Our Community

Early in 2015 we had just started organising our monthly Team Ups and at one of our first ones, two curious and energetic Syrian men turned up. "We want to do something! We want to get involved! Volunteer, work, anything!" they said. Talal had only arrived in Germany two weeks earlier.

Photographer Olga Baczynska has been covering GSBTB events, large and small, for the past couple of years. When she's not got her camera in hand, you'll probably find her at Clärchens Ballhaus dancing the Balboa!

Amer Khlil is a regular at our weekly Sprachcafé, where our community gathers to practice their German skills. Amer has written this moving story about his journey from Syria to Germany, in German, after just a year of living in Germany.

An interview with Aziz from GSBTB Open Music School band Wulaba - Refugees voice.

"I had to leave everything behind, including my home and relatives. There were no words to describe how much I missed my family, even to this day I have not found the words."

"In Germany, I have a new definition of what it means to be Syrian. I think Syrian people are very strong because we try to be happy no matter what our circumstances are. We take life as it comes and accept the life God gave us."

Danica Simonet volunteered with GSBTB Open Art Shelter for Women and Children throughout summer 2016. There she interviewed some women from Syria for Brother's Keeper International, where this post was first published.

Sinéad Walsh is the volunteer coordinator of GSBTB Open Art Shelter, which runs a weekly Frauenzimmer at Tempelhof, a safe space for women and children to enjoy art and craft projects, chat, and have access to professional therapy.

At the GSBTB Christmas team-up event last year, we hosted a jam session for musicians in our community. The very next day we read the news that one of the performers, Aeham Ahmad, had just been awarded the International Beethoven Prize for Human Rights, Peace, Inclusion and the Fight Against Poverty.

One of our most dedicated volunteers, Kurtis DeLozier, writes about how he sees the impact of his identity on his volunteer work.

Silke Georgi runs GSBTB's English lessons for refugees on Wednesday nights. Here's an English translation of an interview she did for ImmobilienScout 24, which kindly lends us their office space for the lessons every week.

Interviewer Shima Vezvaei met Kinan Harrouk on a rainy Berliner summer afternoon. "We took a long walk just before he went to join the German Sprachcafé with GSBTB at Sharehouse Refugio. We managed to have a German-Arabic-English fusion interview! He told me about his love for football, passion for poetry and his dream of becoming a writer."