I have been working as an integration officer for the FNNF Foundation for several years now. In this role, I support the Hasan family and their relatives and friends with help and advice. We spend time together cooking, making music and singing. We also discuss current political and social crisis issues. My integration work continued positively on all these levels last year, with many successful individual steps.
This includes, first of all, how the children have developed this year. In addition to supporting them with their school work, I also provided them with emotional support in 2023. The children now are teenagers aged 12, 13 and 14. They received their first foreign language lessons and were promoted with good grades.
I paid particular attention to the two girls. Their support is particularly important to me so that they continue to have the opportunity to get a good education and training, which is not necessarily a given in Syrian culture. The girls, Minas and Nagam, are very active in sports. They enjoy exploring the surrounding area on the bicycles I got them. Nagam, the middle girl, has been in the daily newspaper several times with her dance club and she was also among the best in her school in a running and fundraising event. Her eldest brother, Baran, is still in the soccer club and is making lots of friends and is well integrated. He once wanted to join the military, but today he absolutely refuses to use a weapon.
Overall, I see a lot of positive development potential in these young Syrians and further development of their personalities. I had to deal with a lot of bureaucracy this year, both with them and with their parents and relatives. Partly in cooperation with volunteer refugee helpers from the town of Fritzlar. Among other things, the family found a larger apartment this year, and I was at their side there too.
Her mother is always at home and takes great care of her children. She is still most attached to her Syrian homeland, so that I have been able to provide friendly help over the last few years to minimize the emotional suffering to some extent. The head of the family, Mr. Hasan, is now independent of almost all previous support from the social systems. He enjoys his work as a warehouse worker.
This development was particularly close to my heart. I had to have many, sometimes tough, conversations about this. The family can now look after themselves and are learning to combine more and more western values with their previous culture. For everyone, language development continues in an individual way from year to year.
My conclusion is that a lot has been learned and passed on. Now they have to and will increasingly be able to manage everyday life on their own. I am very satisfied with all the maturation and development processes. But in the end, we will see individually which seeds will bear fruit in the future.
The continuous integration of my area of activity into the wider framework of the Foundation’s work has resulted in a lively relationship with the members of the Foundation Board. This intensive period is now coming to an end, as I am leaving the region.
Looking back, the years of my involvement with the FNNF Foundation and its integration work fill me with great gratitude. I and everyone involved were able to learn a lot with and from each other and pass it on. Supporting charitable activities in my field of work continues to have a special social significance for me.
Monika Paulig
