Newspaper bags by and about refugees (Nuremberg)

Newspaper bags by and about refugees

We started this project in 2018 and pursued two ideas. We wanted to draw attention to the fates of refugees and the reasons for their flight in order to reduce fears and prejudices. We achieved this primarily by creating the bags together with refugees.
We reached the people we wanted to sensitise with the help of the newspaper bags and the stories printed on them, but also through participation in our events.

We also succeeded in welcoming ‘non-refugees with a migrant background’ – these included people from Turkey, the Eastern Bloc, Spain and several other countries.
In September 2019, we were able to conclude this project with a large closing event.

We would like to once again thank our patrons Mr Prölß, Dr Pluschke, the City of Nuremberg for its support from the Integration Fund, the AWOthek, the Nürnberger Nachrichten newspaper and the Round Table on Human Rights in Nuremberg.

We believe it is extremely important to get involved in Ethiopia. We are convinced that we can make a difference, especially on the ground! Education and training are very important here, because only well-educated young people can change their own country. That is why this is one of the primary goals of our constitution!

However, it is also very important to us to bring people here in the United Kingdom ‘a little closer to Ethiopia’ because we are convinced that this contributes to international understanding. This is so important to us that we have also enshrined it in our statutes.

However, we do not just see things through rose-tinted glasses, but also recognise the challenges in many countries, for example when it comes to human rights. That is why we are a member of the Alliance against Right-wing Extremism in the European Metropolitan Region of Nuremberg and the Round Table on Human Rights of the City of Nuremberg!

With regard to the current situation with refugees, we are convinced that much of what is currently being portrayed in public is not xenophobia, but is largely driven by ignorance. This is understandable, because people have little contact with the cultures of other continents in their everyday lives. When statements from political parties and/or media reports are added to this, fears can be exacerbated without anyone ever having had a bad experience themselves…

In order to bring our statutes to life here too, we have come up with a project aimed at creating encounters between refugees and the local population. We will use newspaper bags with profiles as a ‘link’.

Why do we want to do such a project in the first place?

We repeatedly encounter the argument that all refugees have no education and are only in Germany to claim social benefits.

If you take a closer look at the people and the situations in their countries of origin, you will see that some of the refugees have no school or vocational training simply because there was no opportunity for school or vocational training in the culture of their country of origin. More importantly, this statement is very often untrue, and many of the refugees are well-educated skilled workers or academics. The general public also often knows little about the reasons for fleeing.

What do we want to do?

We want to make ‘newspaper bags’ with the people in the shared accommodation facilities. These newspaper bags are ‘shopping bags’ made from old newspapers.

Much more important than the carrier bag itself, they serve above all as a vehicle for a message. The aim is for participants to write their own biographies, including their origins, marital status, occupation and reason for fleeing their country. These will then be stuck onto the bags. The newspaper bags with the biographies will be handed out to customers in shops. This will enable customers to learn about the individual fates of people who have come to Germany from different countries for various reasons.

This gives the refugees a face and helps to alleviate fears with the help of old newspapers, some of which previously helped to build up these fears.

We are planning an event for autumn 2018. Here, the people behind these stories will meet the people who have read about them.

How do we want to implement this?

We want to approach the shelters and other facilities and, under guidance, create newspaper bags with the people there. It is also important that people can tell ‘their story’, which will then be used to create a biography/profile. This will allow interested parties to learn about the person, their marital status, occupation, origin and, above all, the reason for their flight – this person is given a ‘face’.

We are very pleased…

…that we were able to win Dr Pluschke (Environmental Officer for the City of Nuremberg) and Mr Prölß (Social Welfare Officer for the City of Nuremberg) as patrons for our project.
The Workers’ Welfare Association in Nuremberg is also already on our side as a partner.
And we are even more delighted that this project is being funded by the Department for Youth, Family and Social Affairs of the City of Nuremberg from the Integration Fund!
We would like to thank the City of Nuremberg!

Project update April 2019

We hadn’t expected such a positive response. We were invited to several workshops and events where we were able to present our project. We also received several enquiries asking if we could sell the bags.

Various institutions, schools and cultural centres held ‘craft afternoons’ and this year we are participating in the Blue Night in Nuremberg (4 May, 7 p.m. to midnight in the city library on the education campus). So far, we have made around 2,000 newspaper bags, which we have distributed to several shops and market traders along with profiles of refugees’ stories.
We plan to continue this project until autumn and then conclude it with a large closing event.

Project update August 2019

Our ‘Global Encounters’ project has now been running for over a year. We officially launched in July 2018. From the outset, the plan was to limit the project to around one year. Around 4,000 newspaper bags have now been produced and we will officially conclude the project with a closing event on 27 September 2019.