statt Rede in der BVV, heute auf einer Friedensdemo der Lehrergewerkschaft und anderer zivilgesellschaftlicher Organisationen in Mersin

Dear friends,

Coming back from an early assessment mission, I saw children in Kilis selling sweets on the streets. – Great, I say, there are at least small-scale societal mechanisms that keep children from begging. I take it as an indication of exhausted capacities to cater properly for those children, yet also of a communal resilliance that allows the children to keep their last bit of dignity.

In Karataş, I saw children collecting rubbish in the streets. Whilst this may be regarded as a higher level of occupying refugees in the above line of reasoning, I think it is not for children. these children are effectively exploıted – by their parents who are preoccupied with survival in the face of war, by ruthless locals who make a profit and by the community as a whole that turns a blind eye. Children are to go to school.

How to provide for a minimum of schooling in the face of war, emergency and limited resources? The challenge seems to be enormous, yet I refuse to give in. The answer lies in just that: Awareness. That means, letting the adminsistration know that the problem exist. Far too often the administration is not even aware, then it’s slow to react and feels no responsibility… because – and that’s why I told youı about Kilis and Karataş – we, the people in our communities are often not aware of the problem and challanges. We, ourselves, have to open our eyes and face the needs of the poorest, weakest, the most innocent victims of war, give them their dignity and provide them with the fundamentals of any prospects for a future – which is schooling and education.

Once we dare open our eyes and go lobby our administrations – at the local, the national and the international level – things become easier then they seem. There are quite a number of programmes and best practices, of curricula, online tools and offlıne monitoring, of vulunteering and community teachers. There are international funds available – US $ 4 billion per year have just been pledged; and there is the infrastructure – at least here in Turkey: there is schooling in camps, there are the temporary education centers, and there is here, in Merzitli the Syrian Social Gathering (SSG) which has been operating a centre including educational facilities, successfully, for the last 5 years.

That the SSG is now facing a closure of its facilities – in the face of 20.000 children not schooling in Mersin alone and growing needs – cannot be tolerated. I want to safe the operations of SSG at its current location – for the good of the local community; I want sSG, the localised organisation for refugees, to penetrate into the local community – for exchange and mutual cultural enrichment; and I want the same for my place, Schöneberg in Berlin, and I want this axıs, Schöneberg-Mezitli, to become a transnational force for education, for refugee support and for peace.

I thank you for your support.