• Newcomers Are Not a Problem to Solve: How SINGA Deutschland Builds Participation

    Newcomers Are Not a Problem to Solve: How SINGA Deutschland Builds Participation

    WHP: Could you briefly introduce SINGA Deutschland? What is its main mission in Berlin? Sen Zhan: SINGA Deutschland was founded in 2016 by a brilliant team of three co-founders — Luisa Seiler, Sima Gatea, and Vinzenz Himmighofen — as a humanitarian response at a moment when many newcomers were arriving in Germany. From the beginning, […]

  • The Berlin Lesson: Trust People, Not Bureaucracies

    The Berlin Lesson: Trust People, Not Bureaucracies

    I was reading Walter’s article about volunteering, and made me think deeply. I come from a society where volunteering was never a tradition. The imperative was: everyone takes care of themselves. If someone works unpaid, they are considered a loser or being taken advantage of. Applying to university never required any kind of volunteer experience, […]

  • The Power of Ehrenamt: Finding Connection Through Volunteering in Berlin

    The Power of Ehrenamt: Finding Connection Through Volunteering in Berlin

    The news is grim these days. Everywhere we look things are going off the rails. The cost of living, and the political maneuverings… everything seems like too much, too soon, and too fast. And it’s easy to give in to the atomization of 21st century life; we are millions of people living alone. Alone in […]

  • Six Pictures from the Future — A Glimpse into Tomorrow’s Berlin

    Six Pictures from the Future — A Glimpse into Tomorrow’s Berlin

    For a campaign, you need many elements — but everything starts with funding. That’s why we first want to give enormous thanks to the supporters of WahlheYmatPost, to everyone who believes in what we do and why we do it: the Welcome Alliance Fund by ProjectTogether and the Bundesministerium des Inneren. And a heartfelt thank-you […]

  • Welcome to the Club: How Vereine Can Turn Berlin from a City of Strangers into a Home

    Welcome to the Club: How Vereine Can Turn Berlin from a City of Strangers into a Home

    In 2000 Robert D. Putnam published a book, “Bowling Alone”, in which he argued that Americans were becoming increasingly isolated and removed from community and social capital. He took the institution of the Bowling League as his prime example. I remember when the book came out – though, admittedly, I never got around to reading […]

  • Bürgerbeteiligung: Participation or Paperwork?

    Bürgerbeteiligung: Participation or Paperwork?

    Berlin invites its citizens to participate — but only after the decisions are made. A visit to the Bürgerbeteiligungsbüro: where good intentions meet German bureaucracy. I was so happy when I first discovered the Bürgerbeteiligungsbüro. Yes! Finally, a place for participation! It took me quite some time, though, to understand what this institution is actually […]

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