pfeil_startseite

INITIAL POSITION

Each day adolescents from different countries of origin arrive at Munich central station. A lot of arriving refugees usually know scarcely anything about Germany, the challenges and also about their opportunities they can face here. The only hope is that maybe the situation might be better for them here as compared to their home countries.

They are often insecure about how they should behave in this new environment.
Many experiences can be overwhelming for them. They are confronted with different possibilities of transportation, like the “U-Bahn”. To travel with that you need to buy a ticket from vending machines and most likely you have to stamp them that they valid.

Eventually refugees are exposed to unfamiliar advertisements or rules and laws that they find hard to comprehend. In their countries of origin many aspects differ from ours and their daily life is regulated by other necessities. Their experiences might make it harder for adolescents to get used to this new environment.

AIMS OF THIS WELCOMEGUIDE

The MY-WelcomeGuide aims to provide simple advice for adolescents and children, who had to flee their home country, on how to adjust to their new environment, in the form of short video-clips. These videos, produced with the help of refugees, don’t want to patronize, but rather communicate information in an entertaining and original way.

The overall aim of the project is to engage young refugees together with germans without experiences of fleeing in producing welcome-clips that give advice to those that just arrived.
Central subjects are the challenges of everyday life and to show them how they can participate in the german society and culture. The parcipitating adolescents will be actively involved on all levels of the video-clip production. This includes direct involvement in the choice of subjects, as well as the realization of the video-clips themselves. This ensures that the issues match the needs of the refugees that arrive in Munich.

The participants were supported by media-educationists of the 'Medienzentrum München', from the ‘JFF – Institut für Medienpädagogik in Forschung und Praxis’ as well as a consultant-panel from a number of organizations, especially from the domain of intercultural engagement. These consultants act as advisors for the choice of addressed subjects and ensure that the communicated messages are free of misunderstandings.

THEMATICS OF THIS WELCOMEGUIDE

All videos have the same framework which is benchmarking them as part of the MY-WelcomeGuide.

Each video has a maximum duration of 3 minutes and is accessible through the YouTube Channel My-WelcomeGuide and on the website www.MY-WelcomeGuide.de.
The Videos have been translated into nine different languages such as german, dari, farsi, french and somali. Furthermore all Clips are constructed in a way that they can be understood nonverbally. That led to many different videos that can be watched from everyone in need of tips or help.

DESIGN OF THIS WELCOMEGUIDE

The videos are designed that they address juvenile refugees, in an entertaining and informative way, but also to be used for the work of interested, initiatives and organizations, which can use these videos at events or as part of their consolatory activities. The project is under the organization and supervision of the "Medienzentrum München". The project-lead will be taken by the "Medienzentrum München" as part of the JFF.
The clips are made public through www.MY-WelcomeGuide.de, were everyone can see and use them. If you liked the Welcome-clips or think they are useful please consider sharing them with others.

Back to Top