Finding + supporting mentors for pupils in Berlin

Dear donors, Thank you for your contribution to PaSch. I’m happy to share the newest evolutions of the project. At the end of last year, we casted a few seeds that start to push through and grow. Therefor we experience an event- and changeful time at the moment. In the last months of 2019 we interviewed new volunteers who want to become a mentor for PaSch. Some of them proofed dependable interest and competences. On top of that we could change the project structure and integrate another colleague into the team. So we concluded the last year with the promising perspective of new mentorships and spirit in the project. In December we celebrated the conclusion of a successful year. As the community of NachbarschaftsEtage we organized a big celebration for children, families and adults. The afternoon was filled with interactive Arabic fairy tales, making stars, creating with plants and candles and a choir’s performance. The shared dinner and the Klezma music afterwards was a great pleasure to everyone and people continued dancing and chatting all evening long. Another highlight in December was a PaSch tandem receiving a honouring of „Berliner Helden Bescherung“. A well-know Berlin newspaper organized a charity event to honour volunteers and donate to non-profit organisations. Thanks to our volunteer’s engagement we were lucky to be chosen and spent a festive and entertaining evening all together; the mentoring tandem, the mentee’s mum and the project coordinator. New near, new people, new start… In the first weeks of January we prepared the on-boarding of new mentors. Mid-January was the time to bring four volunteers together to train them for their mentorship. We spent 4 hours on discussing the mentee’s needs and the mentor’s responsibilities. It was an intense evening and with information on the mentee’s social background, exercise of communication and intercultural interaction and personal reflection on the mentor’s expectations. Becoming aware all the children’s challenges, they were partly overwhelmed but more than ever willing to contribute to their succeeding. It was an effective evening, that prepared the mentor’s minds and hearts for the mentoring to come. The mentor’s evaluation of the training concept was appreciating and reinsured us in the way we prepare and supervise the mentoring. The next weeks will be exciting, too. Mentors and mentees will meet and to get to know each other. New mentorships will be formed. This process is accompanied by the actual two colleagues. As the new colleague, Aynur Pinarbasi, starts to find her routines and enriches PaSch. She is a very experienced and skilled social worker, with Turkish language skills. She is in charge of caring for the mentee’s families, if they need support and advice. By the end of February the current project coordinator will leave the town and therefor PaSch at the end of February. The previous project coordinator will come back and – little by little – take the thing back into her hands. All these changes are challenging but also great chances for development. We are really looking forward to work as a two-women’s team and to start the new mentorships in the next weeks and months. We’ll keep you update and, once more, are very grateful for your contribution to PaSch.

• Urkunde_und_Zeitungsartikel.pdf (PDF)