The Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V. (Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V.) in the Dresden regional association operates several refugee shelters, including a family shelter currently housing 33 children from various nations. Here, the Johanniter provide low-threshold social work and act as an important link to moving into municipally-provided housing.
The families arrive with very little of their belongings and, due to limited capacity in the containers, can only bring a small number of personal items. This means they lack a children's room and the possibility of a retreat within their "own" space. Thanks to the toys they have acquired, such as a ping-pong table, scooters, building block sets, soccer goals, basketball hoops, and even sand toys, the Johanniter are able to provide balance in a specially created playroom.
In addition, language barriers should be broken down. Linguistic integration is particularly important for children and young people, as most are already integrated into regular schooling. However, families often only speak their native language, which provides little support for extracurricular language development. Thanks to the acquired learning elements, such as a blackboard, educational games, and teaching materials, traditional school learning is combined with playful elements of everyday learning.
This allows the Johanniter to draw on a wide range of meaningful leisure activities and to carry out targeted project work to integrate families, especially children.
