When we told the mentee that he has the possibility to get to know a new mentor, he wanted someone just like his former mentor… So, we waited some months, talked to the mentee if he rather wanted the mentor to be a woman or a man having in mind that he gets older. Since he didn’t care, we found another mentor (woman) after a while. They also got along very well and he was happy to have a mentor again to talk to, go outside and do some sport with etc. But unfortunately we had to close that mentorship after around 9 months due to changes in the mentor’s job. Though it was another break up, our mentee asked himself for a new mentor. So, since he got older again, we all agreed to find a male mentor this time, which was not easy because for about 8 months now there were no male mentors interested in the project. We told him he has to be patient and that we will do our best to find someone appropriate. Our mentee called once in a while to ask, if we already found someone and that he really wishes to have someone again to go outside with, talk to and discuss with… In the end, we were able to contact an “old mentor” who was very interested again and fortunately back in Berlin after some periods abroad. So we were really happy to bring them together and even happier, that they really like each other. After the first meeting, the mentee told me with a big smile on his face, that his new mentor is a really “cool guy”. So they signed their contract and two weeks later, the mentee brought flowers to say thank you and we were pretty touched by that gesture of a 12 year old boy.

One of our highlights in spring was our field trip on 15^th of April to the circus called Cabuwazi. For the third time we were able to offer this special event thanks to the donations! This time 8 mentees with their mentors or parents met to get there as a group. Since the circus had to move, we got to know the new location on the Tempelhofer Feld, which used to be a small airport in the city and nowadays is Public Park to do sport, relax, do barbecue etc. And Cabuwazi moved its tents to an area on the former airport close to an accommodation for refugees. They offer a great youth and community work and training for kids living in the accommodation as well as in the neighborhood. We enjoyed the 4 hours’ workshop with two coaches just for us and had an intense and fun time. The kids learned a lot and practiced on the trapeze, on the trampoline, doing artistic tricks with a ladder and they learned how to walk on globes. In the end, the mentees proudly presented a really nice performance to their mentors and parents. We were all thrilled by how talented the mentees were and how fast they improved their skills and developed their own show. It was a very nice afternoon and the kids were really happy, thankful and proud of themselves.

We were also able to offer a coming together for our mentors on 8^th of May to share experiences between new mentors and already experienced ones. This time, we were able to sit outside, enjoy the warm weather while sharing stories and experiences. The mentors shared ideas what field trips might be interesting for kids and talked about what kind of input they are interested in. A mentor told us that her mentee is very stubborn and defiant once in a while, which is very difficult sometimes to handle. Another mentor experienced the same in the beginning. Especially in the first months of mentorship a lot of kids in our project test their limits towards their mentors and want to figure out, if the mentee will stay by their side and how far they can go. So, we plan to offer an information evening on that topic and hope to be able to invite a child and adolescent psychotherapist.

What are our next plans?

Well, after we had numerous consultations with interested mentors, we plan another workshop for them. We will also continue to match more mentors and mentees.

We also invited already for the annual festival for the neighborhood which is organized in community centers all over Europe. We are looking forward to spend a nice afternoon on 25^th of May with friends, supporters and neighbors with music, food and shows from groups practicing in our community center.

And then, let’s see, what possibilities summertime offers…

We want to say thank you for your donation and your support, so we are able to continue our work and offer new activities for our mentors and mentees! Thank you!