BUILDING CHANGE-AGENTS IN
GERMANY AND FINLAND
The German Neighbourhood Mothers’ Project and its origins
by Anna Lenkewitz-Salminen
They are successful because they are
authentic. They bring their own
experiences, a cultural understanding, and
a can-do attitude. They are:
Neighbourhood Mothers. The country in
which they are active does not matter as
all of them have the same aim ₋ to help
other families, mothers, women and
children find their way in a new culture.
The Neighbourhood Mothers project
began in the year 2004, in Berlin-Neukölln,
the part of Berlin that is known as a social
melting pot and a hot spot, with a high
unemployment rate, low levels of
education, a mixture of diverse cultures,
and poverty. Over 70% of the children in
this region are threatened by poverty. Lots
of migrant families lack access to German
society and culture owing to language
barriers, their family structures, or simply,
the feeling of not being understood. 80 –
95% of school children are from immigrant
backgrounds. In such a situation, children
and teenagers suffer the most, because in
Germany,
“...(e)ducational success highly depends
on where a child comes from, and it is a
fact that children from immigrant
backgrounds are still the ones who stand
to lose most in German society,” explains
Sükran Topuz, coordinator of the
Neighbourhood Mothers’ project in
Berlin-Kreuzberg.
How is it possible to reach those families
and parents that have never really been a
part of German society or have lost the
connection to it? How can the gap
between immigrant families and the
German administration and culture be
closed? The solution was as easy as it
was successful: Why not make the
mothers and parents of those immigrant
families a valuable resource and a part of
the integration process?
And so, the Neighbourhood Mothers’
project was born!