Page 39 - Headingtonian Magazine 2017

THE HEADINGTONIAN 2017
ALUMNA SPOTLIGHT
LEARNING AND LIVING IN WILHELMSBURG
CLAIRE EWBANK
2010
In the news, walls are going up, fears are rising and uncertainty prevails. Whilst barriers are mounted, lives are being broken down and people scattered.
I’ve been living in Hamburg for eleven months now and I am working as a kids and youth worker for a church in Wilhelmsburg, a very multi-cultural area of the city. I’ve got to know a lot of refugee families and it’s a massive privilege to share in their stories and lives here and to attempt to help them rebuild parts of their fragmented lives. As you try to help you realise how little you can do, but sharing life together is valuable. I have been learning about the Middle East over cups of chai tea and falafel sandwiches. As I write, Rosie, 9, from Afghanistan, is in our café-come-office playing with my boss’ dog. She comes here almost every day after school and hangs out with
us or does some homework. She and her family took years to travel to Germany, in which time the four children learnt Greek, a bit of English and now speak very good German.
In April, my friend and I started up a youth group for girls. Every Friday, teenagers in the area from all sorts of countries come and spend time together - maybe baking, doing craft or playing games. In a mixture of German, Arabic, Bulgarian and Albanian, we often discuss different topics, for example, friendship or peace or joy.
It’s been amazing to see how the group has grown, not necessarily hugely in numbers, but definitely in trust. Nine months on, some of them came last week to the opening night of my first art exhibition here in our office. I’d done some portraits of some of them and their siblings and we had a lot of fun taking photos of them with their pictures! The paintings, poems and photos I have written and made are going to be in our office for the next month. It is a joy to meet people as they come in and talk to them about the stories behind the pictures, allowing them to share in what I am learning and living.
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