“We are mostly ladies, women, teenagers, and girls. We have many different names. We bring all sorts of stories that belong only to ourselves.” On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Antonina Stasiuk, Project Manager of the Open Hearts Space wrote about the diversity that lies within the community.

Lizzy Grosvenor, a Social Psychology Masters student and project intern at Give Something Back to Berlin, attended a study session recently called ‘Managing mental health as a refugee, asylum seeker and migrant’. We asked Lizzy to tell us about this crucial yet rarely discussed topic.

The first report "Risktaker Pulse" of the new Allianz Foundation presents a detailed picture of the present struggles of the European civil society.

December 16 is World Arabic Language Day. Eva Hangartner, who helps lead the Arabic Sprachcafé at Give Something Back to Berlin (GSBTB), explores why she has continued to learn this poetic language.

As a result of the massive influx of migrants, which saw the largest groups coming from Syria and Afghanistan, a German “Wilkommenkultur,”or Welcome Culture, quickly developed. Instigated by German civil society, groups voluntarily mobilized en masse to support refugee integration in numerous ways. This included the establishment of a number of grassroots organizations – an estimated 150 in Berlin alone.

Around this table, our relations became closer, and we became more than a family. We became close, and this table became the nucleus of our supposed homeland, which we built together, meal by meal and cup by cup.