As the project coordinator, Anja Müller orchestrates the
Malteser Werke’s language program and organizes the work
of the language teachers and volunteer assistants. Müller,
who studied cultural anthropology, sees the success of her
activities every day. She is convinced that the German les
sons boost the refugees’ confidence and encourage them to
make contact with their new home country. The refu
gees’ eagerness to learn and their gratitude touch her time
and time again. But she still has one great wish: “We
need more generous donators like ALTANA. Then we could
do so much more.”
many to take a German course. Which
means lost time for the newcomers, much
of which they spend waiting.
“The core of our concept is to offer
refugees German lessons starting on their
very first day in Germany,” says Anja
Müller, the manager of the project at Malteser
Werke. “The first question that
many ask when they arrive is: ‘Can we
learn German here?’”
So ALTANA’s donation came at just the
right time. Initially, the company is financing
qualified German teachers for one
year at six Malteser facilities in North
Rhine-Westphalia and in the city of Voerde,
in the vicinity of the company’s headquarters
in Wesel. The money is also used
to equip the classrooms, to prepare
course material, and to scientifically evaluate
the pilot project.
Innovative Concept
In their planning, Anja Müller and her team
had to take many variables into ac-
count. Their students not only come from
different countries and have different
educational
backgrounds. In addition, it is
uncertain how long they will remain in
the facility and thus in the class. Against
this backdrop, the Malteser Werke developed
something completely new: The
classes are offered in modules with increasing
levels of difficulty. Four 90-minute
lessons are given five days a week. The
subject matter is geared to the participants’
living environment. “We asked people
at the facilities what is important in daily
human interaction,” explains Anja
Müller. Thus, incidental yet important content
found its way into the class materials,
including the particularities of German
can deposits.
Although participation in the courses is
voluntary, the classrooms are bursting
at the seams: Around 600 students come
to class each day. At the end of the first
year, some 100,000 people will have acquired
the basic language skills they
need to lead a self-determined life in Germany.
In the facilities, German is replacing
English increasingly as the language
spoken with others. The residents are
gaining confidence and making contact
with Germans outside of their accommodation
for the first time, for instance,
when they go shopping. Anja Müller
is delighted about the program’s success:
“In some communities, people were
understandably
worried in the beginning
about who was coming. Today our fosterlings
are part of everyday life.”
42 Sustainability Incorporated