Mobility for Refugees in Berlin

Hell yeah! If this kind of thing doesn’t make you love your job, what does?! We just finished our third(!) project with the Berlin based organization “Moabit hilft!” (“Moabit helps!”), a local initiative that helps refugees and asylum seekers in temporary homes in Berlin-Moabit. In order to improve the living conditions of people already facing distress due to their uncertain fate, the organization helps cover the refugees’ basic needs: clothing, sanitary products or toys for the children.

While volunteer work is honorable and of big help to the refugees, it does not pay for certain things as necessary as transportation of donated items, or as healthy as a visit of the zoo, cinema or theater for the kids. This is why with our most recent project, we wanted to help “Moabit Hilft!” raise money to buy tickets for public transport as well as bicycles, and pay for bicycle repairs. In refugee shelters, mobility is an important issue – and unaccessible for most residents. Participation in cultural and other social activities is therefore often impossible for refugees, even though it’s one of the most essential components for integration and language acquisition. Also, visiting authorities, doctors or friends can be a serious financial challenge, especially for bigger families. On top of that, due to the lack of money to buy tickets, residents often use public transport without valid tickets, and are therefore frequently facing serious financial – but also legal – consequences.

Thank you for helping us solve this dilemma by raising the money to buy transferable tickets and bikes! The beautiful photographs below were amongst those which helped finance the project. By the way: if you live in Berlin and would like to learn more about ‘Moabit hilft!’’ and the great work they do, why don’t you join them for their meetings every second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 7pm? The meetings take place at Coffe break, 23 Jagowstraße.